In its fourth year, Atlanta Blooms! at the Atlanta Botanical Garden features nearly 300,000 blooms including tulips—my personal favorite!—daffodils, hyacinths, crocuses, and other bulbs, as well as flowering trees, shrubs and other flowers. It's beyond stunning!
The Atlanta Blooms! exhibition is "March through April". In its inaugural year, there were more specific dates, but the Garden quickly learned that Mother Nature doesn't necessarily follow a specific calendar, not a detailed one anyway.
I've been to Atlanta Blooms! several times this season and yesterday was by far the best of the day's I've been. I went with a friend visiting from Washington, D.C. who had never been to the Atlanta Botanical Garden—which I didn't know until we were almost there—so, it was great fun for me to play tour guide. And they pointed out how much they enjoy my enthusiasm for the Garden. That meant a lot to me.
For this post, I'm going to let you enjoy the photos while I tell a story...the story of why tulips are my favorite flower.
This is a story, that I've been told over the years, of an instance that I don't even remember. I was barely old enough to walk.
My parents had divorced and we were living with my grandmother, Evelyn, or "Granny" as we kids called her. I was two years old and we had moved from Florida to South Carolina, long before my time in Atlanta.
A little about grandmother: Her mother was born on the Cherokee Reservation in North Carolina, so grandmother had dark hair, dark eyes, a Cherokee complexion, and the most incredible cheek bones! She was also a mere 4' 9" tall...she loved to eat—she was an incredible Southern cook!—so, she was also a little Butterball. Adorable!
When you visit the Garden to see Atlanta Blooms!, you quickly realize that the blooms are EVERYWHERE!
They're at the entrance, in the Woodlands, in the Rose Garden, around The Great Lawn, the Perennial Garden, in the Edible Garden...everywhere! So explore at your leisure and enjoy one of the most wonderful respites from the hustle and bustle of city life Atlanta has to offer.
The bulbs of Atlanta Blooms! are gorgeous and are what make the exhibition. But also enjoy the other flowers in the Garden. The cherry trees in front of Mershon Hall are stunning, as are the many, many other flowering trees and shrubs throughout the Garden...and then there's always the visitor-favorite Fuqua Orchid Center.
If you go now, you'll also get to see the wonderful Orchid Daze exhibition. It's up until Sunday, April 13. And remember, the Garden hosts a 'Gently Used Plant Sale' every year after Orchid Daze had finished. This year's Sale is scheduled for Wednesday through Friday, April 16-18.
Watch their website for additional details, or "Like" them on Facebook, which is always a great way to stay in-the-know of happenings at the Garden.
The best advice I can give you, if you can only visit the Garden on one day (again, membership has its benefits, including being able to visit again and again and again), keep an eye on other blooms throughout Atlanta, or even the bulbs planted at the Garden entrance. They'll be a good indicator of what's coming up inside.
BUT...also keep in mind that many of the flowers in the exhibition are planted in such a manner as to give a longer period of varying blossoms. Seriously, if you go every weekend for a month, each visit will be a different experience. That's one of the things I love about the Garden!
Don't miss Atlanta Blooms! It happens but once a year and only at the Atlanta Botanical Garden. I say "only"...but, one of the goals of Atlanta Blooms! is to encourage Atlantans to plant more flowers.
Just imagine if every yard in Atlanta had spring bulbs blooming...beautiful, right? But until then, we have the stunningly beautiful Atlanta Blooms!
