Each spring, the Bellamy Mansion hosts an event called "Art of the Table," where local artists, decorators, and event planners can purchase and decorate a room or table. It is a great opportunity to both raise funds for the mansion and to allow artists to feature their work. We usually buy a table, but this year we teamed up with Estelle from A Fisherman's Wife and purchased a whole room. We discussed possible themes and developed the idea of Women Gardeners in the South. We interviewed five local women gardeners and Millie from Millie Holloman Photography took their photographs. The project grew into a great experience, where we were able to recognize the many different approaches to gardening and listen to the stories of some amazing women. I loved working with Estelle to take these ideas and transform a room in the mansion with its patterned carpet and plain walls into a space that looked, felt, and even smelled like a garden.
We covered the entire floor with moss and brought in lots of live plants, which made the whole room smell like earth.
We hung photographs of each gardener on the wall with a short bio of their gardening history.
I found these seed packets online from Roudabush seed store in Wilmington. They were purchased here in the 1920's by a traveler who took them to California. It was neat that they found their way back home again for this project.
We borrow gardening tools from some of the women and collected other antiques from around the city.
I adore projects that allow me to interact with the community, to discover hidden pieces of history, and to be exposed to people who have such wonderful stories. I am so grateful for this project and the lovely ladies who were so willing to open their gardens to us and who readily told us about their love of the garden.
Bettie-The Family Gardener
“Dad would plant the lower field with daffodils for my daughter when she was a little girl. She would pick and bundle the stems. I would dress her up with bows in her hair and she would sell the daffodils at the corner of Pine Grove to earn money for summer camp.”
Bettie’s grandfather, Hadrain, was known in Holland for his knowledge of Camellias and Azaleas. Hugh McCrea sponsored his immigration to the United States because of his gardening skills, and Hadrian went on to help start the Audubon Nursery and plant much of Airlie Gardens and Orton Plantation. He passed his knowledge on to his 9 children, one of whom was Bettie’s Father, Henry. Henry planted with his own children, keeping a huge bulb garden, and Bettie quickly became a gardener herself. Her yard off of Middle Grove is filled with Azaleas and Camellias, and she is constantly rooting, grafting, and planting. Bettie now loves to share her garden to her husband, children and grandchildren.
Hellen-The Giving Gardener
“The pleasure of the garden is what you get that you can share with your neighbors—flowers and vegetables.”
Hellen moved to Wilmington 70 years ago and opened The Marina Restaurant on Wrightsville Beach with her husband Jack. They bought a house on the sound and started a large vegetable garden filled with tomatoes, peppers, squash and okra. The sound was the perfect soil for vegetables, and they once grew okra so tall that it required a ladder to cut. Together, Hellen and her husband canned and cooked with the things they grew, working together in the kitchen and furnishing their children and neighbors with fresh and preserved vegetables. “Unless we had at least 100 quarts of green beans,” Hellen says, “Jack thought everyone would starve!” Although Jack has since died, Hellen continues to maintain her own garden, growing things to share.
Anne-The Kitchen Gardener
“So much work that I do seems to makes no visible difference. Sweep the floor and no one notices, but rake the garden and it is noticed for dates. Dust the table and it is ignored, but add a bowl of cut flowers and everyone notices!”
Anne grew up in western North Carolina where her mother maintained acres of gardens, growing vegetables and petal flowers When Anne bought a summer house at Wrightsville Beach in 1961, she installed her own garden and planted vegetables, flowers, and many herbs. For Anne, much of gardening is about the kitchen and she loves to grow things that can be incorporated into her recipes. She dries basil, oregano, and rosemary for use in her kitchen each winter. Anne passed her love if gardening on to her children, and her sons now garden for their own families.
Peggy-The Flower Gardener
“Gardening is my therapy, really. I can’t stand gloves; I just like to put my hands in the dirt.”
Peggy discovered flowers through her mother, who always kept a cutting garden full of gladiolas, dahlias, snapdragons, and roses. “We always had cut flowers on the table,” she says. She and her sister were expected to help with the garden, cultivating, planting and trimming, and they distributed many of the cut flowers to their neighbors and friends. “My mother loved the old-fashioned flowers—the ones you don’t really see in gardens any more.” When Peggy moved to Wrightsville Beach there was not much land for a large garden, so she keeps many potted plants and maintains a few corners of the property for gardening. She still loves fresh flowers on the table.
Lillian-The Community Gardener
“We love to share our gardens with the community. It has been our experience that people who appreciate the beauty of the earth are generally good people.”
Lillian’s in laws, P.R. and Bess Smith, purchased 5 acres of land in Forest Hills in 1940 and started large formal garden filled with walkways, streams, patios, hidden rooms, and garden structures. Bess initiated the Azalea Garden tour in Wilmington and opened her land regularly to the public for tours. In 1980 Lillian married their son, Percy, and moved onto his family’s property. She considers herself and her husband to be simply the garden’s caretakers, a part of its history. They continue the tradition of sharing their garden by hosting Easter egg hunts, oyster roasts, tours and many public events and by opening the garden to the public each spring when the landscape is in full bloom.
Thursday, January 26, 2012 at 02:35PM 
