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Azalea Garden Tour
2005
Press
Release
April 5, 2005
– Wilmington, North
Carolina (NC) – The Cape Fear Garden Club announces the 52nd annual
Azalea Garden Tour, to be held April 8, 9, and 10 in the beautiful
coastal region of Wilmington. Eleven gardens will be featured during
2005 Tour including gardens with formal and informal landscaping,
historical themes, a cottage garden, a “zeriscape” garden (low water
maintenance), and one of the few landscaped cemeteries in the world.
The 2005 Azalea Garden Tour
will officially open during the traditional Ribbon Cutting Ceremony
and Queen’s Garden Party, which will be held for the first time at
beautiful and historic Airlie Gardens. The Ribbon Cutting Ceremony
will feature Queen Azalea LVIII and her court, along with over 100
beautiful teenage Azalea Belles dressed in authentic antebellum
dresses. Local and national celebrities will also be present to
celebrate this event, which is open to the public and starts at
10:00 a.m. Light refreshments will be served by the ladies of the
Cape Fear Garden Club following the ceremony. The Azalea Belles,
sponsored by members of the Cape Fear Garden Club, can be seen at
each of the gardens during the tour, and are in high demand for many
of the other official Azalea Festival events.
Tickets to the Ribbon Cutting
Ceremony and Garden Tour can be obtained through the Cape Fear
Garden Club’s web site at
www.AzaleaGardenTour.org.
Tickets will also be available by March 1st at area garden centers,
the Azalea Festival Ticket Office, or at any of the featured gardens
or Ribbon Cutting Ceremony during the actual Tour. All tickets are
$15.00 and good for all three days; children under twelve are
admitted free except to the Ribbon Cutting where a $1.00 fee is
charged. The ticket includes a map for the self guided tour with
descriptions of the history and detail of each garden. Tour guides
from the Cape Fear Garden Club may be available upon request for
visiting group tours and there will be a shuttle service provided
for the Ribbon Cutting Ceremony. Profits from the ticket sales are
distributed by the Cape Fear Garden Club in the form of
beautification and horticultural grants to the community. Funds are
also used to support scholarships for students at UNC-W and Cape
Fear Community College, to help finance conservation efforts at
Battery Island, and for other special projects sponsored by the
Club. The 2004 51st Tour netted $61,000 in profits which have been
disbursed to support these projects.
The Cape Fear Garden Club is
the oldest and largest garden club in North Carolina and the second
largest garden club in the nation. The Azalea Garden Tour is the
Club’s primary fundraiser each year and over the past 50 years, the
Club has given thousands of dollars back to the community through
funds generated by the Tour. Past grant recipients have included
area public schools, Fort Fisher Aquarium, Bellamy Mansion, Louise
Cameron Art Museum,, Lower Cape Fear Historical Society, Yahweh
Center, Airlie Gardens, New Hanover County Arboretum, Battery Island
Conservation, the Ability Garden, Cape Fear Habitat for Humanity,
and many others.
The Azalea Garden Tour is an
official part of the North Carolina Azalea Festival held each year
in Wilmington, North Carolina. The Azalea Festival has been listed
by the Southeast Tourism Society as one of the top 20 tourist
attractions in the Southeast and Metro Magazine listed the Azalea
Garden Tour as one of North Carolina’s top ten tourist events in
2003. The Azalea Garden Tour and the lovely Azalea Belles are a
highlight for those who wish to enjoy Southern hospitality and charm
amidst beautiful gardens in a coastal setting. The 50 year history
of the Azalea Garden Tour, the Cape Fear Garden Club, and the NC
Azalea Festival is now available in a beautiful new coffee
table-style book, Belles and Blooms, by local historian Susan Taylor
Block. For more information, please visit the Cape Fear Garden
Club’s web site:
www.capefeargardenclub.org. Questions concerning the tour
may also be directed to Cathy Poulos, Azalea Garden Tour Publicity
Chairperson at
Publicity@capefeargardenclub.org ; phone #: 910-538-5550.
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