Mar-Apr2016_Final-FlipBook

AT SEASON’S PEAK

M obile, Alabama, is affectionately known as “Azalea City.”Come March, city streets, yards, gardens and Spring Hill College’s campus are blanketed with these white, pink, lavender, fuchsia, and red flowers, and more than 250,000 azaleas bloom at Alabama’s most famous garden, Bellingrath (more on that later).They range in size from dwarf to jumbo. Alabama’s two most famous azaleas are the Rhododendron alabamense or Alabama azalea, which has snowy white flowers, and the pink Pride of Mobile, which is a Southern Indian Hybrid. Azaleas first arrived in Mobile in the middle of the 18 th century via Fifise Langois, who delivered the flowers from his father’s personal garden in Toulouse, France. By 1929, the flowers had become so popular, the Mobile Junior Chamber of Commerce devised a promotional event to line the streets of the city with them. Trail Maids were recruited to greet visitors to the Azalea Trail, a custom that continues today. The Trail Maid Court is made up of Mobile County girls who serve year-round as southern ambassadors for the city. Azaleas are a southern staple found all over the Gulf Coast — they love our southern soil. Lafayette, Louisiana has its own Azalea Trail, which starts the Lafayette Visitor Center on Evangeline Thruway and runs 20 miles of city streets past many of Lafayette’s landmarks, and its “own”azalea, the lavender and fuchsia Formosa azalea, christened the “General Lafayette.” BELLINGRATH GARDENS Bellingrath Gardens and Home on the Fowl River first took root as a fishing camp. Walter Bellingrath was born in Atlanta and raised in Castleberry, Alabama. He earned his fortune when he and his brother William bought the Gulf Coast Coca-Cola franchise. Walter moved to Mobile and as his company grew, his business holdings grew as well. Eventually, as owner of several large businesses, he became one of the most influential benefactors in Mobile and the Gulf Coast region. Walter’s wife,BessieMorse,was born and raised inMobile. She met Walter when she worked as a stenographer for the Mobile Coca-Cola Company and the two married in 1906.Though Bessie was one of nine children herself, she and Walter had no children of their own. The Bellingraths became known for their financial generosity throughout the region, particularly during the Great Depression. In Full Bloom Azalea City by Courtney Singer

Bessie’s true passion was her flowers, which she grew and tended to with great love and care at the Bellingrath’s home at 60 South Ann Street in Mobile. It was her custom to share her flowers with neighbors, church members, patients at a nearby infirmary, and anyone she felt would appreciate and benefit from the blooms. In 1917, Bessie and Walter bought a 25-acre former men’s fishing club on Fowl River, which they named “Belle Camp.” Bessie planted flowers and plants, of course, and the couple grew the property from its original 25-acres to over 65 cultivated ones. The Bellingrath’s first showed their gardens in 1932. Two years later, they decided to open them to the public year-round and began construction of a 10,500 square foot home so they could live on the property and oversee the visitors.They took occupancy in 1935. Bessie died suddenly in 1943, Walter in 1955. After Walter’s death, home was officially opened to the public. Bellingrath Gardens and Home is open year round and hosts a variety of special events and programs including an Easter Egg Hunt. The Azalea Bloom Out (the Flaming Drama of the South) runs March 4 th through March 31 st .

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