VSLD SUMMER TOUR 2025

Graves Mountain Lodge – Base for Tour

205 Graves Mountain Lane, Syria, VA 22743 / (540) 923-4231

Check-In: after 4:00pm 

6:30pm – Dinner: Buffet Style farm-to-table

8:00pm – 10:00pm in Lounge

Music by Smokin’ Trout Band (blue grass)

Cash Bar – Virginia wines and beers. VSLD is paying for the bartender, individuals are responsible for their purchases. 

Graves Mountain Lodge

6:30am – Breakfast; buffet style

7:20am – Tour bus departs from Lodge parking area

1 hr 20 mins travel time to first stop

The Quarry Gardens at Schuyler 

1643 Salem Road, Schuyler, VA 22969

8:50am – Arrive

10:45am – Depart

The Quarry Gardens at Schuyler were built around two large soapstone quarries that were actively mined between the 1950s and the 1970s, and subsequently used as a community dumpsite.
In 2014, after 23 years of casual site clean-up, Quarry Gardens founders, Bernice and Armand Thieblot, embarked on a three-year plan to create a public garden. That year, an initial attempt was made by Land Planning and Design Associates in Charlottesville. It soon became evident that this landscape needed a design that took the unique aspects of it’s geology, ecology, and land-use history into consideration. That year the Thieblots were introduced to Piedmont Discovery Center (PDC, formerly Center for Urban Habitats) and its place-based approach to assessment and design, focusing on ecological systems and restoration. It quickly became clear that a new revised master plan was in order. PDC began with an extensive biological assessment of the 40-acre landscape around the quarries. Trail locations were refined, conservation areas identified, and a master plan for interaction and engagement was created.
In 2015, the Thieblots placed a 400-acre buffer around the gardens into a Virginia Outdoors Foundation conservation easement. The gardens were designated a Virginia Treasure in 2016 by Governor Terry McAuliffe. Quarry Gardens opened in the spring of 2017 with two miles of walking trail, more than 40 galleries of diverse native plant communities, and a Visitor Center that includes exhibits on native plants, ecosystems, and the history of the soapstone industry in Schuyler. The Quarry Gardens also boasts a classroom, research laboratory, and a picnic pavilion.

Please bring sensible walking shoes/hiking boots. The tour will be conducted by the director of operations.
There are restrooms at this stop at the Visitors Center.

45 mins travel time to second stop

Saunders Brothers Nursery 

2717 Tye Brook Highway, Piney River, VA 22964

11:30am – Arrive

1:00pm – Depart

Nestled in the foothills on the ‘Sunrise Side’ of Virginia’s Blue Ridge Mountains, Saunders Brothers began as a partnership between five brothers in 1915. Today, third generation brothers, Tom, Bennett, Jim, and Robert, with their dad, Paul, operate the wholesale nursery, orchard, and farm market. The wholesale nursery operation now consists of approximately 100 acres of container production and 150 acres of field production. We ship over 1,100 products to garden centers, landscapers, and re-wholesalers throughout the mid-Atlantic region. Our 160-acre orchard provides fresh fruit for our farm market as well as other wholesale and retail markets.
We will be having a box lunch at this stop. Please see reservations.

The BOD would like to hold a brief business meeting during the lunch break at this stop. Members attending the tour are welcome to attend. Agenda is attached.
There are restrooms available at the site.

45 mins travel time to third stop

The Gardens at Waterperry Farms 

4284 Ballards Mill Road, Free Union, VA 22940

1:45pm – Arrive

3:00pm – Depart

Awaiting your visit is a private botanical garden with ponds, parterres and borders, water features, and a small arboretum’s worth of trees. Garden lovers and photographers alike will be struck by the sheer number of different settings. There are the pleated hills and mountain views one loves and expects of Piedmont Virginia, but so many intimate spaces as well. From the reflecting pool to the grove of pines by the pond, from the meandering stream to the rose and butterfly gardens, there’s a place that speaks to everyone. You will find a bog garden; a tranquil, custom-designed fountain; a cutting garden and English greenhouse; a kitchen garden (in progress); and arbors galore. Each passageway is an open invitation to explore a living work of art, always evolving in bloom and in light, so that on any given day, no matter where you turn, there’s a new piece of magic happening. The tour is led by the owner and designer.

There is a restroom available in the pool house.

