Category: Daffodils

Daffodils – Day 3 – Gibbs Gardens

7 March 2017

Wow! What a day.  It first started with daffodils and ended with water falls.

Gibbs Gardens are located near Ball Ground, Georgia and were established in the 1980’s by Jim Gibbs, a nurseryman from Atlanta. It is a 300 acre estate/garden with 50 acres of daffodils with over 20 million bulbs and over 100 varieties.

The gates had not opened and therefore I was first in line.  I had a ticket for the tram at 10 am and an hour to kill, so I started walking and followed the signs to daffodils.  Once you got to “Daffodil Hill”, they were everywhere!

Daffodils belong to the genus Narcissus and they are also called jonquils.  As a kid, I knew them as daffodils, jonquils, and by a couple of variety names as yellow jonquil, butter and eggs, and paper whites.

Some think they were named from the Greek legend of Narcissus but no one knows for sure since Narcissus has many connotations.

This was a trip down memory lane for me.  What was in bloom in the gardens was exactly what I remember blooming in both my grandmother’s yards: daffodils, yellow bells, bridal wreath, and flowering quince.  Today yellow bells are more commonly know as Forsythia and bridal wreath is known as Spirea.

Yellow Bells or Forsythia.

Forsythia, close up.

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Bridal Wreath or Spirea.

Close up of Spirea.

What originally attracted me to daffodils as a kid were their aroma.  Some had no smell at all but others could overpower you with their scent.  The ones I smelled on the trails were not terribly strong but it could be age has affected my olfactory perception.  However, as I walked through parts of the garden it became quite heady.

In addition to daffodils, they have a Manor House which I assume Jim Gibbs lives in part of the year.

They also have a Japanese garden but it was not in bloom this early.

However, in a previous blog I wrote about Pachysandra, or Allegheny Spurge.  I had never seen it before.  This time I got to see it in bloom!  We botanists take our joy where we can get it.

I’ve posted a video of the garden on Facebook so you can get a better concept of the gardens.

After leaving the gardens, I headed for Tulullah Falls.  See the next blog.

Daffodils – Day 2 – Amicolola Falls

6 March 2017

OK, my sciatica is bothering me but less than usual on these long drives.  I discovered a new use for heated seats.  It seemed to take some of the pain away or at least mitigated it.

In any case, I was getting into Jasper, Ga too early for my Microtel reservation. When I started panning this trip, I looked for something other than Gibbs Gardens to do.  Bless TripAdvisor. They suggested Amicolola Falls State Park and the trail to the falls, the tallest waterfall in Georgia at 729 feet.

Instead of heading to Jasper, I detoured off the interstate to Dawsonville.  I loved traveling the back roads even though the speed limit was mostly 45 mph because of the mountainous terrain and “S” curves.

Welcome Center at Amicolola Falls State Park.

I pulled into the park about 2 pm and paid my $5 admission.  I asked the ranger about the trail.  It depends on which web site you go to, but there is some confusion about the distance and even when you check maps, most are not to scale and you cannot determine the distance.  She said it was a 2 mile rounnd trip hike and warned me it was strenuous.

The trail up to the falls is approximately one mile and is along a mostly paved trail, well marked with blazes and signs which then turns into a series of stairs to the top.

Your first stop is the reflecting pool at the base of the falls.

Reflecting Pool from the base of the falls.

The stairs and trail were made from labor of Georgia convicts with the approval of the state park service and the Department of Corrections.  All I can say is thank you to those who built this amazing set of stairs.  The longest section is 435 stairs but all total, they exceed 600 steps.  Conveniently, every so often, there is a landing with overlooks of the falls and benches to rest.

Some of the 600 steps.

Everyone I met on the trail told me how strenuous the climb was, and I began to have misgivings.  However, I managed just fine.  I’ve learned to control my pace and breathing on climbs.  I still feel the Appalachian mountains are tougher than the Sierra Nevadas, the Rockies, and anything I climbed out west.

