2017 Garden Trips Ready to Unwrap

August 23rd, 2016

A winter get-away to Florida’s west coast, a May gardener’s vacation to California’s “salad bowl” and wine country, an August adventure to Maine and Nova Scotia, and a slew of one-day garden gawkings are on tap for our 2017 garden travel series.

The Naples Botanical Garden is one of our 2017 garden stops.
Credit: Lorrie Preston

Lowee’s Group Tours and I are putting together details now on 17 garden trips for next year – the most we’ve ever offered.

People keep signing up. So since there are so many great gardens out there to see, we’ll keep going.

As with last year, we’re planning another Travel Day in which the whole lineup is unveiled.

Mark your calendar now for Sun., Nov. 13, from 2 to 4 p.m. at the West Hanover Twp. Recreation Center, 628 Walnut Ave., Harrisburg. You’re all invited.

There’s no charge and no obligation. But there will be door prizes and free snacks.

If you plan to show up, please RSVP Chrissie Kelly at Lowee’s so we have an idea of how many to expect. Call her at 717-657-9658 or email ckelly@lowees.com. If you RSVP, you’ll get an extra entry ticket for door prizes.

The West Hanover Rec Center is located just off Linglestown Road across from Central Dauphin High School.

I’ll do a PowerPoint showing pictures and giving descriptions of where all we’re going in 2017.

Matthew D’Eramo from Collette Vacations also will be there to give details on the May California trip and a second trip to southern California in December 2017 to celebrate New Year’s around the Tournament of Roses Parade. (Collette is putting together those two.)

And Lowee’s staff will be there to take reservations in case you want to sign up for any of the 16 trips.

Here’s the tentative 2017 lineup…

Feb. 14-21: We’ll jet to Tampa for a 7-night, 8-day, break-up-winter trip to see such superb west-coast Florida gardens as the Naples Botanical Garden and Sarasota’s Marie Selby Gardens. We’ll also visit the Edison and Ford Winter Estates in Fort Myers, check out native Florida at Sanibel Island’s Ding Darling National Wildlife Refuge, and do some cool behind-the-scenes stuff, such as visiting a caladium farm and going on a “sponging” boat tour in Tarpon Springs.

March 13, 14, 15, 16, and 17: We’re going back to the Philadelphia Flower Show again (five different days) where the 2017 theme will revolve around the Netherlands. Expect tons of blooming bulbs but also exhibits on eco-design, urban greening, sustainability, and Dutch culture. This is one of the world’s greatest gardening spectacles, and many people go every year. FYI: These all usually sell out.

Sat., April 22: We’ve done Alexandria, Va.’s Home and Garden Tour four times now, and the bus keeps filling. So we’re going again in 2017, this time featuring Green Spring Garden Park as our afternoon stop. A lineup of six new gardens is offered each year on the Alexandria tour, so even if you’ve been there before, the venues will be different.

Fri., May 5: Lancaster County’s Landis Valley Village and Farm Museum is home to an intriguing Heirloom Seed Project that supplies heirloom vegetable and flower seeds worldwide. We’ll spend a day at this historic site, touring the heirloom gardens in the morning and making our own tussie-mussies at a workshop in the afternoon following a Victorian tea luncheon.

May 18-29: This 12-day, 11-night fly/drive “Treasures of Northern California” trip will feature a daylong “ag tour” in the Salinas Valley, two days at Yosemite National Park, a wine day in the Napa Valley, a coastline drive to Monterey Bay, and a tour of the incredible Filoli Gardens just south of San Francisco.

Thur., June 22 and Fri., July 23: Our past two tours of local gardens went over so well that we’re repeating the idea next year with a day trip through five more outstanding home gardens – this time in the Shippensburg area and Perry County. We’ll see two stunning, colorful and beautifully designed side-by-side gardens, one of the biggest home water gardens you’ll ever see, a countryside garden with sculptures and a van (yes, a real van) as a garden ornament, and a huge yard filled with fruits, vegetables and perennials that offers dig-your-own sales. We’ll also make a quick stop at the Shippensburg Peace Garden and have lunch at a gem of a garden center – Lurgan Greenhouses.

Fri., July 28: This one’s a day trip to see the Brooklyn Botanic Garden (one of America’s most respected public gardens) in the morning, followed by an afternoon tour of the 28-acre Greenwood Gardens in Short Hills, N.J.

Aug. 12-22: The game plan is to escape the heat by heading north into the beautiful scenery of Maine and Nova Scotia. We’re looking at 11 days to tour such sites as the Coastal Maine Botanical Garden (one of my top 10 U.S. public gardens), the Annapolis Royal Historic Gardens on the way to Halifax, Peggy’s Cove, Prince Edward Island, Acadia National Park, gardens of Bar Harbor and much more.

Fri., Sept. 8: It’s off to Delaware today to see America’s largest French-style garden at the du Pont Nemours mansion, then over to Mt. Cuba Center to see the native plants, woodland gardens and rolling meadows. On the way back, we’ll stop at Lancaster County’s little-known but superbly planted Conestoga House.

Fri., Oct. 6: Northern Pennsylvania has some of the most spectacular fall foliage, which we’ll see on the way to a day in McKean County, including its scenic view of a gorge from the Kinzua Bridge. We’ll also tour three private mansions and their gardens in the town of Smethport, where many struck it rich in the late 1800s from timber, oil and railroads.

Early December 2017: North Carolina’s Biltmore Estate is the biggest private home in America (think Vanderbilt), and it’s decorated to the hilt for Christmas. We’ll spend a day touring the Biltmore grounds and mansion and include a visit to the Daniel Stowe Botanical Garden (which will be lit up for Christmas) and to ChristmasTown USA (McAdenville, N.C.)

Late December 2017: We’ll end the year by flying to southern California for a 7-day New Year’s trip that will include a behind-the-scenes look at how the Rose Bowl floats are put together along with visits to Hollywood, the Huntingdon Library and Gardens, the Getty Center gardens and San Diego.

Some of the details are already posted on George’s Talks and Trips page, and all will be up there just as soon as the pricing and timing are nailed down for each.

See you Nov. 13.