A very unexpected blossom from our White Star White Magnolia in the middle of February!

Every spring I look forward to seeing the one flowering tree I have behind my house come into its own.  With just a bit of nudging, my glorious White Star White Magnolia bursts forth before any other of its kin have even awakened from winter slumber.

Our damaged tree that doesn’t know what season it is!

But not this year.  You see, winter in our place of residence, Knoxville, Tennessee, was just downright warm: higher than normal temps in December followed by bursts of January winter with spring-like interludes sprinkled willy nilly onto the calendar.  And February couldn’t make up its mind either.

Damaged by frost, our White Star White Magnolia that bloomed too early.

Our White Star White Magnolia was confused.  Buds browned out.  Gentle petals drooped and then dropped. And not a single branch on the tree could decide what season it was even on a week-to-week basis.

But today is different.  A few remaining, unscathed buds opened, albeit ever so slowly — as if they wanted to test the air just a wee bit to see if conditions were right for revealing  their tender green middles.

An unseasonable beauty!

And then the gentle rains came, bathing those few-and-far-between tendrils in luscious spring-like drops.

A rain-drenched bud ready to open.

Who knows what season this is?  Certainly not our White Star White Magnolia.

A rare bit of morning sunlight on our unseasonable but beautiful White Star White Magnolia blossom.

For more great WordPress photos, check out the Weekly Photo Challenge: Seasons.

The stately wooded gardens of Dr. Alan Solomon

Perhaps one of the most magnificent areas in the Knoxville area, Dr. Alan Solomon’s gardens opens up a forest of greenery in an elegant fairyland setting.  More than 20 acres have been developed by Dr. Solomon who had little horticultural and landscaping experience prior to purchasing the land in 1971.  Now, with the addition of hundreds of wildflowers, coniferous and deciduous trees, and native plantings combined with over 700 tons of rock forming streams and waterfalls, the garden is a blend of natural and planned landscaping in a lush secret garden setting. It’s no wonder that this Knoxville treasure, Dr. Solomon’s garden, has been included in the Smithsonian Institution’s Archives of American Gardens,

As we arrived on the designated Dogwood Arts Featured Gardens visitation days, Dr. Solomon greeted each guest in the parking lot.  And then in his soft-spoken voice, he directed the soon-to-be-amazed visitors to areas of interest, pointing the way on a carefully marked map he had designed. As we walked the property, tall trees formed archways through which we could look down and discover new areas.  Waterfalls added sound to the otherwise quiet surroundings. And all our senses were restored by the peacefulness and natural beauty.

But there was also humor to be found in this stillness.  Life-size frogs kept watchful eyes over the comings and goings of visitors or busied themselves with needed repairs.

The pinnacle of our tour, however, was the sight of Dr. Solomon’s home.  Named GATOP (God’s Answer to Our Prayers), the vast hillside property and the craftsman-style home afford the owners a spectacular view from the front lawn.  Artwork blends in — enhancing the view and offering new textures and forms to complement carefully planned areas.

Lovely craftsman-style home of Dr. Alan Solomon blends in with its surroundings.

Tall sculpture strategically placed to capture the view from the front lawn of Dr. Solomon’s home.

With its elegant twists and turns, this sculpture on the front lawn leads the eye beyond to a glimpse of Knoxville from the front lawn of Dr. Solomon’s home.

A tiny frog perches on the porch of Dr. Alan Solomon’s home with the gardens in the background

It’s not hard to find solace here.  But it’s also not difficult to see that the work of Dr. Solomon and many others have improved on the natural “good bones” of the land.  In some places, we couldn’t decide if gardens were built around art or art was placed in a planned garden. We had no idea what came first. Nor did it matter.  The whole was prettier than the sum of its parts.

Carefully placed sculpture enhances the natural beauty of Dr. Solomon’s gardens

After thanking Dr. Solomon for the opportunity to walk through the garden areas and stand quietly on his front porch, we asked if we could get a picture.  The camera-shy garden enthusiast allowed us to snap him at play with the dogs who have traversed the land so often right alongside him.  A beautiful day.  In a beautiful setting. We felt grateful to have been there.