15 mins travel time to fourth stop

Eldon Farms and Hill House Nursery

4432 Sperryville Pike, Woodville, VA 22740

3:15 – Arrive

4:30pm – Depart

The gardens are a rather wild buffer of naturalized plantings around the ponds with some interesting volunteers. Because the land is our greatest asset, we want to implement sustainable systems which will create the necessary income to continue to be good stewards and create a striking balance between preserving and improving.
There is shade at the barn where we will meet; however, there is no shade around the ponds. A master plan is being developed for tree plantings, but it hasn’t been implemented yet. The trails are mowed regularly and flat by the ponds. If anyone needs to drive from the barn/parking to the ponds to keep from walking the hill, that will be allowed.
Sturdy, comfortable walking shoes/boots are recommended. There is a water seepage between the two ponds that can be avoided if necessary.
The tour will be conducted by the resident horticulturist.
There is one restroom in another building on the property.

Travel back to hotel

Graves Mountain Lodge

205 Graves Mountain Lane, Syria, VA 22743, phone: (540) 923-4231

6:30pm – Dinner, buffet style farm-to-table 

8:00pm – 10:00pm – In lounge

Music by Smokin’ Trout Band (blue grass)

Cash Bar – Virginia wines and beers. VSLD is paying for the bartender, individuals are responsible for their purchases. 

Graves Mountain Lodge

6:30am – 7:00am – Breakfast; buffet style

7:00am – Depart from Graves Mountain Lodge for Madison County High School to meet the bus. We will not be returning to GML. Please park behind the school.

Madison County High School

68 Mountaineer Lane, Madison, VA 22727

7:30am – bus departs parking lot

Travel to first stop

Mount Sharon

19184 Mount Sharon Road, Orange, VA 22960 

8:00am – Arrive

10:20am – Depart

Nestled on 224 acres in the Virginia countryside, Mount Sharon is a world-class equestrian estate the offers an extraordinary blend of Georgian architecture, rich history, and exquisite gardens. The residence was designed by renowned architect Louis Bancel La Farge, the 10, 000+ square-foot main house is complemented by 10 acres of meticulously crafted Italian, French, and English-style gardens, with breathtaking views of the Blue Ridge Mountains.
The formal gardens were created by Charlottesville-based Landscape Architect Charles Stick in 1999.

There are NO restrooms available at this stop.

Travel to second stop.

Montpelier

11407 Constitution Highway, Montpelier Station, VA 22957

10:45am – Arrive

11:45am – Depart

James and Dolley Madison lived at Montpelier with his mother in a house originally built by his father. In Orange County, the house sits on a rise with a sweeping view of the distant Blue Ridge Mountains. The grounds and gardens remained a continuing and important interest to both of them. Dolley Madison’s niece reported their formal terraced garden was laid out in a horseshoe shape. After Mr. and Mrs. William DuPont purchased the estate in 1901, they embellished this garden by adding a brick wall with elaborate gates, walks and steps, and sculpture such as urns and lions. Their garden also included perennial beds and rose arbors. Their daughter left the property to the National Trust for Historic Preservation in 1983. The Garden Club undertook the restoration of the DuPont’s’ formal garden in the early 1990s. Today the garden displays a succession of blooming perennials through the season and also includes the DuPont’s ornamental additions. We will have a guided tour by the staff horticulturist.

Landscape Architect:
Year: 1992
Landscape Architect: Rudy J. Favretti

• Restoration of terraced walled gardens and repointing of brick wall

Year: 2008
Landscape Architect: William D. Rieley

• Wall repointing, gate restoration, sculpture conservation, and perennial planting plan.

Year: 2009
Landscape Architect: William D. Rieley

• Handrails at steps in terraced garden.

There are restrooms available at the site.

Travel to third stop

Grelen Nursery and Garden Market 

15091 Yager Road, Somerset, VA 22972

12:00pm – Arrive

4:00pm – Depart

The Market at Grelen is a destination European-Style Garden Shop & Cafe set on Grelen’s 1000-acre Tree Nursery. It also boasts 6-miles of free hiking trails, pick your own orchards, wedding venues and much more. One of the largest retail tree nurseries in VA, Grelen also grows hundreds of species of trees and shrubs.
To ensure a personalized and engaging experience, Grelen is offering to accommodate eight attendees per tour in two Kubota vehicles. Each tour will take approximately 30 minutes. This will give all of us ample time to have lunch, shop, explore and relax.
Attendees will be able to purchase lunch at this stop. The facilities at Grelen feature an excellent café, grab-and-go options, and locally produced sodas, beers and waters, as well fresh iced teas. There are multiple dining areas create a sense of intimacy and relaxation.

There are restrooms available at this stop.
This the final stop on the tour.

The tour bus will return us to Madison County High School where you may retrieve your car and head home. There is GPS access here and easy access to Rt. 29.