The Sandy Springs Society

As the Sandy Springs Garden Tour strolls into its 10th year, helping the Sandy Springs Society raise funds for more than 20 nonprofits serving consumers within city limits, its volunteers also evolve.

Garden tour co-chair Robin Pollack said her journey into leadership was inevitable.
“My home was on the garden tour three years ago,” she said. “I joined the society two years ago. Now I’m the co-chair. I am a Master Gardener so it was a natural evolution.”

As a Master Gardener, who trades community volunteerism for intensive training by county extension offices, Pollack found herself among other floral aficionados.
“I’m looking forward to it,” she said about visiting the restored gardens of Glenridge Hall, a 1929 mansion featured in the current television series “The Vampire Diaries.”

Although the house is a private residence and closed to the public, owner Caroline Glenn Mayson donated the use of its garden to the tour.
“It’s amazing how much of an untamed environment it is,” Pollack said about the grounds’ 47 forested acres, although several acres are devoted to formal and informal English gardens full of cultivated plants like roses, columbine, iris, peonies, daffodils and hostas.

Lib Thompson, reprising her 2010 role as garden tour co-chair, said the other four stops are equally breathtaking.
“We have five fabulous gardens and they’re all so individual, from the grand Glenridge Hall to personal gardens,” she said. “It’s like handwriting. These gardens reflect the owners’ personalities.”

Thompson said each year, the garden tour gives her inspiration for her own residence.
“We have a yard,” she said. “I would like to have a garden. I would like to learn more. So many of these gardeners are master gardeners like Robin.”

The other gardens belong to Patricia Terwilliger, Randy and Stan Mogelnicki, Jane and Bill Knapp and Cathy and Jeffrey Korotkin.

The tour is rain or shine. Pets and strollers are not permitted. Properties are not wheelchair accessible. Walking shoes are recommended.

Tickets are $20 in advance at Ace Hardware, 6010A Sandy Springs Circle, Antiques and Interiors, 6336 Roswell Road, and Gramma B’s, 300 Hammond Drive.
Tickets on the day of the tour are $25 and available at the Glenridge Hall parking area at Kaiser Permanente, 20 Glenlake Pkwy.

If you go:

n What: Sandy Springs Garden Tour
n When: from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday and from noon to 5 p.m. Sunday
n Where: 20 Glenlake Pkwy. in Sandy Springs and four other locations
n Benefits: Sandy Springs Society charities
n Cost: $20 advance, $25 at the door
n Information: visit www.sandyspringssociety.org