Imagine growing up in a family of gardeners―both of your grandmothers are gardeners, your great aunt is an avid gardener, and your mother and her four sisters love to garden. Imagine spending time in their beautiful flower gardens―season after season―year after year. Imagine hearing them share gardening tips and watching them exchange seeds and plants. Imagine learning to garden at their sides. Imagine the gardens you might be inspired to create!
That’s how it played out for Jim Gibbs, “a firm believer in gardening genes”, who “always had a dream of creating a world-class public garden”. The gardens he was inspired to create are the magnificent, award-winning Gibbs Gardens.
The Gibbs Gardens website quotes Gibbs as saying: “Passing down seeds and plants from generation to generation provides a kind of love that only a gardener understands. I’m sure my three children and eleven grandchildren will enjoy this garden for years to come as I hope the general public will enjoy visiting and viewing the legacy I leave behind.” And what a legacy! The Gardens are spectacular.
Gibbs Gardens are located in Ball Ground, about an hour north of Atlanta Georgia, nestled in the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains. Built on 300+ acres of tree-covered, rolling topography with a “beautiful stream flowing through the middle of the valley”, Gibbs Gardens are “one of the nation’s largest residential estate gardens”.
Views of the Appalachian Mountains are showcased at high points throughout the gardens.
It’s an uncanny coincidence that Gibbs Gardens have been in Georgia for the same length of time I have―13 years. That’s not to say the Gardens magically appeared on opening day in March 2012. In fact, it took Gibbs 30 years to develop the gardens to the stage where they were ready to receive visitors. And the work isn’t over yet―the gardens continue to grow and evolve. It’s one of the reasons I like to visit again and again.
My recent visit to catch the annual Daffodil Festival was the eighth time I travelled to Ball Ground for a day in these splendid gardens. The timing of this visit was perfect―the early and mid-season daffodils were spectacular! There are “20 million+ daffodil flowers, 100+ varieties covering 50+ acres of hillsides and valley”.
“Our daffodil gardens feature two side-by-side hillsides, each flowing down to a valley adjoining the Valley Gardens” explains the website. “We have planted daffodils along each hillside to create a “stream” of daffodils. Each hillside stream is vertically divided in separate, narrower streams based on the color and bloom time of the daffodil varieties.”
“Using four daffodil bulbs per square foot, every group – early, early-mid, mid, mid-late and late – is planted in its own separate stream based on bloom time.” The forms and colors of the different varieties add beauty and interest.
A close look reveals flowers at various stages of blooming―from budding to fully opened to withering.
I’m always on the lookout for unusual and interesting signs (see Everywhere a Sign) so this one―Please Do Not Walk or Sit on Flowers―caught my eye. No sitting on flowers? The reason, I assume, is that visitors love to nestle into the blooms when posing for that perfect Instagram shot.
But daffodils are not the only attraction at Gibbs Gardens. There are “six feature gardens and 18 seasonal color gardens [which] offer unique and continuous delights for garden lovers of all interests”. The below image, highlighting where the daffodils are located, shows only part of the property. Several of the feature gardens―Inspiration Gardens, “Le Jardin” Color Garden and Waterlily Gardens―can also be seen on this map.
The Waterlily Gardens were featured in my previous blog post, The Allure of the Waterlily, from a visit in October 2018. Shown below is Gibbs’ Monet Bridge.
The seasonal color gardens feature a variety of flowers and plants including, for instance, azaleas, daylilies, hydrangeas and roses. There’s also a seasonal color garden called “The Pleasance”―a great word meaning a secluded enclosure or part of a garden. The Pleasance at Gibbs Gardens “is carefully designed to mimic nature … [it] is a destination to amuse, enjoy nature, read a book, gather with others or be alone to write a letter”.
Another seasonal color garden showcases the beloved cherry blossom. It’s no secret I’m a big fan of cherry blossoms having scheduled a trip to Japan around peak blooming season a couple of years ago (see previous blog posts Postcards from Japan #1 and Postcards from Japan #2).
The cherry blossoms were just starting to bloom at Gibbs Gardens during my most recent visit.
But they were at their peak during a previous visit when I took these photos.
Tulips are also highlighted in a springtime, seasonal color garden. As explained on the Gibbs Gardens website, “every December, we plant over 40,000+ tulip bulbs. In the spring, serpentine beds throughout the Gardens come alive with the striking colors of 40 different types of early, mid and late blooming tulips”.
In the visitor’s brochure, Gibbs writes “I always had a dream of creating a world-class public garden. For more than 40 years I designed and developed the land, expanding to 376 acres of landscaped gardens adjacent to spring-fed streams, ponds and lakes, surrounded by hillsides covered with mature woodlands.
With this magnificent scenery as my canvas, I’ve been committed to achieving a balance between natural and man-made elements to create ‘harmony and nature’ throughout Gibbs Gardens. I hope you enjoy visiting the gardens as much as I have enjoyed developing them.”
More Info
Previous blog posts mentioned in this blog post include:
. Everywhere a Sign
. The Allure of the Waterlily
. Postcards from Japan #1
. Postcards from Japan #2.
Gibbs Gardens are located in Ball Ground, Georgia―about an hour north of Atlanta. They were created by Jim Gibbs who is “the retired President and founder of Gibbs Landscape Company, one of Atlanta’s leading landscape companies for more than 40 years”. See the Gibbs Gardens website for more info about these spectacular gardens.
In addition to the Gibbs Gardens website, the following articles and resources were consulted in the writing of this blog post:
. Gibbs Gardens: Family Hobby Shared with World, article by Abigail Blythe Batton, published in The Cherokee Scout in 2022
. Gibbs Gardens New Inspiration Garden video by Garden SMART TV
. The Best Places to See Daffodils this Spring article published in Flower Magazine in 2024
. Various Wikipedia entries.
Today’s Takeaways
1. Don’t underestimate the power of passing knowledge and skills from generation to generation.
2. Gardens grow and evolve―season after season and year after year.
3. Dream big!
