Mother's Day Musical Garden Tour 2024
The Victoria Conservatory of Music hosts an annual garden tour with musical accompaniment on the Mother’s Day weekend. My sister, who knows how much I love gardens, treated me to a ticket for Christmas this year. We visited all 10 gardens over 2 days, and, oh, they were so lovely!
There was such a variety of gardens. The first one we visited was quite formal with a square pond and paths that reminded me of an Italian garden.
The homeowners grew such a variety of unusual plants. Rhododendrons, peonies, and irises were some of the seasonal highlights.
A house on Uplands Road with a really large back garden reminded me of a miniature forest with tall old trees of various species. The layers of lush greenery and the variations of height, colour, and texture made it a very tranquil, contemplative garden.
A garden in Cordova Bay highlighted the beauty of cacti and succulents. There was an amazing variety of plants in greenhouses, rock gardens, tufa gardens, and containers. The gardeners had taken so much care in planting the cacti and succulents on different levels amongst the rocks. This was a garden to admire up close and in detail.
One house and garden were quite new and had obviously been designed to work well together. The shady garden extended on all sides of the house and would have been visible whatever room you were in. It will be even lovelier in a few years when the plants have had a chance to grow.
Some of the homeowners had added touches of whimsy to their gardens. In some cases, it worked really well. In others, it was too much and too varied.
The final garden we visited was another large one with ponds, a playhouse, and wide flower beds enclosing the house and creating shady, private corners.
Clare and I enjoyed every one of the gardens. We would have liked to have heard more music, but the music we did hear was excellent.
