Sunlight filters through a pergola as a vibrant floral display greets visitors exploring the outdoor spaces featured in Fairfax County’s Historic Garden Week.
By the time Fairfax County’s Historic Garden Week tour opened its private gates this spring, Andrea Hickman had already been holding her breath for months.
Like so many grand events that appear effortless to the public, this one had been anything but. There had been nearly a year of planning, homeowner coordination, photography, volunteer recruitment, sponsorship outreach, logistics, and storytelling preparation. Then, just hours before tour day, came one final threat: a late freeze.
“We were a nervous wreck,” Hickman said, recalling the night before visitors arrived. Homeowners and volunteers scrambled to protect vulnerable blooms, covering what they could and hoping for the best with what they couldn’t. “But we really lucked out,” she said.
By morning, the cold had broken. The sun emerged. Temperatures softened. And Fairfax County’s gardens, those carefully tended, deeply personal spaces, were ready.
“It was such a good day,” Hickman said. “It was sunny and the temperature was pleasant. It was such a great day to be outside.”
For one spring day, Historic Garden Week in Virginia transformed Fairfax County into something rare: a place where private beauty became public generosity.
As chair of the 2026 Fairfax County tour, Hickman helped orchestrate one of 29 statewide tours presented by the Garden Club of Virginia. But in Fairfax, what unfolded was more than a showcase of architecture and azaleas. It was an invitation into hidden worlds, homes and gardens that revealed not only design sensibilities, but personality, philosophy, and place.
“We had three very different garden styles,” Hickman said, each property offering its own interpretation of landscape and home. Some leaned formal, others more romantic, but one in particular surprised visitors most.
From the street, the house appeared contemporary, clean, updated, polished. Visitors expected modern restraint. What they found instead was something far more layered: an overflowing, almost transportive garden with Asian-inspired influence, lush softness, and unexpected abundance.
“From the exterior, you would not have expected that overflowing garden,” Hickman said. “You would have expected straight lines and clean edges.”
That tension between appearance and revelation became part of the tour’s charm.
And yet, while gardens dazzled, Hickman said one refrain echoed throughout the day even more than praise for flowers or furnishings: “Your people are so nice.”
For Hickman, that was one of the greatest compliments of all.
Historic Garden Week, at its best, is as much about hospitality as horticulture. Visitors certainly came for inspiration, garden ideas, interior details, preservation stories, but what they encountered was warmth.
More than 45 volunteers, including Garden Club members, Master Gardeners, local supporters, friends, and even student volunteers, helped shape the day into something deeply personal.
“It’s an all-hands-on-deck event,” Hickman said.
Docents were not simply stationed in rooms; they were storytellers, trained months in advance with detailed notes on everything from architectural details to garden philosophy to the provenance of specific objects. Visitors, Hickman noted, tended to fall into two camps: those who simply wanted to take it all in, and those who wanted to know everything.
“Why did the homeowner do this? Where did this come from?” Hickman said, describing the curious guests who wanted every story behind every bloom and every room.
That appetite for narrative is what distinguishes Historic Garden Week from a simple home tour. These are private homes, often inaccessible to the public, opened not just for viewing but for educating.
“There’s no other opportunity like this,” Hickman said.
This year’s Fairfax tour also reflected a broader shift in the gardening world, one that balances beauty with stewardship. Across properties, Hickman noted recurring trends that went beyond aesthetics: intentional environmental choices.
“Native plants are huge. Pollinators are huge,” she said. “We really do need to be intentional about respecting our environment.”
In that sense, Fairfax County’s gardens were not only beautiful; they were increasingly purposeful.
Attendance remained strong despite one logistical hurdle: Fairfax’s tour fell on a Tuesday, a difficult day for some working visitors. Even so, there was “never a lull,” Hickman said. Guests arrived steadily throughout the day, including bus tours from well beyond Virginia - one group traveled from Minnesota.
Perhaps that is because Historic Garden Week offers something increasingly rare in modern life: the chance to slow down, step through a gate, and see how others cultivate beauty, not just in landscapes, but in how they welcome strangers.
For Hickman, who has run her own interior design business since 2002 and understands the complexity of making large endeavors look seamless, the event’s success rested in countless unseen details. Homes are selected not merely because they are beautiful, but because they can host the public safely and meaningfully. Parking, walkability, interior quality, garden interest and geographic flow all matter.
“It’s so much more than just a pretty house or garden,” she said.
And maybe that is the true spirit of Fairfax County’s Historic Garden Week.
Behind every flowering border and elegant entryway lies something larger: preservation, volunteerism, environmental care, and a distinct sense that opening one’s garden can also open conversation, connection, and community.
“By the time people arrive, they’re seeing the result of months and months of preparation—but what we hope they really remember is how special it felt to be there.” Photos courtesy of Andrea Hickman
Delicate violet blooms rise above fern‑like foliage along a shaded garden path featured on the Fairfax County Historic Garden Week tour.
Fresh florals and a creative citrus‑lined vase add a cheerful note to the kitchen welcoming guests for Historic Garden Week.
Fresh blooms and layered textures bring spring indoors in this dining room.
Carefully layered flowers and fruit create an artful staircase display, one of the many handcrafted details showcased during Fairfax County’s Historic Garden Week.