Bellingrath is launching a special project to refresh our promotional materials and highlight the vibrant community that makes the Gardens so special—you! We’re inviting visitors, along with their family and friends, to join us in creating a new commercial at the Gardens. Photos and videos captured may be featured in our promotional materials, including our website, onsite signage, and advertisements.
As a thank you for participating, each participant will receive one complimentary ticket to Magic Christmas in Lights!
Please fill out the form below, and a member of our marketing team will reach out to you via email.
Education at Bellingrath Gardens & Home offers a unique opportunity to blend outdoor learning with the serene environment of a beautiful garden. Our educational programs and events are not just about imparting knowledge; they provide hands-on experiences that help both youth and adults develop a deeper connection to nature. Research has shown that spending time in gardens can reduce stress, improve mood, and enhance overall well-being. At Bellingrath, we believe in fostering teamwork, cooperation, and social interaction through curiosity and inquiry-based learning. Education in our gardens is a powerful way to integrate experiential learning, environmental education, and holistic development.
We are excited to expand our certified-educator-led programs and events to provide even better learning opportunities in our gardens. Here’s a glimpse of what we offer:
“Cultivate” is a statewide CEU-certified teacher development program based on plant science and literacy. It provides Alabama’s K-6 educators with the tools, foundation, and lesson plans needed to inspire and engage students in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics). Since April, we have conducted six “Cultivate” sessions, and we plan to offer more, including one on November 8. To help educators learn more about our educational programs and events, we are hosting a K-6 STEM Educator Appreciation Evening on September 26.
During the summer, a certified educator led 3 different week-long day camps. Children learned about plants, insects, and creatures that inhabit Bellingrath Gardens and the surrounding areas, and they were given opportunities to observe, explore, and dive into hands-on activities that fostered critical thinking and problem-solving skills through STEM activities. During the summer, we also took lessons and STEM challenges from Cultivate: Growing STEM Educators curriculum to share with students during their summer school programs at Mary B. Austin Elementary and Eichold Mertz Magnet School.
Our Youth NatureNauts field trips provide an immersive learning experience beyond the classroom. Students from public and private schools, as well as home schools, can participate in self-guided field trips featuring scavenger hunts and a Math Workshop. We are also designing educator-led workshops that align with National and Alabama Science Standards. Educators are welcome to reach out via email at[email protected]with specific workshop requests.
Starting in September, we are launching the K-6 NatureNauts Academy, which offers monthly 2-hour nature science workshops. These workshops are designed to inspire and educate young minds through interactive STEM challenges and hands-on activities.
Want to Make a Difference? Volunteer with Us!
Are you passionate about making a difference in a child’s life? We are currently seeking volunteers to help lead our educator-created workstations during our monthly NatureNauts Academy. For more information, please contact our Volunteer Coordinator, Jack Pruitt, at (251) 873-1439 or email[email protected].
Join us at Bellingrath Gardens & Home for an enriching educational experience that combines the beauty of nature with the joy of learning!
Visit and Connect with Us
Share your educational experiences with us on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter using the hashtag #BellingrathCultivate.
Warm-season flora has been at full throttle since May; after five months of hot days, warm soil, and sudden rains, south Alabama’s long 2024 growing season has played its hand. So much has happened this past summer in Bellingrath’s gardens—I thought I’d share a little of what’s been going on.
Getting Ready for the Great Bellingrath Harvest
We are getting excited for the Great Bellingrath Harvest event (Sept 21-Oct 31)—maybe too excited! In advance of this event, we just couldn’t wait to have pumpkins, so we planted several varieties along the Fowl River.
The plants were so close to the river’s edge that the vines grew into (and were pruned back by) the brackish water.
Please join us for the Great Harvest event! To supplement the 10 or so pumpkins we produced in-house, we are hauling in an entire semi-trailer full of pumpkins for display and play alike.
New Additions to Our Garden Tools
As mentioned in last month’s newsletter, Bellingrath acquired a critical piece of machinery to replace one whose time had finally come.
