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Bellingrath Home
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Walter Bellingrath bought this land as a fishing camp. He
bought a Coca-Cola bottling franchise in 1907 and made his fortune with them.
Bessie Bellingrath started to develop
gardens around the camp in 1927. In
April, 1932 she put an ad in the Mobile newspaper inviting folks to see her
garden on a Sunday Afternoon, 4700 people showed up. A gatehouse was created
and in 1934 the gardens were opened up permanently. In 1935, they built their
15 room home here. The home is still furnished with the original furniture.
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Greenhouse
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We arrived on National Public Gardens Day, just in time for
a tour of their greenhouses. The budget for the gardens is over $3 million
dollars annually. The green houses grow the plants that will be on display in
the gardens 4-9 months from now. We had quite an explanation about how they
grow mums to create the walls and globes of mums they decorate with in
November. This requires them to light up their green houses in the middle of
the night to fool the mums into continuing to green up until they create their
displays in October. After the green houses we did the tour of the grounds and
the house tour. As we left the house, it was pouring rain, cutting short our
visit. We had planned to visit one of the historic districts in Mobile, but
after getting soaked in the rain, perhaps another time.
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Bayou walk in the Gardens
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