Dr. Alan Solomon with his faithful companions

For more information on the Open Gardens and Featured Gardens during Dogwood Arts Festival 2015, click here.

For all of the posts on this year’s festival, click here.

This concludes our series on Dogwood Arts Festival 2015.  We hope you enjoyed touring Knoxville at one of the prettiest times of the year.  Please make plans to come see us in 2016 — the dogwoods and the arts and the gardens will be right here!

Bert and Rusha Sams

The woodland home and garden of Suzie Hall.

One word could pretty much sum up the garden of Suzie Hall in South Knoxville: woodsy.  One of the many Dogwood Arts Open Gardens that allowed visitors to roam freely through a private space during the Dogwood Arts Festival designated times, Suzie’s garden is unique for its shade gardening opportunities and natural elements like boulders, tall trees, and a stream running through it.  I might have missed this garden had it not been for Suzie herself visiting the nearby property of Tom Boyd and Sandi Burdick.  She introduced herself to me and then insisted I come see her place.  So glad she did.

Lovely, woodsy pathway to the second house on the property of Suzie Hall.

Suzie’s woodsy garden with its natural, almost uncontrolled pathways holds plants of choice but also “keepers,” those tiny pop-up plants that sometimes get a toe-hold and stay on ’til the owner deems the keeper an invasion.  Suzie said she welcomes all plants — the more the merrier.  So the garden has evolved — a balance of free-spirited plants and intentional ones.

My first sight after parking remains one of the delights of the trip — the sight of a hand-built cabin nestled into that peaceful, woodsy setting. My husband had to move that cabin three times, Suzie said.  And each time, he dismantled it, reconstructed it, and asked if we were done.  But he had it facing the “wrong” way (She smiled.) so he did it over — three times — til he got it just right.  And I just love it.

Focal point of Suzie Hall’s garden — this hand-built cabin, moved to this spot and reconstructed.

Together, we roamed the pathways that Suzie and her husband had carved out of the property. Everywhere native plants like shade-loving hostas, ground covers, and perennials as well as bulbs and giveaways from neighbors and friends thrived —  a happy, harmonious mix of lush greenery dotted with floral surprises.

The couple had built two houses in keeping with the surroundings and almost a dead match for the original old cabin on the property but with modern conveniences. Expansive decks allow for coffee time.  And contemplation.  And rest.

Large decks allow for quiet time at the home of Suzie Hall.

At the sound of water flowing over a smooth expansion of rock, I paused to bend down and look into the cave beneath.  What a find this property must have been!

A waterfall runs over a mossy boulder. And underneath is a long, low-ceilinged cave.

Suzie’s love for woodland adornments is evident at every turn.  A bottle tree here, birdhouses there.  She pokes plants into found containers like old boots and whatever else comes her way.

It’s no wonder that on the Saturday afternoon of my visit, a photographer and her assistants were busy at work, focusing lights and setting up woodsy vignettes, backdrops for Prom pictures.  Who wouldn’t want to hold the object of one’s affection in such a lovely place?

Couple dressed for the Prom pose for pictures in front of the springtime azaleas in Suzie Hall’s garden.

Thanks to the Dogwood Arts Festival Open Gardens committee for finding this natural, woodsy garden.  And thanks to the owner/gardener Suzie Hall for allowing so many garden enthusiasts to enjoy it.

The natural garden of Suzie Hall

For a listing of the Open Gardens participants and camera sites for 2015, click here.

And do you have a preference in gardens?  Loosely structured?  Controlled plantings?  We’d love to hear about your love of gardens — just leave us a comment.

Rusha and Bert Sams

The welcoming view of the grounds at the home of Tom Boyd and Sandi Burdick in South Knoxville.

A naturally occurring creek runs through the acreage surrounding the home, but Tom and Sandi have created ponds, added bridges and waterfalls, and manicured the grounds to provide a view that you would never know was here if you hadn’t visited them.  Tom also introduced guests to his dog who seems right at home among the hostas!

Checking out the guests from the comfort of Sandi’s garden!