We’ve already made great use of the new machine, turning (literally) a 50-year-old overgrown garden debris dump site into an active composting campaign. We’ve already placed around 200 cubic yards of nutritious compost around the property. You will definitely begin to notice the revitalization of Bellingrath’s many flower beds going forward!
New raised beds going in on the riverfront.
Preserving a Centenarian Oak
We’ve been busy harvesting pumpkins and compost, but in the case of a century-old sand live oak (Quercus geminata), we delayed the harvest for as long as possible. In order to remove the possibility that half of this handsome tree could fall on the café during a storm—without also removing the oak—we had the tree professionally bolted together. This involved drilling through the trunk and inserting rods.
Introducing: “Franken-tree.”
Surprisingly, this preventative action is not detrimental to the long-term health of the tree—especially considering the alternative. In a few years, the oak will grow to conceal much of the support structure.
Reflecting on a Season of Growth
In the garden, late summer affords a time for mindful deliberation—an opportunity to review what’s grown, what hasn’t grown, and what’s grown way too much.
Although summer isn’t over yet, a great harvest is approaching!
Horticulturally,
Jeremy Schmidt,
Director of Horticulture
Visit and Connect with Us
Share your thoughts with us on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter using the hashtag #BellingrathGardens.
Are you passionate about nature, plants, and animals? Do you enjoy working with children and want to make a meaningful impact in your community? Join us at Bellingrath Gardens & Home as a volunteer for our Education Department!
We are looking for enthusiastic individuals to help kindergarten through sixth-grade students explore the wonders of plants, animals, and the environment. Through hands-on learning and fun activities, you can help inspire the next generation to appreciate and care for the natural world. Lesson plans and materials will be provided for you!
2024 Volunteer Dates:
Leafy Learners: September 18 – 9 am to 1 pm
Pumpkins Galore: October 16 – 9 am to 1 pm
Nature’s Little Explorers: November 13 – 9 am to 1 pm
Whether you can volunteer for just one day or all three, your time and dedication will make a significant difference. By guiding young minds in their exploration of nature, you will be helping to shape their understanding and appreciation of the world around them.
To become a volunteer, simply fill out our volunteer application. Applicants must be 18 years or older.
If you have any questions or need more information, please don’t hesitate to contact our Volunteer Department at (251) 873-1439 or [email protected]. We would love to hear from you!
Join us in nurturing a love for the environment in children and help them grow into tomorrow’s stewards of our planet. We can’t wait to see you at Bellingrath Gardens & Home!
Join us in making a difference! Share your volunteer experiences at Bellingrath Gardens & Home on social media using #BellingrathVolunteers.
Spectacular tropical foliage of Alocasia ‘Calidora’, a large-sized elephant ear growing near the South Terrace,
By Todd Lasseigne Executive Director
Visit and Connect with Us
With the start of the school year in August and the transition from summer to fall in September, it would be understandable if visiting Bellingrath Gardens & Home isn’t at the forefront of your mind. On one hand, focusing on getting children ready for the school year and helping them adjust once it begins makes sense. On the other hand, many of you might think, “Let’s just wait until fall to visit Bellingrath.”
Well, well, well… Despite these valid reasons and thoughts, we at Bellingrath beg to differ. Now—yes, Now!—is the time to visit Bellingrath. With our first “fake autumn” arriving a few days ago, thankfully bringing relief by dropping the dew points from 80°F to 72°F (yes, we don’t ask for much), you probably feel like we do: re-energized to walk outdoors, soak in the sunlight, and stroll in the dappled shade of our live oaks. Come now, ye all, and come again afterward!
If my encouragement isn’t enough to lure you from the comfort of your air conditioning and cozy couch, Bellingrath Gardens & Home is about to give you plenty of other reasons to come. What “other” reasons, you ask?!!
Introducing The Great Bellingrath Harvest!
