This April, I had the pleasure of attending Historic Garden Week at Fort Monroe in Hampton, Virginia, and I’m not sure what was more beautiful – the flowers or the historic homes themselves. What I do know is that the combination of the two was irresistible.

Each year during Historic Garden Week in Virginia, some of the state’s most beautiful gardens, homes and historic landmarks are opened to the public over the course of eight days and bedecked with thousands of exquisitely beautiful flower arrangements. The arrangements are created by Garden Club of Virginia members (one of whom I want to be when I grow up).
This was the first time Fort Monroe had played host to the event, and it fell on an absolutely beautiful spring day. There were ten tour stops, five of which were the private homes of former high-ranking Army officers, and most of them had a sweeping view of the Chesapeake Bay.
Come on; let’s go inside!
PS. I found out a couple homes into the tour that photos weren’t allowed, but I’d already taken a bunch, so my misbehavior = your good fortune. You’re welcome.
The outsides were awfully pretty too.
My favorite home on the tour was the Hutcheson home, which is a few streets away from the others. I have never seen a historic home so lovingly cared for and decorated, both with the glorious garden club arrangements and Kathy Hutcheson’s own personal touches. If I could choose anyone in the world to decorate my home, I’d choose Kathy. She is gifted beyond belief, and I’m kicking myself for not asking her if I could take photos inside. But I think from the exterior, you can see enough to believe her home is everything.
Helpful Hint: Most people start at the first house and go in order. The homes can get quite crowded, so it might be wise to do it all in reverse order and avoid some of those early morning hallway traffic jams.
For more information on Historic Garden week, visit http://www.vagardenweek.org. For more information on Fort Monroe and the Hampton Virginia area, check out VisitHampton.com. Also, keep an eye out for follow-up posts. There’s a lot worth seeing, doing and tasting in the area.
Comments & Reviews
Wow it looks beautiful there! I would love to go and visit sometime!
How charming and beautiful! I want to go there so bad.
Historic homes are so gorgeous! Add fresh flowers into the mix and you have the perfect pairing! Makes me want to go for a visit now, too! Every detail is so perfect!
Wow! The gardens and floral arrangements look so beautiful! I would love to take a tour of the place.
My hometown! Hampton is a great city and our whole area has tons to do. I’m so glad you were able to take the tour and that you enjoyed it so much.
I think the gardens are my favorite! I would LOVE to visit there!
Those are some gorgeous pictures. I love historic homes and gardens. I would have loved this tour.
Wow. Absolutely jaw dropping ly beautiful. And I can’t keep one pot of flowers on my poarch alive . . .
what an amazing tour experience you had! I love flowers and gardens, but it’s not something I can keep alive very well.
The landscaping at these gardens is amazing! I love all of the unique different flower displays, thanks for sharing these cool photos.
Oh my gosh Liz! This is so awesome. I would love to go on a home and garden tour in Virginia. Your photo captures are gorgeous and I can only imagine what it was like in person.
That looks like such a beautiful place! I would love to visit that place sometime. I love garden type places, they’re so pretty.
I would love to do this tour. I love to look at homes and gardens. Fort Monroe looks beautiful.
I love to tour historic homes. They are so beautiful and I love to hear the history of them. This would be an amazing tour.
I love all the fresh flowers! Flowers just make a home so much brighter and happier 🙂
What a wonderful trip! I especially loved all of the decor & florals. I would love to visit & tour the beautiful homes & gardens.
This looks like a beautiful garden to visit! I love the beauty of the flowers it looks like a great place to relax and take in the beauty.
I would love to visit & tour the beautiful homes & gardens. It looks so good. I like it
Wow, you got a lot of really awesome pictures. I love how everything it so natural, and all of the lush greenery too.
The greenery is beautiful, isn’t it? It’s such a great place for a stroll 🙂
How stunning! Both the homes, gardens and flower arrangements are amazing. I’ll have to put the April dates on my calendar. Our daughter and SIL live there and that is a great excuse to visit.
Wow! This landscaping is truly stunning! I would love to relax here and get away!
Looks beautiful, I love going around historic houses and gardens they really interest me, I loved the sunflowers x
Such beautiful homes! I’m from the west coast, so I rarely get to see this style of home. I’d love to do a home tour there!
Oh wow! I can’t even begin to imagine seeing all of that beauty in person. Everything is gorgeous, from the flowers to the architecture!
WOW! The fresh flowers are absolutely beautiful. What a fabulous article. Thank you and look forward to your next blog post.
lmao loved the “my misbehavior = your good fortune”. The flowers are gorgeous and the architecture is beautiful. Sometimes there’s nothing better than walking around some beautiful landscaping x
This looks like a wonderful tour to go on. All of the homes and flowers are beautiful.
I love tours like this. The tip abou starting in reverse order is a really good one. I hate when tours are so crowded that I don’t get to see as much as I would like.
