One of the stories about the making of this garden caught my ear and I wanted to share it. The Bellingrath Garden (which is about 20 minutes from Mobile, Alabama) was built by Walter and Bessie Bellingrath. Both were very generous benefactors to local organizations but Bessie was known to take generosity and kindness one step further. The Bellingraths were responsible for bringing Coca-Cola to much of the south and they did not suffer as others did during the great depression. So the sweet story goes something like this…..
“As the economic depression worsened, friends quietly kept Mrs. Bellingrath aware of families in need. She would appear checkbook in hand, begging for an azalea, camellia or whatever bloom she saw in the family yard. She would convince the stunned homeowner that Bellingrath Gardens had been unable to locate one and then offer hundreds of dollars in an era when the U.S. government declared that $25 per week was a comfortable income. ”
I think that there is something so special about knowing the origin of a plant – as in and who gave them, why and and where they came from. This garden must be so rich with this type of history.
There is a lot going on at the Bellingrath gardens, you can take a river cruise of the Fowl River (on which the property is positioned) there is a huge rose garden and many other themed gardens and the house is also open.
These images (all by Karl Gercens) show just how lovely the gardens are. Have you been here? Can you share your own experiences?