Cape Fear Garden Club Azalea Garden tour kicks off Friday, features 11 gardens

NEW HANOVER COUNTY, NC (WWAY) — The Cape Fear Garden Club’s 2024 Azalea Garden Tour will kick off Friday with a ribbon cutting ceremony.

The event will feature 10 private gardens and Airlie Gardens and take place April 5 through 7.

The tour kicks off at Cameron Art Museum where the Ribbon Cutting and Queen’s Garden Party will begin on Friday morning at 9:30. WWAY’s Jeff Rivenbark will be the emcee. The Good Morning Carolina team will also be at the ribbon cutting ceremony.

The Garden Club’s famous homemade cookies and light refreshments will be served following the ceremony.

This year’s garden tour chair, Signa Stalvey, came on Good Morning Carolina to talk about this year’s event. Stalvey said this year’s theme is ‘Beyond the Garden Gate’. She said four of the gardens on the tour are tucked inside a historic neighborhood near the Intracoastal Waterway and are only accessible via trolleys due to narrow streets. She said the next stop is a patio home neighborhood with three stunning gardens.

Plein air artists will be present in the gardens all weekend and their paintings will be available for purchase on April 7th. The Azalea Ambassadors, young ladies and gentlemen from New Hanover County high schools, will meet and greet guests at each garden.

Azalea Garden Tour tickets are no longer available online, but there are several locations to buy tickets throughout New Hanover and Brunswick Counties. Click here for the full list. 

Tickets are $50 and children under 12 are free. Proceeds from the Tour are returned to the local community each year, totaling over $1.4 million since 2003.