Bellingrath Gardens

We took advantage of our “day off” from volunteering and visited Bellingrath Gardens. Walter Bellingrath owned Mobile’s first Coca-Cola bottling plant. He and his wife, Bessie , turned a former fishing camp on the Fowl River into an expanse of gardens, which were opened to the public in 1932. In 1935 they build a home on the property and moved there from Mobile. Alabama is the Camellia State, and Bellingrath Gardens certainly represents that well. Although we were about two weeks early for the peak of the azaleas, many were blooming, along with tulips, snapdragons, ornamental cabbage, and of course camellias. We toured the home as well. It's listed on the National Register of Historic Places and contains all the antiques, furniture, silver, china, crystal, and porcelin collection owned by the Bellingraths when they lived there. They had no children, so when "Mr. Bell" died, he set up his 65-acre estate in perpetua so it could be enjoyed by future generations. More of our pictures of beautiful Bellingrath Gardens can be seen by copying and pasting the following link: http://picasaweb.google.com/drewandlindamoore/BellingrathGardensAL2009?authkey=Gv1sRgCNnx_Z_M9f3n6gE#