According to Tom, Sandi is the mastermind behind the gardens on either side of the house.  Notable for the curved beds and meandering stream, Sandi’s gardens offer a variety of perennials and hostas in various stages of bloom and maturity. Featured in Fine Gardening magazine, the waterfall garden was also used as the cover.  (Source: Dogwood Arts Featured Gardens)

A waterfall at the top of the hillside and the various textures of the hostas add interest to this garden to the right of the main house of Tom Boyd and Sandi Burdick.

You could almost hear the quiet, the peacefulness of this garden.  In hushed tones, guests wandered around slowly, pointing out various plants and reading the markers Sandi had added for easy identification. Surprises such as little houses and joyful statues could be found tucked among the plantings.

In another area near the waterfall garden, Oriental sculptures blended in with the towering shoots of bamboo and ornamental grasses.

To me, the most appealing aspects of this garden are the many native plants neatly clumped and secured for growing in their designated spaces.  It’s that master’s touch so evident in gardens where the gardener stakes out curved beds, forms intentional pathways, and makes places for everything with everything in its place.  Neat.  Tidy.  Yet natural and free-flowing.  Beauty at every turn.

Beautiful pathway with plantings by Sandi Burdick

An area of perennials, iris and birdhouses

Stone pathway leading to another garden area at the home of Tom Boyd and Sandi Burdick

At the end of the tour, Sandi posed with Suzie Hall whose South Knoxville garden had been open for a couple of weeks as one of the designated Open Gardens of the Dogwood Arts Festival.  Rusha, insisted Suzie, you have to come see my garden, too.  It’s just up the street from here.  And today’s the last day it’s open.  Well, what else but YES could I say to an invitation like that?

Gardeners Sandi Burdick and Suzie Hall of South Knoxville

So look for the next post as we continue our garden tour through some of Knoxville’s finest! Or just scroll back through these lovely images from the peaceful gardens of Tom Boyd and Sandi Burdick.  We all need a respite now and then.

The happy garden of Sandi Burdick

For more information: 2015 Dogwood Arts Featured Gardens

To see the previous post — Lane Hays’s Garden: Dogwood Arts Featured Gardens 2015 — click here.

Greeting visitors at the entrance to Lane Hays’s garden were Dogwood Arts Featured Gardens volunteers.

Although it’s been several years since we last visited the lovely gardens of Lane Hays, we relished the thought of spending quiet time roaming this extensive lakeside property artfully enhanced by Lane’s vision and creativity.  Set on the banks of Fort Loudon Lake in Knoxville, the gardens were begun in 1992 using natural elements of a marble quarry located on the property.  Now, the additions of a cottage garden, rose garden, moon garden, and newly added waterfall features in the back of the property make this a Southern showplace.

From the front of the house, the lake beckons.  Visitors to the property catch glimpses of the water from the planted gardens as well as pathways to the house.  And the walks along the way offer the peacefulness and serenity that typify Lane’s property in both the front and back of her home.

Cottage Garden

Featuring a variety of perennials and annuals in raised beds, the garden has a looseness about it even with careful planning.  Stepping stones, garden statuary, and birdhouses stand among the flowers bordered by picket fencing.  Pebble pathways lead you through the garden with many of the perennials identified by markers.

Rose Garden and Moon Garden

Although only one solitary rose showed its colors for the tour, Lane assured us that by Mother’s Day the fragrance of many varieties of roses will fill the air.  Notable about this garden created in 1996: labels for each variety and an arrangement of plantings that invites leisurely strolling. Also waiting for later spring to show its creamy blossoms was the west-facing moon garden, planted only with white flowers in order to catch the light of the moon as it casts a soft glow on the blooms.

Back Property

Lane led us through the old ornamental iron gate to the back of the extensive property where we were greeted by a stone frog (bought at auction, Lane said) dipping a fishing line into the pond. After walking the pathways we remembered from a previous visit, Lane gave us a tour of the “new” area just completed within the last year.  She’s added a stone bridge, re-positioned massive boulders, and created a formidable waterfall over a previously hidden rock face.  Quite the work of art.

