Mobile AL Part III: More Bellingrath Gardens

After the house tour and river cruise at Bellingrath, we climbed up the steps of Bellingrath Grotto and began exploring some of the terraces at the top. The photo below shows Mermaid Pool.

 

The next photo is a view of Fountain Plaza with Mermaid Pool in the far distance.

From Fountain Plaza, we made a stop for a short rest at the south terrace near the house. In the photo below, Margery is surrounded by Easter lilies and delphiniums.

 

The walkway from the house and river back to the parking area follows a different, more winding path than that from the entrance of the estate to the house. As we started back, we took a side trip on the ecological boardwalk that extends out over the water of a small inlet from the river. This is supposedly a good place to view wildlife, but there wasn't any visible the day we were there. However, Paul thought the group of bald cypress trees in the photo below was picturesque.

 

Bald cypress trees grow in swamps, wet areas, and even in the water as in the case of the trees shown above. Like mangroves that we wrote about when we visited the Florida Keys, cypress trees have woody projections that are sent up from the roots above the soil or water level. The projections, called cypress knees, help the root system absorb oxygen from the air. You can see a few knees in the photo above, but the trees in the photo below growing in damp soil elsewhere in the garden had many more knees. We thought some of them kind of looked like prairie dogs.

Back on the main pathway, we passed Mirror Lake.

 

At the far end of Mirror Lake is a bridge that was lined with containers planted with geraniums.

The next photo is a view from the bridge looking back down the lake.

After the bridge, the pathway passes through the rockery.

 

We saw this common five-lined skink sunning himself in the rockery.

The next stop along the pathway back to the parking area was the Bridal Garden where there is a white gazebo that is used for weddings. The gazebo is surrounded by more roses.

The last stop along the return path was the Oriental-American Garden. Water usually plays an important role in Japanese-style gardens, and this garden was no exception. The next photo shows one of several picturesque bridges. Margery liked the way this one was reflected in the calm water.

The next bridge arches gracefully over the water with a callistemon (also known as the bottlebrush tree) in the foreground.

The photo below is from the top of the arched bridge looking back down the lake.

We have one last composite photo showing just some of the beautiful blooms we saw at Bellingrath Gardens.

 

We really liked Bellingrath Gardens and the Mobile area in general. This is one place where we definitely want to return. We're already thinking we might come back a little earlier next year in time to see the azaleas blooming at Bellingrath and stay a little longer. There is a lot more to see and do in Mobile; but for now, we need to continue on our way west.