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According to the event's organizer, Rose Gotowicki, three-quarters of the 220 $15 tickets have already been snapped up. "If you have never been to a garden tea this is the one to attend," she said.

Tea Thyme is the major annual fund-raiser for the Lapeer County Master Gardeners who maintain the Gardens at Suncrest. Gotowicki said the gardens, which cover nearly an acre outside the Lapeer County Medical Care Facility, have more than 1,000 varieties of plants, including perennials, roses and ornamental grasses.

Gotowicki said before her group installed a gazebo and fountains recently, they had roughly $200,000 invested in the site. She said between new plants, mulch and fertilizer, it takes $5,000 annually to maintain the garden, not including thousands of hours of volunteer labor.

The volunteers began the garden tea five years ago to help cope with costs and since then, said Gotowicki it's grown to "one of Lapeer's premier garden teas." She added, "we've graduated from snacks to high tea." She noted her volunteers have "done a lot of research" to do a high tea right.

She said volunteers are loaning their personal china and linens so there will be no paper products at the event. Gotowicki added volunteers are making chandeliers for the pavilion where the tea will be held. She said when the volunteers are done, each of the 14 tables in the pavilion will have a completely different look.

This year's tea will have sittings at 12:30 p.m. and 3:30 p.m. The Gardens at Suncrest are located at Lapeer County Medical Care Facility, 1455 Suncrest Drive, in Mayfield Township.

Tickets are $15 a person and reservations are required.

"We usually sell out," said Gotowicki. She said it's usual to sell tickets to people from Roseville and Brown City and they've even had guest from as far away as Tennessee.

Last year, recalled Gotowicki, she got a call from a woman in Ann Arbor who was dying of cancer. "She was not upset over fact she was dying. She was upset they wouldn't let her out of the hospital and she was going to miss the tea."

She said between 60 and 70 volunteers work on the tea. "Everybody takes a lot of pride in it," she said, noting, "Nobody gets anything out of it."

That includes the entertainment, provided this year by Strings 'n' Things, a local dulcimer group. Gotowicki said volunteers have created a wide variety of hand-made items, ranging from a quilt to a dried flower wreath, for the event's drawing.

She said they decided to "go green this year," so instead of driving off to tour a member's garden after each sitting, tea participants will be given a tour of the nearby "Garden of New Tastes," where the Lapeer County Sheriff's Department is growing food for the county's soup kitchens and other outreach programs.

While participants can dress as casual as they wish, Gotowicki said many of the women who attend the event come dressed to the nines.

To reserve a ticket, call Gotowicki at (810) 667-1994. The Gardens at Suncrest are open to the public free of charge daily from dawn to dusk.

Phil Foley may be reached at (810) 664-0811, Ext. 8148 or pfoley@lapeergroup.com.