Although the gardens are always lovely and the Home ever beckoning, this September, we are launching an entirely new fall festival—The Great Bellingrath Harvest! Starting on September 21 and running through Halloween, we will introduce new events such as the Harvest Market, bring back familiar ones like our Scarecrows in the Gardens and our Fall Plant Sale, and rebrand older events, such as our Jack-o-Lantern Jubilee (formerly Boo!). If you like pumpkins, all we’re saying right now is, “Hold my beer.” We think you’ll be amazed.
While all of this is happening, the gardens will be beautifully adorned with our cascading chrysanthemums (starting in late October) and other botanical glories of fall Gulf Coast gardens. Our goal with The Great Bellingrath Harvest is to give you more choices and opportunities to visit. Yes, we want you to come for the 2024 Magic Christmas in Lights, but we don’t want you to wait until the Christmas celebrations begin to visit.
If you were to visit Bellingrath today, what might you see? The three photos accompanying this article were taken just earlier on August 26, showcasing the splendors of both close-up details and distant vistas here at Bellingrath. From the intricate range of green to chartreuse to yellow on the leaves of our ‘Calidora’ elephant ears near the South Terrace—and yes, there are still a few left for sale in our Gift Shop—to the burst of color provided by the cool new tropical philodendron called ‘Golden Crocodile,’ we have aimed this year to “tropical up” our plantings and use a lot of the many wonderful “aroids” (look it up) that have been all the rage in horticultural and houseplant circles for the past decade.
From the East Terrace of the Bellingrath Home, the stunning contrast and juxtaposition of the tropical lushness in the foreground against the simplicity and grandeur of the bend in the Fowl River, with our salt marsh in full view, simply cannot be equaled.
More to Explore at Bellingrath
What else might you see on a visit to Bellingrath? Well, the beautiful border along the Great Lawn, the award-winning Rose Garden, the peacefulness of a walk around Mirror Lake, and many more visual treasures await you. Don’t forget to take a tour of the Home led by Tom McGehee and his great team. Please also visit our Gift Shop, managed by Patti Davidson, and enjoy a satisfying meal in the Magnolia Café, which has excelled under Yvonne Clark’s leadership.
Thank you for your support and patronage of Bellingrath. The more you visit, the more you learn and become inspired.
Join the conversation and share your memories of Bellingrath on social media using #BellingrathGardens.
Louis Thublin perfected the transport of huge azaleas and camellias to what would become Bellingrath Gardens. Here he stands in front of a truck loaded with camellias between Coca-Cola employees John Bender and Will Covington with the Belliingraths’ chauffeur, George Posey Smith at right.
By Tom McGehee Museum Home Director
Although architect George B. Rogers is rightfully credited with the design of much of Bellingrath Gardens, there was another talented man at work in their creation: Louis C. Thublin. While Rogers was the architect, Thublin was the horticulturist.
Louis Charlemagne Thublin was born outside of Paris in 1868 and apprenticed for six years to qualify as “a florist, horticulturist, and landscape architect.” At the age of 18, he immigrated to the United States and arrived in Mobile in 1886. His sister, Lucie, had married another French transplant, Claude Ravier, who had established a florist and nursery on the southwest corner of Selma and George streets.
Louis Thublin worked with his brother-in-law until 1897, when he went out on his own. The Ravier household had grown to include nine children, and two of the older sons were now in business with their father. Thublin was first located at 650 S. Broad, where he listed himself as “a florist and landscape gardener.”
Beginning Work for the Bellingraths
By 1912, when the Bellingraths began using his services on their property on South Ann Street, Mr. Thublin’s operations were located on a large lot on Marine Street, north of Virginia Street. It was Thublin’s crew that landscaped and maintained the Bellingraths’ garden at 60 S. Ann Street and made it a showplace.
It was in 1925 that Thublin began his work at Belle Camp. Bessie Bellingrath told him to bring his crew down to the camp, explaining, “If I am going to spend time down there, I want it looking nice.” It was Louis Thublin who perfected a way to transplant century-old azaleas and camellias without losing a single blossom.