What an absolutely gorgeous home. 🙂 Thanks for taking those “extra” pics, it was amazing to see!
My mom loves touring old houses. I would love to visit this house with her.
What a fantastic week to have some fun and learn some history. I really love history, the older I get the more I want to learn about our history in America!
the garden looks so evergreen and filled with that natural presence… what more can one want in a garden as lovely as this… great images to go aswell. great post i say.
Wow. What gorgeous homes and gardens. I especially love the character and charm of historical homes/buildings. Hopefully I’ll get to visit Virginia someday.
I also love this thing historical homes and Gardens. They’re just so interesting to me.
This looks so beautiful! I really want to travel east and see more of this country, starting with towns just like this!
Oh my, how absolutely stunning! Your photos are superb and I absolutely love everything about this post.
Those pictures are lovely!! I want to visit that place some day. Looks beautiful!
What gorgeous photos! Fort Monroe looks just simply stunning. would love to visit and check it out myself at some point. It just looks lovely.
Ahhh it looks blissful here – I would so visit if we weren’t the opposite side of the world! H x
Oh wow. What a wonderful place and such beautiful photos
This looks like absolute heaven! I would love to see something like this!
Beautiful, looks like a really fun time! Would love to visit.
Looks so beautiful! I’m always impressed by beautiful floral arrangements and gardens since I’m useless with plants.
What beautiful homes and the decor is gorgeous. I would love to take a tour.
What lovely photos. So much history to be remembered. I’m sure visitors will be thankful for your post.
Gardens and being with nature is my happy place, these photos are beautiful, such a gorgeous place. x
I love flowers, so this tour would have been right up my alley. I love the carnation “cake”
Great photos. That gazebo is picturesque, and the lighthouse is coooooool! Those flowers!!! I kill every houseplant I lay hands on.
These places look so beautiful and perfect to the last detail!
I love the lighthouse too!!
What an amazing tour to go on!!! I love how beautiful everything is there and vibrant colors as well.
What lovely homes and the floral arrangements are stunning! The gardens are so beautiful and well kept. I would love to be able to go on this tour.
What a beautiful place to visit, I love it so much. The decor is to die for, I can see this being a place I Must visit!
This looks amazing!!! I love to visit places like this, it looks so relaxing and peaceful to go to.
I really love the idea of visiting Fort Monroe, looks like a great place to visit. I love all of the photos, thanks for sharing this!
Wow the sights really do look pretty and so many flowers. x
WOw how beautiful are all the flowers. SO much color and cheer. I love having fresh flowers around.
Those are gorgeous pictures! I would love to spend a Saturday afternoon exploring there.
Wow, these are amazing! I just can’t imagine what it would be like to live in a house like these.
Wow, absolutely gorgeous! I love going on tours like this.
Absolutely gorgeous! I am in love with those flower and candle centerpieces <3
Such a peaceful and historic site to visit. I love how they preserve everything for public viewing. Wish I was near to visit that place.
Stunning photos! And that lighthouse! Wow!
I could take so many great photos in those gardens! They seem so nice and peaceful
So beautiful. It’s amazing to see all these gorgeous homes. Would love to see it person sometime.
This looks so absolutely amazing I hope I get a chance to do this one day!!
This place is so stunning. I imagine it would be lovely and quiet there too.
Thank you for sneaking these photos, they are beautiful! I love going on garden tours this time of year.
This definitely takes you back and I love that the homeowners allow people to tour their neighborhood! Everything is lovely, who wouldn’t want a home like that! I’m sure the last house was just as beautiful as you described it to be. This tour is very interesting and I would love to give it a try!
I love the display with the sunflowers – very creative! I would love to visit this park to see this beautiful place myself.
Flowers make me happy. I wish we had a historic garden event around here. I’m allergic to most flowers but I put up with my reactions because I love being surrounded by flowers.
Oh, what a wonderful historic garden. This reminds me so much of my grandma’s garden when I was a kid.
mmmmmm, all the green! makes my soul heal just looking at it. Thanks for the post
Oh! I’m so glad that you been there! Thank you so much for bringing these photos to us, I would love to go there one day.
These pictures are all breath taking.
Thanks for sharing the beauty.
Gosh, they are all so beautiful! And you are right about the Hutcheson home, it really does look fantastic! xx
I want to go to this place. What a beautiful place to unwind, I want to bring my hubby there and take a slow walk.
Sincerely speaking these are just wonderful posts. The flowers are amazing. Thanks for sharing
I like the theme of this place. It is a wonderful place, I’d like to see it in person.
Such gorgeous gardens and such beautiful weather you had on the day too.
All those gardens are beautiful. I wish mt garden looked like that at the moment.
what a beautiful opportunity I love flowers and those on your pictures look so nice congrats!
