• WHAT: Manteca Garden Tour
• WHEN: Saturday from 10 am. to 3:30 pm.
• TICKETS: $15
• BUY TICKETS AT: Delicato Vineyards, 12001 S. Highway 99, about a mile north of East Lathrop Road; Ed’s Rockery, 6000 E. Lathrop Road just east of Highway 99; German Glas Werks, 109 E. Yosemite Avenue in downtown Manteca; Manteca Visitors Center, Promenade Shops at Orchard Valley south of the Highway 120 Bypass at Union Road, near the fountain at the roundabout; New Buds Nursery, 23563 S. Manteca Road just north of West Ripon Road; P&L Concrete Products, 1900 Roosevelt Avenue in Escalon; Park Greenhouse and Nursery, 12813 E. West Ripon Road just outside of the Ripon city limits; Silverado Nursery, 460 South Stockton Avenue in Ripon just south of Main Street.
There are eight different area businesses where you can purchase tickets to Saturday’s Manteca Garden Tour.
But if you are unable to get to anyone of them today, don’t worry. Tickets will be available at the first of six home gardens that are being highlighted this year. Club members will be at the entrance to the garden at 641 Mission Ridge Drive selling tickets to those who have not purchased one.
The club did not raise the price of its ticket admission – it’s still $15 apiece. The gardens will be open for visitors from 10 a.m. until 3 p.m. At the last garden, there will be a celebration of sorts where refreshments will be served to guests. That’s just for starters. More than 20 theme baskets will be given away during the opportunity drawing to be held while visitors enjoy the spacious garden of the Nelson family, nyckelharpa music by Manteca musician and artist Tim Rued, and the art works of various members of the Manteca Artist Guild. This part of the tour will be from 3 to 3:30 p.m. Tickets for the opportunity drawing will be available at the last house as well.
Garden Club president and garden tour chairperson Rita Canales said there will be guitar music also to entertain guests at the first home garden on Mission Ridge.
The garden tour is held at this time of the year around Mother’s Day, giving those who want to honor the special woman in their life an opportunity to give a gift that they will treasure for a long time.
The gardens featured this year are “beautiful homes with lots of nice water features,” Canales said.
“We hope everyone will have a great time,” she added.
A map directing visitors to the other home gardens will be given to visitors at the first house.
The garden tour is the only major fund-raiser sponsored by the club during the year. All proceeds are used by the group for their many civic projects and scholarship awards for area high school seniors. The club, which was chartered in the early 1950s, has helped Manteca maintain its National Tree City Award 20 years running this year by donating trees every Arbor Day that are planted at various city parks and along thoroughfares. The club also created and continues to maintain the Memorial Rose Garden in front of the Manteca Senior Center on Cherry Lane behind the Civic Center
