The 2026 Georgetown Garden Club Garden Tour
Spring’s Most Elegant Invitation
The 2026 Georgetown Garden Club Garden Tour offers an opportunity to step behind the wrought-iron gates and brick façades of Georgetown and into a collection of private gardens that reflect the neighborhood’s history and its more intimate, cultivated side. This year's Garden Tour is May 9, 2026 from 10:00 am till 5:00 pm. Purchase tickets here.
A cherished tradition, celebrating 96 years, the tour is about landscape, horticulture and storytelling. The self-guided walking tour, allows one to choose their own path and expolore gardens on both the East and West sides of Georgetown. A tea hosted by the members of the Georgetown Garden Club at Christ Church provides a lovely interlude in the afternoon and a boutique filled with garden-themed merchandise is open to browse on the courtyard as well.
The gardens present a compelling narrative and a respect for Georgetown’s unique gardening and architectural heritage. In several gardens this year, gazebos, terraces, and thoughtfully placed water features provide interesting focal points. In one garden, an Asian influence guides the design, with restrained plantings, sculptural evergreens, and water elements. In another, a formal rose garden’s geometry provides structure and fragrance. Boxwood parterres and gravel paths create a sense of order, while climbing roses and espaliered fruit trees add form and function.
Several spaces reflect a growing interest in ecological gardening, with native plants that support pollinators and wildlife. Best of all, the Georgetown Garden Club Garden Tour is a community endeavor. Proceeds support the local parks and green spaces of Georgetown, including Rose, Montrose, Volta, and Book Hill Parks. Trees for Georgetown, Tudor Place Gardens and Dumbarton Oaks Park Conservancy are also supported by tour proceeds.
In a city often defined by its monuments and institutions, the Georgetown Garden Tour reminds us of a Washington that exists at a smaller scale, in courtyards and back gardens.