Amicolola Falls

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The falls were pretty spectacular and I immensely enjoyed the hike to the top.  Once at the top, I climbed a little farther to the lodge.  This looks like a perfect place to stay.  It’s very new and modern but fits in with the scenery.

Lodge at the Top of the Falls.
Lobby of the lodge.

The view from the back deck was spectacular.

View from the back deck of the lodge.

The lodge is the starting point for a connecting trail to Springer Mountain, 8.5 miles away.  Springer Mountain is the beginning of the Appalachian Trail and I’ve always wanted to hike on Springer.  Another bucket list item!

What happened next was typical Fred.  I thought the return trail, according to their map, ran behind the lodge.  It showed a connection with an exercise trail.  I followed what looked like a disused trail behind the lodge to head back to the jeep.  I rationalized that most people probably did not do the loop and simply returned the way they came.

As I got further down the “disused trail” I finally realized it wasn’t the return trail at all.  The only bad thing was it dropped rapidly in elevation from the lodge, so I now had to hike back up and find the return trail.

I returned to the overlook at the top of the falls and finally saw a sign you would only see coming back down from the lodge for the East Ridge Trail.  On their map, it shows the falls trail is marked in blue blazes and the East Ridge Trail marked in brown.  There were no blazes anywhere along the length of the trail, but it was certainly worn with use.

I met several people on their way up to the falls on the return trail.  I would not recommend it.  Take the stairs up and the East Ridge Trail down.  The East Ridge Trail is steep and rocky and only the bottom 1/3 has switchbacks.  That said, one young lady jogged up past me, reached the top and then jogged past me on the way down.

At 4:30 I made it back to the jeep, tired but thoroughly satisfied.

Daffodils- Day 1 – Paynes Prairie

5 March 2017

It’s strange what stimulates your mind, particularly as you age.  Several weeks ago, I thought about what got me interested in becoming a botanist, and particularly concentrating in taxonomy and classification of plants.  That led to my wondering what was the first flower that registered with me. I came to the conclusion it was daffodils.

Both my grandmothers had them in the yard and I learned what they were at an early age.  I also learned they were the harbinger of Spring, at least in my area of the state of Mississippi. Later I was to learn that in north Mississippi, it was crocus.

By early summer, the daffodil blooms were gone and you mowed them down to allow the bulbs to go dormant and they would magically appear the next spring, often in greater numbers. I soon learned there were varieties like butter and eggs which really didn’t look to much like the classic yellow ones and paper whites which had the yellow outer layer of petals with a white cup.

That got me to thinking I hadn’t seen daffodils bloom in over 35 years and I decided I needed to plan a road trip to do so. Best layed plans…. Apparently it has been a very early spring and everywhere I searched, gardens were declaring the bloom over.

I did sign up on Facebook for a daffodil site and low and behold, I later received a notice from Gibbs Gardens in Ball Ground, GA that although the early bloomers were gone, there is a mid and late season.  Gibbs advertises itself as the largest collection of daffodils in the U.S. With over 20 million planted.

Since this was to be a daffodil trip, I decided to stay in motels for the journey and not camp.  The only problem was getting out of Florida. I knew not to try a 10+ hour drive to Ball Ground, so I decided to stay the night in Valdosta.

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There’s a relatively new welcome center and there is a short trail from there to an observation tower.  The views were great but the tower shook and squeaked as you walked up and down.  Maybe it’s settling into the muck of the Prairie.

Welcome Center at Paynes Prairie State Park.
Wacahoota Trail at Paynes Prairie State Park near Gainesville, Fl.
A view of Paynes Prairie from the Observation tower.

On the way out, I toured downtown Micanopy, another first.  Very quaint and very touristy with antique shops every other store.

I pulled into Valdosta around 5:30 pm, ate dinner and turned in.  I was on the road to Jasper, Ga by 9 am.