Spring Fever
While the Cassina Garden Club’s Cabin Fever campaign is still going strong, a different kind of fever is taking hold . . . Spring Fever! It’s time to move from fireside chats to leisurely strolls through the gardens to enjoy the horticultural beauty that is spring in bloom. The Cassina Garden Club and presenting sponsor, ACE Garden Center, welcome the eagerly anticipated warmer season with the 9th Annual Tabby & Tillandsia Garden Walk. This year, visitors will have the opportunity to explore inspiring and seldom seen private gardens on St. Simons Island as well as some exceptional and informative special interest stops. The private gardens are carefully selected for their variety of styles and plant materials and are intended to leave veteran and aspiring gardeners with ideas that they can implement at home.
The St. Simons Island gardens include a birdwatcher’s paradise in St. Clair, a “living living room” at a home on Sea Palms that boasts an array of fruit trees and a lagoon view, a lush retreat of azaleas, hydrangeas, roses and ferns leading the way to an English garden at an Island Club residence, an East Beach cottage making beautiful use of window boxes, trellises and potted plants and container gardens, and a fantastic display of succulents at a waterside “King City” home. Once again, there will be a scavenger hunt of sorts with tabby cabin replicas hidden throughout the various gardens and prizes awarded at the afternoon Southern Garden Party. But the private gardens are not the only attractions of the Garden Walk, so don’t stop there!
Take a step back in time and explore the Colonial Herb Garden at Fort Frederica. This joint project between Cassina Garden Club and the National Park Service used historic documents and written accounts from the time to recreate a typical kitchen garden appropriate to the early days of Georgia as a colony. The octagonal center bed and surrounding rectangular beds are edged in wood and brick and have clearly marked labels for the plants and information regarding their usage in colonial days. A visit is included in your Tour ticket with no additional fee for park entrance.
ACE Garden Center is also a special interest stop. Everyone’s favorite friendly garden store will feature plants found on the Garden Walk and will have other helpful gardening ideas. You can also purchase new plants for your home at the Hamilton Plantation Garden Club’s plant sale on the Tabby Cabin grounds at Gascoigne Bluff from 8:00 a.m to 2:00 p.m.
Later in the day on the Tabby Cabin grounds, there will be a Southern Garden Party between 2:00-5:00 p.m. Enjoy refreshments and take in a demonstration on container gardening. Artists will be on site for a bit of plein air painting too. What a lovely way to spend an afternoon on the island!
And speaking of artists, there’s a new and exciting Garden Walk collaboration with Glynn Visual Arts that will feature 3 days of events in conjunction with their “Fine Arts and Flowers” exhibit.
“Fine Arts & Flowers” will be the inaugural exhibition in Glynn Visual Arts gallery located at the new St. Simons Island Visitor’s Center at 529 Beachview Drive. The exhibit, juried by nationally known artist Sarah Lamb, coincides with the opening of the Visitor’s Center, and consists of the paintings of a select group of national, regional and local artists.
For this lushly visual show, professional and non-professional floral designers will each be assigned a painting from the exhibit to interpret and recreate their perception of that piece in fresh flowers and other botanicals. During the 3-day event, each floral creation will be staged in front of their respective painting for viewers to gather their own observations.
On Thursday, April 23, the exhibit will open with a wine and hors d’oeuvres reception from 6:00-8:00 p.m. Guests of honor for the weekend, Dan Belman and Randy Korando, owners of the highly popular Boxwoods Gardens and Gifts of Atlanta, will be at the reception where they will judge the interpretations of the paintings by the floral designers and present awards to those they deem best. Tickets to the reception are $50.
From 11:30 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. on Friday, April 24, Belman and Korando will be the guest speakers at a luncheon in the Delegal Room at the King & Prince Resort Hotel, where they will lecture on and demonstrate their tips on floral design. Tickets to the luncheon are $60.
On Saturday, April 25, Glynn Visual Arts exhibits will add a fresh and exciting new dimension of color and flowers to the Garden Walk as tour stops. The 106 Island Drive home to Glynn Visual Arts with its exhibition of “Botanicals by Hillary Parker” will be Stop #4. That will also serve as a rest stop and site for light refreshments. Stop #5 will be the “Fine Arts & Flowers” exhibit at the Beachview Drive Visitor Center.
For more information on the “Fine Arts & Flowers” reception and luncheon or to purchase tickets, please contact Glynn Visual Arts at 912.638.8770 or online at glynnvisualarts.org/up-coming-events.html.
As always, the proceeds from the Garden Walk benefit the historic preservation and upkeep of the Hamilton Plantation Tabby Slave Cabins and surrounding grounds at Gascoigne Bluff owned by the Cassina Garden Club.
Buy your tickets today and come out to enjoy this wonderful celebration of spring!
Cassina Garden Club 9th Annual Garden Walk
Saturday April 25, 10:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m.
(Rain Date, Sunday April 26, Noon-6:00 p.m.)
Southern Garden Party 2:00 p.m. – 5:00 p.m.
Advance Ticket $30
Event Day Ticket $35
Ticket sale locations: ACE Garden Center, GJ Ford Bookshop, St. Simons Drugs, Cunningham Jewelers, and Gentlemen’s Outfitters at Glynn Place Mall.
For more information and online ticket purchase information: cassinagardenclub.org/gardenwalk.htm