The Atlanta Blooms! exhibition is "March through April". In its inaugural year, there were more specific dates, but the Garden quickly learned that Mother Nature doesn't necessarily follow a specific calendar, not a detailed one anyway.
 |
| Atlanta Blooms!, Atlanta Botanical Garden |
I've been to Atlanta Blooms! several times this season and yesterday was by far the best of the day's I've been. I went with a friend visiting from Washington, D.C. who had never been to the Atlanta Botanical Garden—which I didn't know until we were almost there—so, it was great fun for me to play tour guide. And they pointed out how much they enjoy my enthusiasm for the Garden. That meant a lot to me.
 |
| Atlanta Blooms!, Atlanta Botanical Garden |
For this post, I'm going to let you enjoy the photos while I tell a story...the story of why tulips are my favorite flower.
 |
| Atlanta Blooms!, Atlanta Botanical Garden |
This is a story, that I've been told over the years, of an instance that I don't even remember. I was barely old enough to walk.
 |
| Atlanta Blooms!, Atlanta Botanical Garden |
My parents had divorced and we were living with my grandmother, Evelyn, or "Granny" as we kids called her. I was two years old and we had moved from Florida to South Carolina, long before my time in Atlanta.
A little about grandmother: Her mother was born on the Cherokee Reservation in North Carolina, so grandmother had dark hair, dark eyes, a Cherokee complexion, and the most incredible cheek bones! She was also a mere 4' 9" tall...she loved to eat—she was an incredible Southern cook!—so, she was also a little Butterball. Adorable!
 |
| Atlanta Blooms!, Atlanta Botanical Garden |
One Spring, or it might have been late Winter, grandmother's tulips had blossomed and they were beautiful. Then a frost came and wiped out all of them...except for one.
A couple of days later, here comes little Travis walking into the house with said lone tulip in-hand, saying, "Flower, mommy, flower!"
 |
| Atlanta Blooms!, Atlanta Botanical Garden |
How the real story goes, I'll never know, but that's the way I remember it being told over the years. I loved my grandmother very much and miss her dearly.
She wasn't the kind of grandmother that spoiled me rotten or chastised me for the crazy things a younger generation does. She just loved me. She loved me unconditionally and for who I am. Can anyone ask for a more pure love than that?
Tulips are my connection to her now; they always evoke cherished memories of Granny.
 |
| Atlanta Blooms!, Atlanta Botanical Garden |
When you visit the Garden to see Atlanta Blooms!, you quickly realize that the blooms are EVERYWHERE!
They're at the entrance, in the Woodlands, in the Rose Garden, around The Great Lawn, the Perennial Garden, in the Edible Garden...everywhere! So explore at your leisure and enjoy one of the most wonderful respites from the hustle and bustle of city life Atlanta has to offer.
 |
| Atlanta Blooms!, Atlanta Botanical Garden |
The bulbs of Atlanta Blooms! are gorgeous and are what make the exhibition. But also enjoy the other flowers in the Garden. The cherry trees in front of Mershon Hall are stunning, as are the many, many other flowering trees and shrubs throughout the Garden...and then there's always the visitor-favorite Fuqua Orchid Center.
 |
| Atlanta Blooms!, Atlanta Botanical Garden |
If you go now, you'll also get to see the wonderful Orchid Daze exhibition. It's up until Sunday, April 13. And remember, the Garden hosts a 'Gently Used Plant Sale' every year after Orchid Daze had finished. This year's Sale is scheduled for Wednesday through Friday, April 16-18.
Watch their website for additional details, or "Like" them on Facebook, which is always a great way to stay in-the-know of happenings at the Garden.
 |
| Atlanta Blooms!, Atlanta Botanical Garden |
The best advice I can give you, if you can only visit the Garden on one day (again, membership has its benefits, including being able to visit again and again and again), keep an eye on other blooms throughout Atlanta, or even the bulbs planted at the Garden entrance. They'll be a good indicator of what's coming up inside.
BUT...also keep in mind that many of the flowers in the exhibition are planted in such a manner as to give a longer period of varying blossoms. Seriously, if you go every weekend for a month, each visit will be a different experience. That's one of the things I love about the Garden!
Don't miss Atlanta Blooms! It happens but once a year and only at the Atlanta Botanical Garden. I say "only"...but, one of the goals of Atlanta Blooms! is to encourage Atlantans to plant more flowers.
Just imagine if every yard in Atlanta had spring bulbs blooming...beautiful, right? But until then, we have the stunningly beautiful Atlanta Blooms!
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