BellingrathGardens Alabama – Doctors Orders

The Ladies of the Carnival Museum recommended that we visit the Bellingrath Gardens.  They said it was quite beautiful and we must see it.  I ask the innocent Northern question; “But is there anything in bloom?”  They look at us both with sympathetic wise eyes and one lady said; “ Ohhh Honeyyyyy we alllwaaays have sumthin in blooooom”.  So on a sunny day in the middle of November we were off to Bellingrath Gardens and Home. 

Imagine this.  You go to your Doctor and he tells you that you must buy this 65 acre fishing Camp on the Fowl River for your health. The reason:  You need to learn how to play.  This is what happened to The Souths first Coca-Cola bottler, Walter Bellingrath in 1917.  Soon his wife Bessie began planting flowers.   In 1927 they hired George B. Rogers a local architect to convert the fishing camp into a country estate.  In 1932 the Bellingraths placed an ad in the Mobile Newspaper inviting the locals on a Sunday afternoon to see the spring flowers.  Over 4700 people visited that day.  In 1934 the gardens were open year round.   The Couple had no children and after they past away (Bessie 1943, Walter 1955) a foundation was created to oversee the gardens and home.  Grants from this foundation also go to three Christian Colleges, two local churches and to hundreds of scholarships. 

We chose not to tour the home (15 rooms with 35 years of period furniture, silver, crystal and porcelain {so the brochure says}) and were quite happy with the garden tour (it took us a leisurely 4 hours to roam the grounds).   The Camellias are in bloom (November to March) and also the Roses were also happily flowering.  The seasonal draw are the hanging Mums.  They are cultivated in 20 acres of green houses and hang up to 10 feet.  I think the pictures we took are nice but still don’t do them justice.  A photographer from Home and Garden was there that day.  I believe his pictures might be a bit nicer then mine (maybe).   The grounds keepers were preparing for the Christmas light show.  I hope we will be able to come over for that.  www.bellingrath.org .  If you have a chance watch the imbedded video Bellingrath magic Christmas.  All of the light sculptures are made at Bellingrath for Bellingrath. (15 November)

8 feet of hanging mums

Thats how they did it!

Roses in November

Love the flower Les

The Bellingrath home

Home and mums

View from the house

Alabama snow.  No it isn't those are camellia petels

Veiw of mirror lake

Wooden path at the Bayou walk

Les looking for panda bears

Low water levels show signs of wild coke parties

Asian gardren

The Christmas Armadillo - Thank you Kramer

It is so hard to see the size of these displays.  Just know that they are big and beautiful

29 Nov we met some friends from our RV Park and came back to see the lights.  It was just lovely.  The displays were huge and we had many OHHHH moments when we would turn corners. It was a great night for a Christmassy walk with friends.