Afternoon: Registration is in the hotel lobby from 3:30 to 5:00 p.m. Register for your room at the hotel desk. Register for the program at the Road Scholar desk.

Dinner: Dinner in the hotel

Evening: Orientation and introductions

Lodging: Crowne Plaza Richmond Downtown

Meals Included: Dinner

Breakfast: Breakfast buffet at hotel.

Morning: This exciting program is for participants at all levels of gardening experience. Walking in this program is 1-2 miles daily, at a moderate pace, as you explore gardens and historic homes. Some gardens have areas or exhibits that are not barrier-free. Stairs only (no elevators) to the 2nd floor of historic homes. Please be aware that, although you will have time to relax before dinner and classes, there is no large block of free time in this program. The following is a sample schedule. Classes and field trips may be rearranged to accommodate instructors' schedules. Class this morning explores the history and development of Richmond and the various styles of architecture of its mansions and plantations.

Lunch: Lunch at the hotel

Afternoon: Class this afternoon is about "Healing Gardens." Learn about herbs, growing herbs, and the varieties and uses of perennial medicinal herbs. This class will prepare for our visit to Lavender Fields Farm later in the week.

Dinner: Dinner at the hotel

Evening: Class this evening, "Richmond's Gilded Age and early 20th Century Families," discusses the folks who were the patrons for a number of the gardens we will see.

Lodging: Crowne Plaza Richmond Downtown

Meals Included: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner

Breakfast:

Morning: This morning we'll visit a world of timeless elegance and natural beauty at Maymont, an intact Gilded Age estate in the heart of Richmond. A knowledgable staff person from Maymont will lead us through the 100 acres of grounds, which include Japanese, Italian, formal and speciality gardens and arboretum. Maymont's grounds are unique, with high bluffs, streams, ravines and massive rock outcroppings, interspersed with gazeboes, statuary and garden ornaments, paths and walkways. Maymont's mansion, the Queen Anne-Romanesque Revival Dooley House, is rare because its 12 rooms of furnishings and wall hangings were totally preserved. In addition, the lower level where the servants worked and stayed has been restored, providing a fascinating "upstairs, downstairs" view of the House. And there is a fine collection of carriages.

Lunch: Lunch at the hotel

Afternoon: After lunch, we'll visit Tuckahoe Plantation, boyhood home of Thomas Jefferson and a National Historic Landmark. Prepare for a unique experience and a step back in history! Tuckahoe, unusual because of its H-shaped plan and overall setting, is considered to be America's finest existing example of an early 18th century plantation. We'll tour the House, which contains ornately carved woodwork and staircases, and the grounds, which contain a "plantation street" with a storehouse, smokehouse, barn, kitchen, plantation office, slave quarters and the schoolhouse that Jefferson attended as a child. A knowledgable staff person from Tuckahoe (or someone from the family that owns it) will discuss the colonial era gardens and cedar-lined lanes that reflect the grandeur of the period. This famous plantation is often used as a setting in films, yet Tuckahoe has been a home and working farm for nearly 275 years.

Dinner: Dinner in the hotel

Evening: Class this evening focuses on "Plantations and Their Architecture."

Lodging: Crowne Plaza Richmond Downtown

Meals Included: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner

Breakfast:

Morning: Class this morning is taught by an expert horticulturist, whose focus is growing historic plants.

Lunch: Lunch at the hotel

Afternoon: Journey to medieval times in England this afternoon, as we visit two imported English mansions and their gardens, located on the banks overlooking the James River. Tudor-style Agecroft Hall was dismanteled in Lancashire, England, shipped to America, and rebuilt at its location during the American country-house movement. The House reflects English opulence and the lives of landed gentry in the Elizabethan period. After a tour of the House, a knowledgable staff person from Agecroft will guide us through the gardens, which include a sunken garden based on the pond garden at Hampton Court Palace, a rare collection of exotic plants recorded by John Tradescant, an herbal knot garden, and other gardens of roses, perennials, annuals, and plants grown for their medicinal, flavoring and aromatic values. We then move to Virginia House, initially an early 12th century priory built in Warwick, England, that was bought by its American owners at a demolition sale and imported to Richmond. We'll visit its eight types of formal and naturalistic gardens, which include bog, historic, and ornamental plants. Landscaping at both Agecroft and Virginia House was designed and completed by the noted landscape architect Charles Gillette.

Dinner: Dinner at a local restaurant or in the hotel

Evening: Class this evening continues our discussion of "Richmond's Gilded Age and early 20th Century Families."

Lodging: Crowne Plaza Richmond Downtown

Meals Included: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner

Breakfast:

Morning: This morning we'll visit Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden, which is fast becoming one of the great botanical gardens in North America. Located on land that was once Powhatan Indian hunting territory - and then owned by Patrick Henry - Lewis Ginter has numerous gardens and is internationally respected for its botanical and applied horticultural research and education, which we'll learn about from knowledgable Lewis Ginter staffers. Types of gardens are too numerous to mention individually, but plantings include Japanese and Asian, roses, wetland (with a unique collection of pitcher plants), woodland (with a rare collection of ferns), native, ornamental grasses and mosses, herbs, more than 770 species of perennials, annuals, miniatures, wildflowers, topiary, azaleas, mountain laurels and rhododendrons displayed in formal, ornamental, Victorian, sunken, seasonal and other settings, interspersed by lakes, streams, ponds and the river. The Conservatory at Lewis Ginter is a lush oasis of palms, orchids and other tropical, exotic and unusual plants from around the world. Lewis Ginter also has a large gift shop, which you'll have time to explore, if you wish, after lunch.

Lunch: Lunch in the Garden Cafe at Lewis Ginter

Afternoon: After lunch, we'll travel to Lavender Fields Farm, situated on 22 rolling acres on the Chickahominy River. Lavender Fields is proof-positive that you can, indeed, grow lavender in a hot, damp climate! The owners of Lavender Fields will give us a tour of the farm and its nine greenhouses, where they grow the numerous varieties of organic herbs that supply many sites in Virginia and the mid-Atlantic. You'll be able to learn about different herbs and their uses and purchase herbs if you wish. There is also a small gift shop with handmade soaps, exotic teas and lavender ice cream.

Dinner: Dinner at a local restaurant

Evening: Entertainment for your enjoyment

Lodging: Crowne Plaza Richmond Downtown

Meals Included: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner

Breakfast:

Morning: Final class on "Richmond History, Great Houses and Architecture" is followed by early lunch at 11:30 am. Your program ends after lunch. Room check-out is 12:00 noon.

Lunch: Program ends after early lunch in the hotel. Check out time is 12 noon.

Meals Included: Breakfast, Lunch