In North Georgia, Gibbs Gardens is a delightful destination for a day’s outing. Mr. Gibbs started his gardens in 1980 on his 300-acre private family estate, and then opened them to the public in 2012 as a fully mature gardens. His dream was to create a world-class public garden, which he did with his 220 acres of landscaped gardens next to spring-fed steams, ponds, and lakes. Hillsides covered with mature woodlands surround the gardens. We decided to get a membership this year so we could see the gardens with their different looks. With 2 trips this fall (pictures from each trip at the end of this post), we’ve finished seeing changes in the gardens throughout the year. I’m not sure I could choose my favorite time to come.
Welcome to Gibbs Gardens
A late July visit is for the crape myrtles and knockout roses.
One of the Gibbs Landscape trucks we see everywhere.
visit 1 – mid-March
Our first visit to the gardens this year was 2 days in mid-March after it opened for the rest of the year. The draw that brought us here was to see the 50 acres of daffodils with more than 20 million flowers blooming until mid-April.
daffodils
and more daffodils
and even more daffodils
These yellow and white daffodils are in bloom.
This is the private home of Mr. and Mrs. Gibbs, but they let us enjoy the beautiful flowers around it and the pool. The summer house is on the left.
These crepe myrtle trees are ready to bloom this summer. Can’t wait. We’ve seen them in bloom in other years.
visit 2 – early April
A couple of weeks after our first visit, we returned to see more of the daffodils in bloom but were greeted with other plants that we weren’t expecting.
Flower beds greeted us when we walked to the entrance to the gardens.
Colorful flowers of different varieties made a lovely entrance to the gardens.
While we came for the daffodils, we had our breath taken away by the tulips in bloom. I’m partial to these lovely pink tulips.
The first walkway in the gardens splits to take us on both sides of the first pond. Blooming Japanese maples welcomed us to the gardens.
Mr. Gibbs designed 24 ponds, 32 bridge crossings, and 19 waterfalls to bring water to the gardens. Hundreds of plant varieties are carved into pockets of rooms surrounded by acres of deciduous trees that will provide color next fall when we come.
daffodils on the hillside
The mountain view site has chairs for visitors to use so they can enjoy the vista.
later blooming daffodils up close
Love the light green of the first look of trees as they’re getting ready for spring.
A curved view of tulips. See the statue in the bottom left? Mr. Gibbs has statues of all of his grandchildren throughout the gardens. The crepe myrtle trees behind the tulips haven’t bloomed yet.
other spring flowers in bloom reminding us of Easter colors
The Gibbs’ home is 150 feet above the water gardens and 30 feet below the crest of the mountain, so it captures the air currents to flow through the summer house.
Walking up the hill to the house took us back and forth by paths of flowers like these.
a bed of tulips
early flowers in bloom
pot arrangements along the pathway
As we were leaving, we saw this sign for river birches
All of these birch trees by the river are ready to show off. I’ll take pictures of them on other visits.
visit 3 –late April/early May
Our visit at the end of April/beginning of May was highlighted by azaleas, hillside rhododendrons, hydrangeas in bloom, ferns, and early plantings in the newly opened Inspiration Garden.
Why this picture? He’s pointing us toward the primary parking lot. In previous trips we were directed up the hill to overflow parking.
Every time we come, the entrance features flowers currently in bloom. Today we get pansies, my sorority flower.
entrance walkway
basket arrangements
pansies in full bloom
Time to walk up the hill to the rhododendrons.
Ready to walk uphill with us?
rhododendrons
more rhododendrons
and more rhododendrons
and even more rhododendrons
rhododendron flower up close—so beautiful
red rhododendrons
As we walked by the Gibbs home that’s further up the hill, we saw this beautiful lawn that would be perfect for rolling down. Oh well.
Inspiration Garden
All of the gardens we’ve been able to see were fully mature when the gardens opened, but Inspiration Gardens shows us what a newly planted garden looks like. The posted information says that wheelchairs and motorized chairs shouldn’t be used on the paths because of the hills, but this lady said she had no problems.