Lane Hays’s backyard garden makes an indelible impression:  deep woods, native and acquired trees, shade-loving plants, and rushing waterfalls.  A respite for anyone touring the gardens that day.

Cathy Greenberg and Lane Hays enjoying the Dogwood Arts Featured Garden event

But then all of Lane’s gardens are impressive.  So glad she was open!

For more information:  Dogwood Arts 2015 Featured Open Gardens

Signaling spring’s arrival, this full-bloom redbud tree stands out agains the white exterior of Cherokee Country Club in Knoxville.

Although the highly anticipated white dogwood blooms (stars of Dogwood Arts Festival 2015) are making progress, they’re still in the half-open, pale green stage.  Lovely, but not in full bloom.  That’s just the way it is here in East Tennessee. You’re blessed with redbuds sporting their characteristic purplish blooms first.  And then the dogwood show begins.

We usually catch our first sight of redbuds as we’re driving along the interstate — their wispy, pinkish branches poking out among the new green of trees along I-40. But because we’ve lived in Knoxville since 1963 and have traversed every Dogwood Trail in the city, we’ve always associated the South Knoxville Trail, this year’s featured trail, with a profusion of redbuds.

I headed out to what I thought would be the mother lode — Red Bud Road — not far off Chapman Highway.  But either I was too late to catch the show in a subdivision usually robed in purplish pink at festival time, or something has happened to the redbuds this year. They just weren’t open for viewing.

My best bet for viewing full finery actually appeared on the high-traffic corridors.  So back to Chapman Highway for a stunning tree at Berry Funeral Home, winner of a city Beautification Award.

Redbud tree in full bloom at Berry Funeral Home, Chapman Highway

Another old, old tree stood proudly beside the former Kern’s Bakery building (now empty) which has recently been purchased.  (Renovation — and an exciting new venue — is coming, I’m told.)

Former Kern’s Bakery building looks ready for the festival with the classy, old redbud in full bloom.

It was not until I headed home detouring through Sequoyah Hills down Cherokee Boulevard that I spotted these prime redbud trees lining the walking path.

Redbuds lining the walking trail on Cherokee Boulevard.

So I pulled over to photograph the rows of redbuds on the trail and this tree, centerpiece of a lovely garden spot in front of a historic home.

Lovely purple branches grace this garden spot on Cherokee Boulevard.

No wonder people love early-blooming redbud trees.  For color, stateliness, and delicate (albeit ephemeral) blooms, redbuds make elegant additions to any landscape. And for us, they herald the coming of spring with the festival’s signature dogwoods right behind.

If redbuds are in bloom, can dogwoods be far behind?

Just another reason to visit Knoxville at Dogwood Arts Festival time.  But come early. Redbuds are ready.

For more information:

Dogwood Arts Festival: http://www.dogwoodarts.com/

“Cercis canadensis, eastern redbud.” Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cercis_canadensis

Garden Conservatory, Gaylord Opryland Resort & Convention Center

Stay calm?  At the Gaylord Opryland Resort & Convention Center?  Is that not an oxymoronic question in itself?  With 2,711 guest rooms and 171 suites on six floors, you would think it an impossibity to indulge in rest and relaxation. Especially when an event such as the conference I attended last week —  Learning Forward 2014 —  brought together 3,600 educators in 600,000 square feet of meeting space.

But yes, you can stay calm. And relaxed.  And enthralled.  You just have to know where to go in this magical, multi-space resort where gardens flow harmoniously into well-appointed living spaces.

First, ask for a balcony room in the Delta wing of the hotel so you have a view of the Garden Conservatory, an architecturally beautiful space with a glass ceiling open to the sky.

Glass ceiling, lush greenery — view from my balcony room and the Garden Conservatory

Swing open the door to your balcony and enjoy the lush greenery that awaits you — palm trees, ferns, manicured shrubs and, at this time of year, massive plantings of pink and white and red poinsettias.

Banks of pink poinsettias line the area near a waterfall in the Garden Conservatory

Watch as people take pictures of family members near the light-bedecked gazebo . . .

