A PASSION for AZALEAS

A story of devotion is planted amid the blooms of Bellingrath Gardens

- BY CAROLINE ROGERS

To see the AZALEAS, you'll have to drive south, farther south even than Mobile, to a tiny town called Theodore, Alabama. There, wisteria laces the tops of ancient oaks, their limbs sleeved in resurrection ferns and dripping mosses. Palm trees peek from behind houses. Flower beds go Technicolor. It’s spring, and everything is waking up. Once you pass the signs for Theodore, billboards beckon you to venture even farther—only then will you reach Bellingrath Gardens & Home, one of the state’s most beautiful places.

Beyond the entrance, flashes of pink wink beneath the trees. Although Bellingrath welcomes visitors year-round, azalea season lights up the grounds like no other. Take any of the curving paths through the property’s 65 acres, and you’ll find thick walls of blossoms reaching up and over in every possible shade: magenta, coral, fuchsia, cotton candy, blush, salmon, ruby, and cream. Small blooms and large ones—more than 250,000—mingle in the hedges, their branches heavy with sun-dappled petals. They look as if they’ve always been there. The flowers go back nearly a century, and it’s a love story for the ages.

THE BEGINNINGS OF BELLINGRATH

"Doctors will tell you that if you listen to a patient long enough, they'll tell you exactly what's wrong with them," explains Tom McGehee, the director of Bellingrath Gardens & Home. Its namesake, Walter Bellingrath, was one of the first Coca-Cola bottlers in Alabama, and he was notoriously close with his money.