The 24th annual Parkland Garden Club Tour was held July 15.

Under the theme, “Time to Garden,” hundreds took to nice weather to visit garden homes across the area and learn a few gardening tips, including The Press.

“The Gardening Club has all types of activities. It has trips, it has programs where they will actually go to nursing homes. They have scholarships for young people, for school people. They go to the zoo and plant there. They do a lot of community service type things,” Wilma Krause Brucker of the Parkland Garden Club explained.

Bruckerg was helping visitors with information about Ellie Laubner’s garden, at her Dutch Tutor home in Allentown.

Laubner has had a love for gardening nearly all her life.

A serious gardener over 20 years, she told The Press, “It was 2002 when we put the gazebo in, then the fences, then the next year the pond, the next year the arbor.”

She continued, “My mom actually gave me a garden when I was five. She took me to the Five and Ten, helped me to buy seeds, Snap Dragons, Zinnias and things like that. She made sure that I was successful, and that was important. So, I’ve loved it ever since. I just love flowers and I love arranging them, doing a color scheme.”

Being able to share her love of flowers and gardening is something she enjoys.

“This hobby is wonderful because I get to entertain,” she tells The Press as she invites guests to her garden gazebo.

George Benckini was born into the world of gardening, as he is second generation owner of a landscaping company, Richard Benckini Landscaping.

“We were 8 or 10 years old when we started going to jobs. For myself personally, it’s been 40-42 years,” Benckini explained.

He continued, “My dad started our business in 1954. We took over in ‘98. We have 11 employees. Servicing not only the Lehigh Valley, but also as far as Harrisburg.”

Having grown-up in the business, Benckini took time to reflect on his favorite flowers,

“I like all different indoor stuff. I like the monsteras, anthuriums. But as far as flowers, I like the sunny impatiens, petunias. I really don’t have any favorites.”

As for the garden tour, he said “they’ve been asking for quite a few years. Just with work and stuff, I couldn’t commit.”

After being encouraged to join, he decided to join the tour.

As for the feedback he’s getting from visitors, “fertilizers, plant growing, irrigation, drippers, a lot of questions, different questions, good questions,” Benckini said.