Let’s go to the gardens.
our initial view
azaleas
pathway with newly planted azaleas
pink azaleas
red azaleas
pink varieties of azaleas
curved plantings along the path
dwarf conifers
One of the highlights of Inspiration Gardens is the collection of dwarf conifers that Mr. Gibbs had planted here.
dwarf conifer
more dwarf conifers
and more dwarf conifers
and even more dwarf conifers
last look at dwarf conifers
Japanese Gardens
More than 40 acres in this area of the Gibbs Gardens has spring-fed ponds, islands, bridges, boulders, rocks, and 40 handcrafted Japanese lanterns.
reflection pond
Ferns were everywhere. These are along the spring-fed stream.
a hydrangea in bloom
The blossoms are large.
Mom and dad outside their home under the tree. If these statues have special meaning for you, I’m sorry if my words are insensitive. I was just drawn to this view.
tree in bloom along the spring-fed pond
boulders and plants surrounding the pond
promise of what’s to come
These early rose blossoms promise what is to come. Can’t wait to show you more when we visit again.
The river birch are starting to fill in with their leaves.
good-bye for today
The last sign as we leave the park is marketing for landscaping services for Gibbs Landscape. Their trucks are all around metro-Atlanta. This sign always makes me chuckle.
visit 4 –late June
This trip to Gibbs Gardens features day lilies and hydrangeas. We were also hoping for roses and crape myrtles, but guess we’ll have to wait for our next visit.
container flowers greeted us
This sculpture always catches my eye.
Arbor Café has a wonderful chicken salad sandwiches that we share each time we come.
Tables are now out in the dining area. Before just the chairs were available for when we wanted to eat.
day lilies
The volunteer at the entrance said some 350,000 day lilies were planted of 200 varieties. We were in awe of the beauty of these plants and the variety; we had no idea there were so many. First we’ll look at the beds of day lilies, and then we’ll look at individual plants
path to the day lilies
first view of day lilies
straight line beds
and curved beds
day lilies around crape myrtle
more curved beds
These were some of the largest day lilies we saw.
The beauty of the beds of day lilies reminded us of the tulips we saw in early May this year at the Tulip Festival in Holland, Michigan,
Now let’s look at some of the varieties. I’ve grouped them by colors.
white
white with yellow inside
bright yellow
yellow with red circle inside
red with yellow stripes
close up of red with yellow stripes—these were our favorite
coral
light pink
pink
darker pink
close up of darker pink
purple with yellow
coral and purple
purple and white with purple edging
crape myrtle and roses
Here’s what is in bloom today.
The shorter crape myrtle in front is in bloom, but the larger one behind it isn’t.
A volunteer told us that 1 round of roses have bloomed . . .
so hopefully we can catch the next round.
hydrangeas
The last time we came to Gibbs Gardens, most of the hydrangeas were in bloom, but this time we got to see even more. The day lilies and hydrangeas are on different sides of the gardens so we got our walking in.
hanging white hydrangeas
blue
pink and blue
white
blue around a bench
pathway with hydrangeas on both sides
These hydrangeas are so big and so beautiful. Each curve along the pathways is a delight.
impatience
As we got closer to the Gibbs home on the hill, we saw these beds of impatience.
Finally we found someone to take our picture.
river birch
The river birch . . .
have leafed out completely.
We look forward to coming back in late July for the crape myrtle and roses.
visit 5 – late July
We had been hesitant about visiting Gibbs Gardens this week because the temperatures and the humidity had been so high all week. But when we got here early on a Friday morning, it was overcast and cool for most of the time we were walking around. Such a gift of weather for our morning of exploring.
One of the most photographed areas in the gardens is this pond in front of a Monet-style bridge.
bridge from a distance
Here’s a view of the bridge up close and the waterlilies floating in the pond.
This statue of flying geese is between the 2 ponds.
These borders of impatience . . .
greeted us as we started walking along the paths.
roses
Sometimes the roses are set off by themselves . . .
roses on a hillside
roses on a curve making a walkway
and other times the roses are intermixed with the crape myrtle.
