Stretch your Summer through September: Visit The Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden

If you’d like to experience the blooms of summer a little longer this fall, take your family south to enjoy the Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden in Richmond. The Garden is really a 40-acre park, featuring easy strolling grounds, a Children’s Garden, and a splendid conservatory. The Garden offers the delights of nature in a civilized setting, just two hours south of D.C. off Interstate 95. If you would rather cultivate the enjoyment of beauty than your own garden, this mini-getaway is for you. It’s a popular site, ranked the second-most visited tourist spot in the Richmond area.

Start at the international village, the part of the Children’s Garden where kids can experience architecture and plants from different cultures. Then move on to the Farm Garden. There youngsters find out first hand about growing what they eat. With a little more exploring, you’ll find a real Tree House. Even adults can climb it. Or, tired parents can rest nearby while they keep an eye on engaged kids.

Musicians liven up the flowers the second Saturday of the month. At 11 A.M. on the first Friday and Saturday of each month, the Children’s Garden welcomes families for the Green Hour, when kids and parents enjoy reading for one hour in a natural setting.

Get ready for giggles if you take kids to the WaterPlay area to jump through cooling jets and fountains of water. WaterPlay stays open weekday afternoons and weekends through October in good weather. Be sure to bring towels, swimsuits, and water shoes for the kids.

Few people know the history of these lush botanical gardens. They were named for the Richmond businessman Lewis Ginter, who first developed the property along Lakeside Avenue in the 1880s. Ginter made a fortune selling fine linens when he came to Richmond from New York as a young man. He served in the Confederate Army, holding the southern line at the Battle of Manassas. After the War, Ginter started a factory where 20 young ladies hand-rolled cigarettes. It grew to employ 4,000 people. Later in his life, he became a philanthropist. He built a cycling club outside Richmond on the grounds that now house the Garden and added a trolley line from downtown out to the Club so that young ladies could cheer the cyclists on their route and then meet at a pleasant spot. The old Lakeside Wheel Club is gone, but the gardens continue to delight its visitors.

Nowadays, your family can stroll the garden paths and then relax in the Garrden Café, a self-serve restaurant with child-friendly meals. Or, you may be served at the Tea House. Sample menus are available online at www.lewisginter.org. The food is delicious, but the eateries can be crowded, so you may want to plan an early or late meal time to avoid lines. The Tea House will take reservations from visitors who hold tickets to the Garden.

The varied sights of this Garden, with its outdoor rooms opening onto other flowering rooms will delight and entertain you, but the Garden’s manageable size means you will feel like returning more than one time. Single admissions for adults are $10 and $6 for children, but an annual membership begins at $35.

This fall the Garden remains open Thursday evenings until 9 P.M. and the Tea House sponsors wine tasting for adults. The Garden stays open all year, except for Thanksgiving, Christmas Day, and New Year’s Day. Every winter, members and friends enjoy the GardenFest when the Garden transforms itself with tiny white lights, a touch of frost, and special evening hours for visiting the fairyland.

The Garden Shop is open daily if you’d like to find an unusual gift for garden lovers, including books, note cards, tools, vases, and whimsical toys for children.

Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden
1800 Lakeside Avenue
Richmond, Virginia
www.lewisginter.org