I’ve seen something similar in Germany and remember getting a bit dizzy because of all the colors and scents 🙂
So many flowers how gorgeous does Fort Monroe look with the beautiful assortment of colourful flowers?
Seriously beautiful!! I love that dining room and all of the brilliantly coloured flowers 🙂
What an amazing place! Everything is so beautiful. What a great place to visit.
The flowers in these photos are gorgeous! I would love to do something like this with my family!
Wow, looks beautiful! I love noseying in other people’s homes, haha. Great tip about doing the tour in reverse, too 🙂
Those huge porches are amazing!
This is such a beautiful place to visit, such a charm inside. My daughter would absolutwely love this place.
what a lovely house and landscape.. you captured them so well.. I love all your photos and it feels like we are exploring the actual place.. thanks for giving us a quick tour
I would love to go there and take a photos. That was amazing everything looks beautiful
What a beautiful slice of history! If I am ever in Virginia I will need to go here!
Both the flowers and the historic homes are simply amazing ! You managed to take such wonderful photos( the Hutcheson home is my fav)
Wow, so many beautiful flower arrangements!
This looks heavenly. What a beautiful place. So perfect.
The sunflowers in the vase are so pretty! What a pretty place.
Brilliant, brilliant post! Thanks for a glimpse of these houses! I love historical homes, we have many of them here in the Uk that are open to public most of the year. Love the vases used in the arrangements too!
This is one beautiful looking place – I would love to visit x
Oh goodness, I could wander around here for days! And those floral arrangements are GORGEOUS!!!
This is absolutely incredible! I just love the architecture on those classic homes too.
Wow, looks gorgeous there! I love the porch and the fireplaces! So charming
Oh wow, those houses are huge and ridiculously beautiful!!
Absolutely beautiful! I love the white columns against the brick. Such beauty…love the light house too….and now I have a new idea with sunflowers. Never would have thought to do that!
What a beautiful place! I agree… tough to decide what is more beautiful the gardens or the homes! Glad I don’t choose… love it all.
Wow, that is so beautiful! I love those pictures. I wouldn’t mind visiting that place!
I feel more elegant just by looking at these houses. Beautiful touches.
This looks like such a beautiful place to visit! I would love to visit Fort Monroe with my family!
Thanks for bringing a little touch of a North American summer into my life this morning as I’m feeling slightly homesick in London! Beautiful photographs.
Such a beautiful venue! The views are amazing and those flower arrangements are totally gorgeous!!
What a neat event to attend! My husband would of liked this one too since it was at Fort Monroe. You did such an amazing job capturing all the beauty!
All them blue skies! Always makes a garden looks so much more magical in my opinion. X
so much history on the east coast. It looks like a beautiful place to visit!
That flower cake looks cool. “Garden” is a Pearl Jam song!
What an amazing looking place! Those floral arrangements are just simply breathtaking! I would love them in my house x
I super love the carnation floral arrangement! All of these flowers are really gorgeous.
It looks great there your photos are amazing. I love there are so many flower arrangements x
Stunning homes! I remember seeing this tour on a blog post last year (maybe yours?) and being so impressed. This year is no different. Even the tablescapes are jaw dropping!
How beautiful is that place!!! I want to sit on that porch in the first photo! 🙂
That’s a smart tip to start backwards. I do love those fireplace photos, they’re very nice. And the outside of Kathy’s home does look wonderful.
Stunning pictures! I particularly adore the flower arrangements. They are all brilliant! If History was presented this way in college, maybe I would have participated more,lol.
I love the arrangements. I want to go there too. How I wish I can.
Wow what an amazing opportunity, I would never have wanted to leave x
Omg what a beautiful place!!! All of your photos are simply gorgeous!
Wow so interesting! And creative houses!
Love,
Ivelisse | CarnationDreams.com
What a wonderful place to visit! Looks like I want to go there and take more pictures.
I loved Hutcheson home too. It looks so beautiful. Glad to know that you had an amazing time visiting these beautiful places!
Oh wow!!! These gardens look gorgeous!! I would love to take a tour like this sometime!!
What gorgeous pictures! You must have had a blast, this looks like a gorgeous getaway!
What a gorgeous spot! I love your pictures, they’re seriously beautiful!! : ) Hope you had an awesome time!
i love the flowers and the arrange inside! this looks like a happy place to visit
such a beautiful place to visit. I would love to visit myself some time. I love the beautiful arrangements as well, reminds me of those my aunt would send my grandmother each birthday
I’ve always been so fascinated by historic homes. Would be pretty cool to visit Fort Monroe in person!
What a lovely place! I would love to see that in person too!
That sounds like a fun and relaxing place to visit!
Beautiful place! Thank you for sharing with us at #HomeMattersParty . See you again next week
Beautiful pictures!
Pretty sight. Lovely place. And i cant help but commend, such beautiful photos. Youve got great skills in photography plus your camera is so wow!