After the Bellingraths returned from their European trip in 1927, they added architect George B. Rogers to the project, and he designed the hardscape so admired today. The Grotto and water features were completed in 1931, and Mirror Lake was created. All the while, the massive flowering shrubs being brought in by Thublin’s crew were carefully placed among newer arrivals.
The Gardens opened to the public in 1932, and Thublin continued to assist with the growing of flowers for the grounds until his death at the age of 75 in 1943.
Like his clients, the Bellingraths, he is buried in Mobile’s Magnolia Cemetery. Nothing remains of his nursery operations on nearby Marine Street.
Bellingrath has two museums on our property. One is the beautiful historic Home with its collection of precious antiques. The other is a living museum—our plant collection. We feel a connection to the Bellingraths when we tour the home and hear their love story. The Bellingraths are also present in the treasured azaleas and camellias that built our global reputation as a tourist destination.
The Bellingraths had a great love and deep knowledge of both azaleas and camellias. Just as we preserve their Home, we have a responsibility to honor their love of plants and the Gardens by maintaining and enhancing the living collection. Director of Horticulture Jeremy Schmidt and Horticulture Projects Manager Sarah Brecher have been developing a pathway for the collection to meet the highest global standards. We’re certain the collection will delight visitors in the same way it would have brought joy to the Bellingraths.
You’ll hear more about Jeremy and Sarah’s work in the weeks and months to come. The detailed plan includes sections on cataloging our plants and placing identification in the garden. It places special emphasis on diversifying the collection. We’re grateful to longtime nurseryman and Friend of Bellingrath Maarten Van Der Giessen for sharing more than 200 azalea cultivars as he retires from his business. Jeremy and Sarah have put weeks of work into preparing a growing space near the greenhouses where 311 of the plants can be grown. We’ll use the cuttings to fill the gardens with many more varieties than are currently in the Gardens. As a bonus, the diversity will extend our blooming season within a couple of years. It’s a time-consuming and expensive process, but a fitting tribute to the Bellingraths as we prepare for our second century.
Tackling Infrastructure and Projects at Bellingrath
This year, I’ve been writing a lot about infrastructure and projects here at Bellingrath Gardens & Home. August continues this trend, and in good ways, too, as in previous months. You see, although it’s wonderful to have a historic old home and historic gardens, it’s not ideal to have historic tractors, equipment, and irrigation systems. Over the past two years, we’ve undertaken significant projects to modernize our infrastructure, including:
Rebuilding our electrical infrastructure and installing new sewer infrastructure.
Purchasing a shiny new pickup truck (plastered with our beautiful brand), two new people movers, several new utility carts, a professional sprayer, a cherry-picker/lift, multiple new HVAC units, and numerous greenhouse components such as new unit heaters and exhaust fans.
Our work is far from complete. We’re looking forward to new potable water infrastructure, new well and irrigation systems, new telecommunications lines, more HVAC systems (unfortunately), and many other updates that you, our supporters and visitors, will hopefully never notice [tongue-in-cheek humor].
Replacing the Workhorse Tractor
Back in May, our 1985 Ford tractor—the workhorse for our Maintenance and Horticulture Departments—decided it had lifted its last load. Repair was not an option due to both expense and age. The 2019 Kubota, though a good tractor, was not heavy-duty enough to be our sole solution. Jeremy Schmidt (Director of Horticulture) and Ralph Drury (Maintenance Manager) set out to find a worthy replacement. We ended up purchasing a Caterpillar 420D series tractor from Thompson Tractor in Mobile—see the picture below. This equipment purchase will propel Bellingrath forward as we continue to tackle deferred maintenance projects and create new spaces as outlined in our master plan. Expect to see this tractor being put to use in many areas over the coming years! If you’d like to help us pay for this essential item, please contact Dr. Cory Sparks, BGH’s Development Director, at 251.783.1378.