The pink crape myrtles seem to be the youngest ones here in the gardens, but with Barney in front of them, you can still see their height and breadth.
This is one of my favorite pictures of all I’ve taken here this year with the pink crape myrtle flowers and the pink roses.
Margie in front of some young trees.
Pink myrtle trees in front and larger white myrtle trees behind them.
Do you remember this picture from our previous visit to see the day lilies?
This is the same view, but now the crape myrtles are in bloom and the day lilies are ready to be cleaned out.
Finally we found some of the largest and oldest pink crape myrtles in the gardens.
a view of the path between the rows of trees
On the other side of the gravel path are some large white crape myrtles.
As we kept walking into the gardens, we saw this view of some crape myrtle trees in the distance.
These are the same trees closer up with yellow day lilies in front of them still in bloom.
a narrow walkway between the rows of trees
crape myrtle blossom up close
a wider walkway between other crape myrtles
Barney walking along the path between the trees.
more roses planted close to the crape myrtles
with the larger white crape myrtles behind them
curved rows of roses in front of the trees
closer look at the roses
The tall white crape myrtles behind these roses create a dark pathway, and we’re halfway down this long row of white crape myrtles.
We took a couple of walks around the gardens to make sure we hadn’t missed any view. Luckily the Arbor Café was open so we could share a sandwich again between our walks. At the back of the gardens was a roped-off area that was being worked on. Wonder what they’re doing in this area. After walking around and lunch, it was time to head home.
As we were walking out, we saw this waterfall that we’d missed the previous times to the gardens.
And we enjoyed this view of the potted arrangements on the bridge to the parking lot. Love the sunflowers in the distance.
visit 6 – mid-October
About a month after fracturing my shoulder when I was given the okay to walk around without my sling, we decided to take another trip to the gardens to see what was in bloom. Walking around this way for a couple of hours–up hill and down–almost did me in, but the sights were worth it. Today’s highlights are knockout roses and wildflowers.
The stage in front of the picnic tables had this wonderful sight of autumn beauty.
The crape myrtle pathways show how much of the blossoms have already died away.
This view is one we’ve seen a number of times with day lilies in the foreground and crape myrtle in the distance. Our son Jason joined us for the day as he and Barney are walking along the path.
The knockout roses are a delight to see.
more roses
close up of pink and red roses
Then we came to our first view of the wildflowers.
such a beautiful mixture of flowers
This butterfly is enjoying the wildflowers too.
This is the entrance to the fenced-off area we saw the last time we were here. Now it’s full of wildflowers.
The wildflowers follow the curvature of the hillside.
Isn’t this a beautiful view?
My favorite are the purple shades of the wildflowers.
More land is available for planting.
The terraces in the hillsides are lovely.
Beehives are capturing the nectar from the wildflowers.
Japanese garden
As we left the wildflowers, we found the Japanese garden again.
We loved this view of the water through the branches.
These miniature statues in front of the dwarf tree are my favorite.
The weeping willow is a nice contrast to the other trees.
visit 7 – mid-November
Our mid-November visit to Gibbs Gardens was highlighted by the Japanese red maples.
This beautiful view of the gardens started in the parking lot.
These bushes were along the river birch as we entered the gardens.
Here’s another view of the river birch without their leaves; it’s been fun to track the leaves sprouting and then coming in throughout the year.
And then we saw our first tree with its color. Finally we’re getting to see fall color.
This stream runs by the cafe that we enjoy for lunch. The red of the Japanese maple always catches my eye.
Many of the Japanese maples are in among the other trees.
So much color along the stream.
Some of the Japanese maples had these lacy leaves; they look so delicate.
And then we saw this yellow Japanese maple—so unusual (for us).
As we were starting to walk toward the front of the gardens, we saw color on both sides of the path.
Barney found this canopy of Japanese maples.
And then, of course, the Monet bridge with the colors reflecting in the small lake.
So sad to say good-bye to Gibbs Gardens for this year, but we certainly have enjoyed our visits in different seasons. The nice thing is that we know we can come back whenever we want to!
