Video: Kickoff time for the 77th Annual Columbus Spring Pilgrimage

COLUMBUS, Miss. (WCBI)—The threat of inclement weather isn’t stopping the party in Columbus. It’s just moving it indoors.

The 77th annual Columbus Spring Pilgrimage is underway. Visitors will tour homes and gardens and spend money while in town. It’s also a lot of work.

The Columbus Spring Pilgrimage is a tradition residents and visors look forward to every year.

“We will have guests from all over the United States and several foreign countries will coming in to to experience what we know and love as southern hospitality. Whether you’re from Alabama, Mississippi, or Georgia, or Texas you usually understand what we’re talking about and so we’re thrilled to engage our guest and welcome them to Columbus Mississippi,” said Visit Columbus CEO Nancy Carpenter.

Bonnie Hill has been participating in Pilgrimage for seven years. She says it’s her obligation to make visitors feel right at home.

” We love sharing our homes and our gardens with the community and with those who come to visit our community. So, it’s just kind of in our blood to do it,”Pilgrimage Garden Tour Guide Bonnie Hill.

The garden party is one of the main attractions of the weekend. Visit Columbus CEO Nancy Carpenter says it captures the beauty of the city.

“For several years now we have hosted a garden party and we serve mint juleps and cheese straws, and it is held at Colonade gardens and you can meander through the garden and enjoy the beautiful floral presentations. You can enjoy the dahlia leaves and the Iris. She does still have some wonderful things blooming. It’s a wonderful opportunity for both gardeners and novelists,”said Carpenter.

Weather is always a concern, but Hill says this is still a perfect time of year to visit the homes.

“We’ve had rain before and people just come out anyway. They just come out because it’s a good time of year to just enjoy gardens and the house, so I never worry about it. We didn’t have a hard winter so we’ve had flowers come out early and some that didn’t do so well but that’s kind of the life of a garden you never know what your going to get every year,”said Hill.

Carpenter says the homeowners make this two week event possible.

“It has been so successful over the years and so grateful to all the home owners who really really make this happen. I think a lot of times we forget that it is a grand gift to the city of Columbus and to Lowndes county for them to invite strangers into their homes and into their gardens, people that they’ve never met before,”said Carpenter.

The official garden party is April 8th.