“Follow the Blooms”
Enjoy
Southern hospitality amid the glorious color of azaleas and spring
flowers during the 59th
Annual Cape Fear Garden Club Azalea Garden Tour© in the
beautiful coastal region of Wilmington, North Carolina.
The tour is one of the longest running and most popular
garden tours in the South. Tour
Chairman Karen Smith invites visitors to “Follow the Blooms”.
“Our gardens change each year and I am especially pleased
with this year’s eleven private gardens.
They offer a variety of styles and features from whimsical
cottage to stately formal designs, unique garden elements and the
outdoor living spaces that have become so popular. There is truly
something for everyone.” In
addition, tickets include admission to the New Hanover County
Arboretum and on Saturday, April 14, admission to Airlie Gardens.
During the tour, Cape
Fear Garden Club Azalea Belles© will welcome visitors in each
garden. Good all three
days, tickets include a map for a self-guided tour with descriptions
of each garden. Children under 12 are
admitted free, except for the ribbon cutting, where $1 is charged
per child.
On
Friday, April 13 at 10am, the tour opens with the
colorful Ribbon Cutting
Ceremony and Azalea Queen’s Garden Party© at “Knapdale”,
the home of Ronnie and Cyndi McNeill.
Located on Hewlett’s Creek and overlooking the Intracoastal
waterway, the home honors the family’s Knapdale, Scotland
roots and shares its name with the 18th century
McNeill ancestral home once located in Laurinburg.
This historically inspired home with formal gardens offers
the perfect backdrop for the Cape
Fear Garden Club Azalea Belles© and their escorts, the
Citadel’s Summerall Guards.
Numbering over a hundred, the belles are dressed in handmade
antebellum gowns. Special
guests include the Azalea Queen, local and national celebrities and
the North Carolina Azalea Festival Committee.
After the ribbon cutting, visitors are invited to enjoy punch
and homemade cookies served by members of the Cape Fear Garden Club.
Musical entertainment by Stevenson/Stoll Suzuki Studio
completes this old-fashioned Southern garden party.
On Friday morning, visitors have free roundtrip bus service
beginning at 8:30am at Southside Baptist Church, 3320 South College
Road. Buses run until
noon. No parking is
available at the ribbon cutting site until after the ceremony.
Profits
from the Cape Fear Garden
Club Azalea Garden Tour© are distributed throughout our
community as beautification and horticulture grants, scholarships at
the University of North Carolina at Wilmington and Cape Fear
Community College, and conservation efforts at Battery Island, a
National Audubon Society bird sanctuary. Over one
million dollars has been distributed in the past 59 years, including
$83,000 in 2011.
For
additional garden tour information visit call (910)620-6958.
