Living Our Dream

Hills & Dales Estate

Pine Mountain, GA - Events of Tuesday, April 4, 2012

Hills & Dales Estate is the home built by Fuller and Ida Callaway, who were the parents of Cason Calloway, founder of Callaway Gardens. Hills & Dales is located about half an hour from Pine Mountain in LaGrange, GA. The estate was named for the sunny hills and shady dales in the area. Tuesday was our last day staying in Pine Mountain, and we drove to LaGrange to visit Hills & Dales Estate.

Mike and Gerri told us about Hills & Dales when we met them for lupper a few days before. Hills & Dales turned out to be a hidden gem. The home is lovely, the tour is excellent, the staff is friendly and hospitable, and the gardens are beautiful. For some reason, even though the estate has been open to the public since 2004, it's not even listed in the AAA Guide Book. We would have never found out about it if it hadn't been for Mike and Gerri.

The home, which is a blend of Italian and Georgian styles, was completed in 1914, but the history of the gardens goes back to the 1800s. In 1841, Blount and Sarah Farrell returned to LaGrange from Florida to live on property that belonged to Sarah's parents. Upon their return, Sarah expanded a garden begun by her mother in 1832. Sarah's garden was officially named The Terraces, but it was commonly called Farrell Gardens. By the 1870s and 1880s, the gardens had grown in size and had won wide acclaim throughout the southeast for its beauty.

Sarah Farrell welcomed visitors to her garden, and one of the frequent guests was Fuller Callaway. Late in her life, Sarah encouraged Fuller to purchase her property. Sarah Farrell died in 1903, and Blount Farrell died in 1908. A few years later, Fuller and Ida Callaway did buy the property where they planned to build a new house. First, however, they set about restoring Sarah's then-neglected gardens.

There is a very well-done video with the history of the Farrells and the Callaways and of the gardens and the home. After watching the video and exploring some of the displays at the visitor center, we rode the tram to the house.

The tour starts at the east portico, which is the main entrance to the house.

We had an excellent tour conducted by a very informative, knowledgeable docent. We were the only ones on the tour and had plenty of opportunity to ask questions. We learned many interesting details about the home, its history and about the Callaway family.

Unfortunately, as is frequently the case, photography isn't permitted inside the house, but we can tell you a little about the history and show you the gardens.

The house was designed in 1914 by the noted Atlanta architect firm of Hentz & Reid. It is built on a hill overlooking the gardens on the site of the original Farrell cottage. The 13,000 square-foot house has over 30 rooms and is constructed from stucco and Indiana limestone with a tile roof. Construction took 15 months and cost $125,000. That doesn't sound like much, but it is the equivalent of almost $3 million in today's dollars.

Fuller Callaway died in 1928. After Ida passed away in 1932, Cason's younger brother Fuller, Jr. moved into Hills & Dales along with his wife, Alice, and their children. Following the death of Fuller, Jr. in 1992 and that of Alice in 1998, the estate was bequeathed to the Fuller E. Callaway Foundation and opened to the public in 2004 according to the wishes of the Callaways. The home is displayed with original furnishings and family heirlooms, and it looks much the same way it was at the time of Alice Callaway's death.

After the tour of the house, we were free to roam the gardens and the greenhouse.

Alice Callaway converted part of what used to be the Callaway family vegetable garden to create the Ray Garden where she grew roses, ornamentals and annuals.

The Ray Garden

Entrance to the herb garden

The greenhouse, which was originally constructed in 1916, was remodeled in 1949 by Alice and Fuller Callaway, Jr.

Greenhouse and herb garden

The greenhouse is maintained to look much the same as it did in Alice's time. It is filled with tropical plants and orchids.

Some of the many orchids in the greenhouse

To the south of the greenhouse is the Church Garden, which is the oldest part of the gardens where Sarah Farrell first did her planting in 1841.

The Church Garden

Margery in the Church Garden

We walked the terraces of boxwood and magnolias behind the house listening to the birds and enjoying the peaceful shade. There are numerous azaleas in the garden; but like most of the azaleas at Callaway Gardens, the flowers were done. There were, however, splashes of color here and there from pansies and violas.

Colorful pansies and violas brighten the garden.

Also from the terraces, you can get splendid views of the house itself with more splashes of color from snapdragons.

View of the house from the southwest

View from the southeast showing the main entrance at the east portico

At the southeastern corner of the garden is the Bird Gate. This wrought-iron gate was commissioned by Alice Callaway.

Paul and the Bird Gate

From the Bird Gate, it was a short walk to the tram stop where there is an intercom for guests to call to request the tram for a ride back to the visitor center. However, there is also a nice path, and it's only a 10-minute walk to the visitor center. It was such a beautiful day, and we were enjoying listening to the birds so much, we opted to walk.

Our visit to Hills & Dales brought us to the end of our stay in Pine Mountain. We highly recommend a stop at Hills & Dales if you're going to be in the vicinity of LaGrange, GA.

We also loved Callaway Gardens. Even though the azaleas were past their peak, there were still some azaleas in bloom for us to enjoy, at least until the rain hit on Friday night and Saturday. We enjoyed just walking the peaceful woodland paths and listening to the birds. We also liked the Birds of Prey show, the Day Butterfly Center and the Sidley Horticultural Center.

After we left Hills & Dales, we drove back to the motor home and started packing up and preparing for our departure. We headed out for Summerdale, AL the following morning. We'll have more info in our next post.

Callaway Gardens Part IV: More Walking Trails and the Day Butterfly Center

Pine Mountain, GA - Events of Sunday, April 2 and Monday, April 2, 2012

It rained all night Friday and most of the day on Saturday. Except for doing our weekly cleaning on Saturday morning, we just snuggled in, watched TV, read and played on the computer Friday evening and all day Saturday.