Creating an In-Ground Nursery
Speaking of moving earth, another project recently completed (using the aforementioned tractor) is the creation of an in-ground nursery for our new azalea collection. With our new azalea accessions burgeoning due to the generosity of Maarten Van Der Giessen, we needed a place to plant them—so we can grow them, propagate from them, and evaluate their performance while their cutting-grown progeny grow to a suitable size for adding to the gardens. Jeremy undertook converting an old, unused part of our nursery—the former “East Field”—into this new azalea growing area. Not only was the woven black ground cloth fabric removed, but we also realized that the aged irrigation system for this growing area needed to be completely rebuilt! Jeremy removed the rusted-out metal irrigation pipes and installed a new PVC plastic irrigation system in short order. After this, we tapped into the decades-old pile of compost that had accumulated to the west of the greenhouse range. Jeremy was able to “turn” said compost (with the new Caterpillar tractor) and then blend a whopping 125 cubic yards(!) with the existing soil that had sat for decades underneath the black ground cloth of the former “East Field.” The picture below, which seems to “just” show an area of soil in front of Greenhouse 2, is actually the result of weeks of work undertaken by Jeremy. Pretty soon, we’ll be planting our stock azaleas here, with new soil and new irrigation ready to go!
Looking Forward
These projects are part of our broader master plan, guiding Bellingrath Gardens & Home into its second century. By addressing past maintenance issues and embracing new improvements, we’re excited about the future. We hope you’ll visit us and see these changes for yourself. Your continued support through memberships and donations is invaluable as we move forward.
Visit and Connect with Us
Join the conversation and share your memories of Bellingrath on social media using #BellingrathGardens.
On Saturday, August 5, 1949, a crowd of 500 gathered for a party at Bellingrath Gardens. The occasion was Walter Bellingrath’s 80th birthday, and a news account noted that the 500 were his “personal friends and acquaintances.”
As he looked out at the crowd, he declared, “I bow my head in humbleness.” The Mobile City Commission had presented a resolution designating this “Bellingrath Day.” A letter from famed columnist Dorothy Dix was read aloud, in which she described Mr. Bellingrath as “a prince among men, a very great man who has done a very great work in the world.”
Judge Ben Turner spoke of his friend’s many local accomplishments, including his founding of the Rotary Club of Mobile, Waterman Steamship, Lerio Corporation, and his successful presidency of the Mobile Chamber of Commerce. Best of all, he said, he and the late Bessie Bellingrath had created Bellingrath Gardens purely for the enjoyment of others. And now, those Gardens had attracted over one million visitors since their inception.
Next, his grand-nephew, five-year-old Walter Bellingrath Edgar, pulled a wagon containing 15 silver loving cups to the stage. Judge Turner read the list of donors, and Robert Edington read aloud the inscription on each of the cups.
Walter Edgar at Mr. Bell’s birthday
The crowd then heaped their plates with fried fish and potato salad and enjoyed a memorable birthday lunch. A makeshift tent covered Coca-Cola employees, who handed out hundreds of ice-cold bottles.
At the close of the party, Mr. Bellingrath announced that the Gardens would be open, free of charge, to the general public on Sunday, August 6, which was his actual birthday. Bellingrath Gardens and Home is proud to continue the tradition begun by our founder 85 years ago.
A view of the “boneyard” as it looked in late May 2024, a collection of unused junk and other worn-out items needing to be hauled away.
By Todd Lasseigne Executive Director
I’m sure that some of you, in reading this column, will recall watching Bob Vila on “This Old House” on PBS in the 1980s. It was a show that was ahead of its time in the now-omnipresent “home improvement” genre, and one that left an indelible mark on me. As I’m sure many of you also would feel, there is just something satisfying about cleaning up or restoring a junked-out project or feature.
Well, at over 90 years-old, Bellingrath Gardens & Home has its share of messy areas, accumulated junk, and projects that have been delayed perhaps a tad too many times. This spring and summer, we have begun tackling a couple of these projects, and I find myself invigorated in seeing them progress and be completed.
