Azalea Time at Calloway Gardens

March 27, 2018

I'm loving having an annual pass for Calloway Gardens.  It is only 14 miles away, has great bike trails through the woods and to all the gardens, and every visit is different. As usual, most of my days off were rainy or very cloudy, but on Tuesday the sun started playing peek-a-boo with the clouds and the light got pretty.  So I grabbed my camera and water and headed to Calloway, after hearing that their azaleas were reaching peak bloom.

When I reached the Garden entrance, I had to stop to take the native azaleas blooming. I think they are the yellow and flame ones, native here.  I also took shots of other ones in the woods just past the entrance, all before reaching the pay area.

Flame and yellow azaleas at the Garden entrance

Piedmont Azalea

I knew one of the areas of the park is called the Azalea Bowl.  It is adjacent to the woods and lake where the chapel is located. So I drove to the greenhouse parking lot and hiked up the bike trail to the Bowl, with many stops for pictures.

Love the delicacy of these

I loved both the color and form of these - they felt like infant blooms

I admired this spray of dogwood

Finally, about fifteen uphill minutes later, I walked through the gate to the Azalea Bowl. From there is is all down hill back to the car.

At the beginning of the Azalea Bowl

Service Viburnum was also in bloom

I took way too many portraits of sprays of Piedmont Azaleas

Closeup of yellow azaleas

As I got down to an arm of the lake, the planting got denser

These were the colors of apple blossoms

Another bloom set too pretty to pass up

I wondered why one little bud hadn't decided to bloom yet

These felt like music

The view across the lake - the bridge leads to the chapel

This bloom mimicked an amaryllis I once received for Easter  

Just aborning 

One of a patch of rain lilies who were happy for the previous two rainy days

I walked back to the car and drove around, enjoying the natural area where the azaleas are naturalized throughout the woods. Then I arrived at the area where you can rent boats or bikes.  Up the hill is the overlook gardens. The last time I was here they were pretty boring.  But today they were packed with blooming azaleas. This was the most dramatic area. 

You have to cross a stream to reach this garden

Almost every plant was in full bloom

Every few steps, I had to take more pictures

The path was up steps through tightly packed plants

One of the most densely planted areas was at the far end of this garden where you had an overlooking deck to look down on the plant growing downhill to the lake.  

Red Japanese maples added another layer of texture and color

I couldn't resist this one little flower among its siblings still in bud 

Just another view through the pines

I spent a lot time chasing these bumblebees - there was also another smaller species I couldn't catch at all

I didn't want this path to end

I stopped to admire these ripe maple seeds.  They are just starting to helicopter away

This is one of the saucer magnolias.  It was almost the last bloom on the tree

This was one of two Lady Banksia roses - the other was trained into a tree

I came home tired and happy and ready to finish up my Island Garden.

Happy Easter.

And for my birding friends, I got FOS ruby throated hummingbird here today, and we got a green heron in on March 28. I'm hearing some warbler song I can't identify and haven't located the bird (s). Spring migration is underway