Today Meg and I visited Airlie Gardens in Wilmington, NC. It was a beautiful day to visit,hardly anyone was there. The sun was very bright and taking landscape photos were a big challenge. Meg told me at the beginning even though I'm not much of a tulip fan I'd be one after visiting today, she was right.
Airlie Gardens has lots of tulips planted in mass. Shame in some areas lots were dug up by rodents, hundreds!
Given the sun problems Here are some of the photos I managed to get.
These giant yellow tulips were huge. I'm sure I saw several that were 7 inches wide! There were 4-5 masses of these in the camellia garden.
Just a sample of the tulips in the gardens. Those are pansies planted along with the tulips.
The drive had this ring of daffodils, those trees are a ring of vitex trees. Would enjoy seeing those vitex in full bloom, but that is much later in the season.
We found some daffodil foliage that was clearly 2 foot tall, the blooms were gone, never seen any daffodils even close to that tall.
Flowering Dogwood with Spanish Moss.
A cherry tree that caught my eye.
See the yellow on top of the concrete pagoda? That is the top of the pagoda path covered in Carolina Jasmine.
Here is the Airlie Live Oak estimated to be almost 500 years old. FYI that gray stuff is Spanish Moss hanging down from the tree.
Thousands of camellias in bloom! Never seen so many in one place. Most of the camellias were planted 80-90 years ago in the gardens. Seems the theme is multi-colored and huge blooms. Surely I saw blooms approaching 6 inches across.
This red camellia is challenging the camera's color tones, I worked hard in photoshop and still did not get it right. Anyway I have a whole another post of camellia photos if you want to see them?
One last note about camellias. The person we were visiting, you would think her yard was part of the camellia garden at Airlie gardens. There is a nice selection of camellias all huge bushes. We brought home 6-8 camellia seedlings from her yard!
15 comments:
A 500-year-old Oak tree. Now that's special! Your photos of Daffodils and Camellias are wonderful. Sounds like it was a perfect day for your visit to the gardens!
Those photos are stunning! I love all the tulips and daffodils. So pretty.
Spring is screaming in these photos. Love the Tulips with the Pansies...I have never seen Daffs with a double trumpet, nice!
Those first fancy yellow tulips are really nice - wish I could be down south right now for the camellias and redbuds - just gorgeous!
This makes me wish I'd planted more tulips. Beautiful photos. Love the cherry tree.
I can't believe I've never been!
wow, thanks
I wish I had a friend who had 6-8 Camellia seedlings to share! Beautiful beds of tulips and daffodils. Thanks for sharing.
Such amazing spring color. Loved the photos.
Good to see spring back in full bloom - lovely set of images
I'm amazed the place wasn't packed, even if it was a weekday! It looks beautiful!
Except for that magnificent Live Oak and the Spanish Moss, you would think these photos were taken in Holland.
thanks so much for the advice, Randy! I'll figure out what the spacing code is here and make sure we do that right. wish I had thought of this when I had the deck put in right after I bought the house, but I was just trying to save money then.
thanks again! have a great night :-)
Randy, you've been somewhere that I've never been and I was raised over in the next county from Airlie and used to pass by there enroute to Wrightsville Beach all the time. Always said someday I'd visit there. Left the area 50 yrs. ago so don't get back very often anymore. Glad you enjoyed it. Was this weekend Azelea Festival time? Did you ever visit Orton Plantation off Rt. 133 near Southport? You can't go into the house but the grounds are spectacular or at least they used to be.
As usual, your photos are captivating and so are the flowers. Especially the bed of tulips. I like gardens with variegated colors rather than a single color in clusters.
It sounds like a great place! It's hard to beat camellias as tough Southern favorites, although their wildlife value is nominal. The flower diversity of different cultivars is amazing.
Tulips are in the same category, too, I'm afraid, but I love to have them in the spring!
Lisa
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