Mom captures her husband and child at the decorated gazebo in the Garden Conservatory

or climb into one of the boats meandering the waters and listen while a guide selects other features of this indoor paradise to share with you.

Riding the Delta Riverboat through the waters of at Gaylord Opryland Hotel

Indulge in the sights of balconies aglow from ceiling-hung strands of twinkly lights . . .

Balcony rooms all aglow with the light of streetlamps and thousands of twinkly lights

or stand in front of the all-red poinsettia tree and take a selfie for your Christmas card!

A popular spot for pictures — the red poinsettia tree in the Garden Conservatory

Second, just sit a spell on your own balcony and notice how others are enjoying the privacy even in this full-to-capacity resort.  You might want to pamper yourself with a massage right on your balcony or just share early-morning coffee with your roommate.

Early-morning coffee on the balcony — Gaylord Opryland Resort

But if you choose to roam, you can still remain calm.  Bring your walking shoes and “hike” the walkways above the gardens.

Hiking the gardens on one of the long walkways above the flora and fauna

Look down at the restaurants yet to open . . .

The calm before opening — Ravello, one of the restaurants in the Garden Conservatory

or the shopping areas where people gather but you hardly hear them.

View from above of the shopping areas in Gaylord Opryland Resort

You may opt for sipping coffee in front of the waterfalls just as my roommate Terry Frost of Knoxville did and plan your day.  Will it be shopping? picture-taking? attending a conference? or simply “staying put” in one of America’s premier resorts?

Enjoying her coffee and the calm of the Conservatory — Terry Frost of Knoxville

Whatever you choose to do at the Gaylord Opryland Resort & Convention Center, rest assured that you can be hurried and active or calm and relaxed.  The choice is up to you!

Colorfully decorated trees seem to be everywhere at Gaylord Opryland Resort!

For more information:

Gaylord Opryland Resort & Convention Center

2800 Opryland Drive, Nashville, TN 37214

615-889-1000

Website: http://www.marriott.com/hotels/travel/bnago-gaylord-opryland-resort-and-convention-center/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/gaylordoprylandresort

If you go:

• Book early.  Space fills up quickly, especially if there is a convention at the hotel.
• Ask for a balcony room, if it fits within your budget.  It’s worth it!
• Check out the restaurants and early-morning coffee places.  Lines get long as walkers roam the hotel early and then stop for a pastry and coffee.
• If you go at Christmas, check out the over 2 million lights and the lovely nativity in the Magnolia entryway.  Carriage rides are available.  (Access blog post here.)

Blooming behind the screened porch, early April: White Star White Magnolia

From the tree in the side yard, mid April: White Dogwoods

And climbing up our mailbox in May: White Clematis 

So, travel to Knoxville, Tennessee, for great whites.  And to see more blossoms bustin’ out all over, click here.

Travel theme: Blossom.

First, consider nature.  Daffodils and tulips begin the show; then dogwoods burst forth in Knoxville, jump-starting the Dogwood Arts Festival.  Right after that, the Tennessee state flower — the iris — makes its appearance. We toured a friend’s garden this weekend, marveling at the show of white, peach, lavender, and deep purple iris. Sure sign of spring!

Second, the Knoxville Museum of Art has held us all at bay with promises of a major art installation by Richard Jolley, renowned glass artist. And this spring, “Cycle of Life” is here, already causing a stir among artists and patrons around the world.  A true spring awakening!

Sunday morning brunch at Knoxville Museum of Art celebrating Richard Jolley’s new installation: “Cycle of Life.”

Third,  unaware of flowers or art, my granddaughter welcomed spring with her own agenda.  At long last, the chance she was waiting for finally arrived:  the chance to ride that Christmas-present scooter in the warm, fresh air!

Spring on a scooter!

Ah, spring!

For more entries in the WordPress Weekly Photo Challenge: Spring, click here!

Later on in the afternoon while walking along Cherokee Boulevard in West Knoxville, I was rewarded a second time as late-day sun cast a softer glow, transposing those last yellows into warm oranges.

Day’s end. The season’s final hurrah.  The last yellows.