The Boneyard Transformation
When I came to Bellingrath in 2020, I was made aware by staff of an area known as the “boneyard.” A boneyard, to be precise, represents an area where useful objects are often stored until such time that they can be repurposed. Many old institutions have such places, and many a find of precious objects have occurred in the boneyards of these institutions.
One interesting item that we have in the boneyard is an old fountain that we will utilize in the gardens one day, for instance. Otherwise, though, our boneyard has deteriorated into a junkyard – a catch-all place where virtually anything could be found: discarded, broken wheelchairs, various and sundry bricks and pavers, plywood, plastic stuff, old appliances, etc. I determined from practically my first day on the job that we would clean up this mess. Finally, as of the end of June 2024, I can say that a major portion of it is gone, including a whopping total of 11 junked golf carts and/or people movers!
Restoring the Wooden Fences
Another discovery that I made while wondering the back paths at Bellingrath during my first year on the job was the sad condition of some of our wooden fences. One, in particular, divided public spaces from nonpublic ones near the main parking lot. This fence was set around 3’ above the ground, then extended 6’ upward – an odd design in that you could literally crawl underneath it – but it was planted on the public-facing side with Japanese ligustrums.
The elapse of time had allowed these ligustrums to grow to over 20’ tall – so much so that they were shading our interplanted crape myrtles – and the fence behind them had decayed and rotted such that it was no longer an effective barrier, although it couldn’t really be seen due to the evergreen ligustrum screen.
Never being knowing to ignore a good project waiting to be done, I assigned this task earlier this year to BGH’s Horticulture team. As of late June, I can now say that most of the ligustrums have been cut back to 4’ tall, and the rotted and damaged wood has been removed so that only the supporting beams remain.
A picture of one of our boundary fences, this dividing public areas from non-public spaces, seen while beginning to hard-prune back overgrown Japanese ligustrum plants.
Although this area looks a bit rough right now, the only way to handle this project was to handle it by taking the proverbial bull by its horns. We will be rebuilding the fence in the coming weeks, and the ligustrums will sprout anew and be kept at a manageable height. Three cheers to Bellingrath’s Horticulture team for making this project look easy!
Looking Towards the Future
You may wonder where this is all leading. Well, as of this writing, Bellingrath Gardens & Home is nearing the completion of a physical master plan, one that will guide us forward in the years and decades to come. As a beloved cultural and historical destination and organization, we are taking deliberate and highly purposeful steps to bring us into our second century of existence.
However, before that work can even start, we must acknowledge and confront the accumulation of no-longer-needed items and materials, and we must address deferred maintenance projects. Taken all together, these seemingly unrelated goals – setting forth a future through the master plan and dealing with the past and present through maintenance and clean-up – will propel us forward, and we are excited about this.
We hope that you will feel inspired as you come to Bellingrath and see these improvements, and we hope that you will support our work through your memberships, donations, and advocacy to others.
Visit and Connect with Us
Join the conversation and share your memories of Bellingrath on social media using #BellingrathGardens.
To provide the best experiences, we use technologies like cookies to store and/or access device information. Consenting to these technologies will allow us to process data such as browsing behavior or unique IDs on this site. Not consenting or withdrawing consent, may adversely affect certain features and functions.
Functional
Always active
The technical storage or access is strictly necessary for the legitimate purpose of enabling the use of a specific service explicitly requested by the subscriber or user, or for the sole purpose of carrying out the transmission of a communication over an electronic communications network.
Preferences
The technical storage or access is necessary for the legitimate purpose of storing preferences that are not requested by the subscriber or user.
Statistics
The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for statistical purposes.The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for anonymous statistical purposes. Without a subpoena, voluntary compliance on the part of your Internet Service Provider, or additional records from a third party, information stored or retrieved for this purpose alone cannot usually be used to identify you.
Marketing
The technical storage or access is required to create user profiles to send advertising, or to track the user on a website or across several websites for similar marketing purposes.
Purchase Tickets
