2022 Garden Trips: Hoping for “Normal” Again

February 15th, 2022

   Will this be the year when we can finally get back to traveling again without worrying about omicron variants, antigen tests, quarantines, and last-minute cancellations?

Some of the bulb beds at the Netherlands’ Keukenhof garden… one of our trip stops this year.

   I’m hoping. And assuming the best, Lowee’s Group Tours, Collette Vacations, and I have put the finishing touches on our 2022 lineup of garden-themed trips.

   Things have been so uncertain for two years now that it’s almost hard to remember the “good old days” when we could just go.

   It’s been an adventure even getting this far with the new planned trips. We normally have details ready on the whole lineup the fall before, but this year, Jo and Chrissie at Lowee’s have been pounding their heads trying to get confirmations and prices on everything.

   Although things still could change, we’re as ready as we can be with a 2022 series that will include a pair of European trips, another round of popular home-garden tours, five day trips to the 2022 Philadelphia Flower Show (outdoors again in June), and multi-day trips to see gardens of New York’s Hudson Valley, gardens of the Midwest (St. Louis, Nashville, Louisville), and a Christmas-time visit to North Carolina’s Biltmore and Tennessee’s Smoky Mountain National Park, Gatlinburg, and Pigeon Forge.

   I’ll be doing a free, online PowerPoint presentation with photos, details, and pricing tomorrow, Wed., Feb. 16, at 6:30 p.m. You’re invited to join. You just have to register in advance to get the log-in address and instructions.

   If you’re interested, click here to get the PowerPoint Zoom link from Lowee’s.

   I’ve also posted details on my Talks and Trips page.

   Or you can go directly to Lowee’s Garden Series website page, where you can see the itineraries and even book trips directly online.

   Or you can go the old-fashioned route and just call Lowee’s Group Tours at 717-657-9658 (or toll-free 1-888-345-6933) or email CKelly@Lowees.com.

   Here’s a quick rundown on where we’re planning to go and when:

   Netherlands and Belgium River Cruise, April 18-April 29, 2022

   We’ll see the stunning Dutch bulb fields, the amazing Keukenhof bulb gardens, and the once-every-10-years Floriade horticulture expo in this 12-day tour of the Netherlands and Belgium, which includes a seven-day river cruise. We’ll visit the Dutch towns of Arnhem and Middelburg, the Belgian cities of Bruges, Ghent, and Antwerp, and tour the Dutch windmill village of Kinderdijk, the huge Aalsmeer Flower Market, Amsterdam’s botanic garden, and a working bulb farm. Prices start at $4,999 per person double, including airfare, the cruise, hotels, admissions, and 26 meals.

   Cosmopolitan Cities, Featuring Floriade 2022 and Keukenhof Gardens, April 27-May 7, 2022

   This trip takes us first into Amsterdam, where we’ll see the Keukenhof gardens and spend a full day at the Floriade 2022 show, then into Brussels, Belgium, for two days of touring this European hub, and finally through the Ardennes into France, where we’ll tour Paris, spend a morning at the Palace of Versailles, take a dinner cruise on the Seine River, and visit France’s Bois Richeux medieval garden and Monet’s famous garden at Giverny. $5,699 per person double, including airfare, nine nights of hotel stays, admissions, and 13 meals.

The Hudocks’ Shippensburg garden is one of the stops on our June tour of great local gardens.

   Home Grown Gardens, June 10 and June 11, 2022

   We’ll see four great local home gardens: The Bower, a new 36-acre native garden and sculpture park that Bill and Jane Allis built at their Perry County countryside home near Shermans Dale; the suburban Shippensburg landscape of Jill and John Hudock, one of the nicest home gardens I’ve seen anywhere; Karl Mattson’s residence alongside the Gettysburg Battlefield, a textbook example of a “wow” first view, and the Camp Hill landscape of Alan Gesford, a retired Master Gardener who filled this yard with a gorgeous range of plants. We’re offering two day-trip choices at $115 each, including lunch and donations to the home gardeners.

   2022 Philadelphia Flower Show, June 13, 14, 15, 16, and 17

   The 2022 “In Full Bloom” Philadelphia Flower Show is outside again over 15 acres of FDR Park, and we’re planning day trips there each weekday. Two of the days will be show-only – June 15 and 17 for $99, including your show ticket. But we’re also offering morning tours of other Philadelphia gardens on the other three days, followed by afternoons at the Flower Show. These pair the show with Shofuso Gardens and Fairmount Park on June 13 ($107), with Morris Arboretum on June 14 ($119), and with Chanticleer on June 16 ($111).

Hillwood’s cutting garden.

   Two of D.C.’s Best Gardens: Hillwood and Meadowlark, Sept. 13, 2022

   We’ll start this day trip with a morning visit to Hillwood, the northwestern-D.C. estate of Postum Cereal Co. heir Marjorie Meriweather Post with its impressive hillside Japanese garden and French parterre garden, then head to Vienna, Va., for an afternoon tour of Meadowlark Botanical Gardens with its 95 acres of display gardens, native plants, woodlands, lakes, trails, and novel Korean Bell Garden. The cost is $125, which includes admissions, transportation, and lunch.

   Hudson Valley Gardens and More, Sept. 14-Sept. 16, 2022

   This three-day, two-night coach excursion into the Hudson Valley of New York includes tours of five of the area’s top gardens (Boscobel, Stonecrop, the Beatrix Farrand Garden, Innisfree, and Rockefeller’s Kykuit ) as well as a visit to Franklin D. Roosevelt’s presidential library, a tour of the world’s longest elevated pedestrian bridge, and lunch at the Culinary Institute of America. The cost is $729 per person double, which includes transportation, admissions, two nights’ lodging, and five meals.

Missouri Botanical Garden’s rose garden.

   Gardens of the Midwest, Featuring Nashville, St. Louis and Louisville, Oct. 9-Oct. 17, 2022

   This nine-day coach tour takes us through three midwestern cities, seeing their best gardens as well as other highlights, such as Nashville’s Grand Ole Opry, St. Louis’ Gateway Arch, and Louisville’s Churchill Downs, where the Kentucky Derby is held. Garden stops include Belle Meade Plantation, the Cheekwood Estate and Garden, the Missouri Botanical Garden, Kentucky’s Bernheim Arboretum and Yew Dell Gardens, and Ohio’s Franklin Park Conservatory and Inniswood Metro Gardens. Cost is $1,799 per person double and includes hotels, admissions, 17 meals, and transportation.

   Penn State’s New Pollinator Garden and the Sheetz’s “Bee’s Knees” Home Garden, Oct. 19

   This day trip starts with a visit to the Penn State Arboretum, featuring its huge, new three-acre Pollinator and Bird Garden. We’ll then tour State College’s Snetsinger Butterfly Garden before heading to Enders in upper Dauphin County to see the amazing six-acre home garden built by Dave and Bindy Sheetz. The cost is $130, including lunch.

Inside Biltmore, decorated for Christmas.

   Holiday Lights: Biltmore, Gatlinburg, and Pigeon Forge, Dec. 5-Dec. 10, 2022

   This six-day, five-night holiday trip features a tour of North Carolina’s humongous Vanderbilt Biltmore estate decorated to the hilt for Christmas, followed by a tour of Smoky Mountain National Park, a two-night stay in the resort village of Pigeon Forge at the foot of the Smokies, a visit to Dollywood with its shows, music, rides, and four million Christmas lights, and a stop at Parrot Mountain and its Garden of Eden.  The cost is $1,199 per person double, including transportation, admissions, five nights lodging and eight meals.