And We’re Off! 2025 Tour Destinations
2025 is shaping up to be a banner year for tours and as we re-launch my website with an all new look, I’ll also be re-launching my long-dormant blog! Here we go!
So many beautiful tours are in the works for 2025! Here is a quick rundown of what’s cooking.
March 3 – 9, 2025 Spring Fling in Mobile with Jason Reeves and Troy Marden. A fun week in and around Mobile, Alabama exploring gardens, garden centers, natural areas, and more! You know we’ll have plenty of space under the bus to bring home your favorite finds and get your gardens off to a beautiful start for 2025!
March 27 – April 7, 2025 Gardens & Treasures of Sicily with Charles Yurgalevitch and Troy Marden. Our classic tour of Sicily, hitting as many of the highlights as we can in 10 days, including gardens, archaeological & historic sites, art, architecture, nurseries, natural wonders, and the exceptional Sicilian cuisine. We will put this tour on pause for a year or two after 2025, so if you’ve been wanting to go, now’s your chance!
April 8 – 17. 2025 Beautiful Bulbs! with Troy Marden. Take a spin around Holland with me at the peak of bulb season! We’ll visit public and private gardens, enjoy a canal cruise in Amsterdam, hit the Rijksmuseum and Van Gogh Museum, and be blown away by the display of 7 MILLION bulbs at Keukenhof, to mention but a few! Who’s in?!
May 10 – 22, 2025 The Chelsea Flower Show and Gardens of Cornwall & Devon with Troy Marden. As many tours as I have taken to England over the past decade, Devon and Cornwall have eluded us. Well, no more! Join me as we make our way from Newquay to London seeing legendary gardens like The Lost Gardens of Heligan and The Eden Project, and capping it all off with Members’ Day at the Chelsea Flower Show.
June 16 – 27, 2025 The Hortillonages and Gardens of Northern France with Troy Marden. The Champagne region, Calais, and a sliver of Normandy will play center stage on this tour. Stunning chateaux, beautiful gardens, a turn through the Champagne cellars of Reims, and the “floating” gardens of The Hortillonage in Amiens are but a small sliver of the sites and activities we’ll enjoy on this tour.
July 2025 (final dates, to be set) Jewels of the Emerald Isle with Shannon & Joseph Hillenmeyer and Troy Marden. A 5-star tour of Ireland with garden and lifestyle experts who enjoy life’s finer things both outdoors and in! Private gardens will be at the top of the list, but we won’t miss the castles, the natural wonders, the art and architecture, or the people and culture of this magical island. If Ireland is on your bucket list and you like to travel in style, don’t miss this one!
July 30 – August 14, 2025 The Wonders of Africa – Tour #1 with Troy Marden and private guides throughout. Immerse yourself in the beauty and culture of southern Africa with visits to Zimbabwe, Botswana, and South Africa as we explore the flora AND fauna of this amazing place! Victoria Falls, Chobe National Park, the Cape of Good Hope, Table Mountain, Kirstenbosch Gardens, the Winelands, and much more will be capped off with a stay at the astounding 5-star Kapama River Lodge, a private game reserve and lodge with ALL of the amenities!
August 14 – 31, 2025 The Wonders of Africa – Tour #2 with Troy Marden and private guides throughout. Similar to the above, but with one extra day added that allows the opportunity to actually stay at Chobe National Park (in the first tour, we’ll do it as a day trip from Victoria Falls). We’ll include all of the sites from the first tour and when we arrive at Kapama for our “grand finale”, we’ll enjoy the luxury of Kapama’s 5-star Buffalo Camp (the furthest thing from camping you can imagine!).
October 5 – 16, 2025 Chateaux & Gardens of Normandy and the Loire Valley with Jason Reeves and Troy Marden. Each year, Jason Reeves, of the UT Garden in Jackson, TN, and I do an international tour together. In 2025, we will explore the regions of Normandy and the Loire Valley. We will begin and end in Paris, making it easy for anyone who wishes to extend their stay at the beginning or end of the tour.
November 6 – 20, 2025 Japan – Cultural Masterpieces! with Charles Yurgalevitch and Troy Marden. Japan has long been on my own bucket list and we are finally getting around to doing it! With help from a long-time specialist in Japanese tourism, Charles and I will lead a group to and through some of Japan’s most beautiful temples and gardens at–we hope–the peak of fall color when the Japanese maples shine their brightest.
For more information about these tours, please see the Travel section of my website or send me a message from the Contact page.