Biltmore Gardens

Okay, so I shared my experience at the Biltmore house and here's what I saw of the gardens ...

I already posted this beautiful covered walkway and it looks like its in the walled garden, but I can't remember for sure.  It was a nice shady escape from the hot sun.

I chose a path and as I walked along saw this hillside covered in flowers ...

... a bunch of hostas beneath a tree ...

... this flower (dianthus?) was everywhere and I loved the flowers that are behind it ...

... took these steps down ...

... and entered another garden.  As you can see in the foreground, all the tulips were long gone.  I'm sure they were impressive when they were blooming.

There were quite a few workers tending to the gardens here.

I loved this single iris with creeping jenny below it.

Lots more irises!

A view into the rose gardens. 

I couldn't help but notice this lone little guy stuck in the rock wall of such a massive garden.

I liked the single strip of grass bordering here.  I loved all the roses and took tons of pictures of my favorites to see how easy each one is to grow in my own garden.  Sadly, the white roses below were not labeled.

Salvia, sage and an allium next to a bench in front of the Conservaory.

Speaking of the Conservatory ...

This was just inside ...

Wine anyone?

There were several places to sit like this ...

This was one of my favorite things in the gardens.  I loved the blue and purple of the hydranges with the silver of the dusty miller.  I have a lot of blues and purples on my front walk this year and I think I'm going to try dusty miller with it after seeing this.

Unfortunately, just like the house, my visit ended here.  My kids had had enough and needed naps.  Even though I hadn't seen the bass pond or azalea gardens, it was time for me to go.  To be perfectly honest, as beautiful as the gardens were, I found them a little sparse.  I wonder if they are fuller at other times of the year or if they fill them in as the season progresses.  I have been to more local gardens that have more of a "wow" factor but it was still beautiful nonetheless.  I mean, I can't resist a beautiful garden.

Some of you mentioned getting postcards, books or searching online ... I did find a few public images and I thought about purchasing a book but often what is illustrated are photos of the entire rooms where so much of the detail is lost.  For example, how often have you seen pictures of the Biltmore at a distance?  Now consider how many times you've seen pictures like those I posted of the lanterns, window details, the knight on the house.  I would have loved to take photos of the flowers and figures on the fireplace surrounds, the antiques on the desks, etc.  The big cavernous rooms are less impressive to me than the little things.

I did manage to do a little shopping which I'll share in my next post.