We weren't planning to go into the gardens over the weekend because of possible crowds, but Sunday was so beautiful and sunny after the dreary weather on Saturday, we couldn't resist going back, especially since we had annual passes. If it turned out to be too crowded, we could just leave with nothing lost except the few minutes it took us to drive over to the gardens.

We visited the Azalea Bowl on Thursday, so we decided to check out the second azalea area at the other end of Callaway Gardens called the Overlook Azalea Garden. It is the older and the larger of the two main azalea areas. However, when we drove past part of it on Thursday, we could see the azaleas there were farther along than the ones at the Azalea Bowl; and, even though there was some color left, most of the azaleas at the Overlook Garden were well past their peak.

Unfortunately, the heavy rains on Friday night and Saturday just about completely destroyed any blooms that were still there when we drove past on Thursday. By Sunday, there were only a few azaleas that looked pretty from a distance, but when we got close, we could see the flowers were limp and starting to turn brown. Most had no flowers left.

Only a few azaleas still had flowers after the rain.

After we walked part of the trail through the Overlook Azalea Garden, we headed back to the car and drove up the road to the Holly Trail. There is a relatively large parking area there where they have a farmers market on spring and fall weekends.

The market didn't have much produce this early in the spring, but there were things like breads, honey, soaps, candles and crafts.

Farmers market at the Holly Trail parking lot

While we were parked there, we walked the relatively short Holly Trail, which features a collection of Asian and American hollies. Since dogs are allowed in all the outdoor areas in Callaway Gardens except for the swimming beach, we took Freeway on the walk with us.

Margery and Freeway on the Holly Trail

Freeway takes a break

As you can see from the photo above, so far-so good with Freeway's surgery for cherry eye. All the swelling and redness have disappeared from both eyes, and we're hopeful there will be no recurrence.

At the end of the Holly Trail, we encountered a relatively large garter snake. Margery made sure Freeway didn't get too close while Paul snapped a picture.

Garter snake at the end of the trail

From the Holly Trail, it was a short drive to the parking area for the Rhododendron Trail. Although it normally would be way too early for rhododendrons, even this far south, with the mild winter and warm spring there were some rhododendrons just starting to bloom and a couple in or near full bloom.

Some rhododendron buds were about to burst forth.

We had large, beautiful rhododendrons blooming every spring at our starter home, so they are special to us. In fact, we had the same colors as these two.

A few rhododendrons were in full bloom.

The Rhododendron Trail parking area is located at the Day Butterfly Center, which we also wanted to see. However, it was a little too crowded since it was Sunday, so we headed back to the motor home to watch the rest of the NASCAR race from Martinsville and saved the butterfly center for the next day. Gotta love the annual passes.

The Day Butterfly Center is a glass-enclosed conservatory containing tropical plants and as many as 1,000 butterflies representing up to 50 different species. We headed back there on Monday morning.

Day Butterfly Center

As you enter the center, there are displays of butterflies emerging from their cocoons. Butterfly eggs hatch as larvae (caterpillars). The larva will usually undergo several stages of maturity called instars. At each stage, the caterpillar will molt its outer skin. When the larva is finally mature, it will stop feeding and seek out a suitable site for pupation, usually the underside of a leaf. The larva will undergo one last molt after it attaches itself to the leaf and will be then it will become a pupa or chrysalis. The pupa may appear dormant, but there is a lot going on inside. The pupa is being transformed into a butterfly. As the butterflies emerge, they must pump fluids through the veins in their wings and wait for the wings to expand and dry before they can fly.

Butterflies emerging from their cocoons

Inside the conservatory, hundreds of butterflies freely flit about. Because of their seemingly erratic flight pattern, they are very difficult to photograph when in flight. When they did land, most of them kept their wings folded so the bright colors on the upper side of their wings were hidden.

Common Morpho butterfly from Central and South America

The Common Morpho butterfly pictured above has wings with intense blue color on the upper side. We both took dozens of pictures attempting to catch those bright colors, and the two photos below were the only ones that either of us was able to capture.

Common Morpho butterfly flits past Margery

Common Morpho butterflies in flight

As we mentioned earlier, the conservatory is filled with a variety of tropical plants and flowers. These were a lot easier to photograph than the butterflies.

Tropical flowers fill the Day Butterfly Center.

We spent the better part of an hour in the Day Butterfly Center, then headed back toward the motor home. When we were in town a few days ago, we saw a second barbecue restaurant called the Whistling Pig Cafe. In fact, we almost mistook it at first for the Three Lil' Pigs where we met Mike and Gerri for lupper. Since we find it hard to pass up barbecue, and since the Whistling Pig had a lot of vehicles parked outside when we passed it (and a lot of the vehicles were pickup trucks - usually a pretty reliable indicator of good barbecue), we decided to stop at the Whistling Pig for a late lunch. They are only open until 3:00 PM, so we couldn't go for lupper.

Whistling Pig Barbecue

We both had pulled pork sandwiches. Margery had a regular ($2.85) and Paul had a jumbo ($3.75). There is a combo for $7, but we ordered our meals à la carte and split a large order of fries ($2.85) and a small slaw ($1.75).

Paul enjoying his pork barbecue sandwich

The pork barbecue was nice and smokey, and the sauce had a delicious sweet-sour tang. The fries were homemade and crispy, and the slaw was good, too.

Our time in Pine Mountain is winding down, but we had one more thing we wanted to see before we left. Stay tuned

Callaway Gardens Part III: Discovery Center and Sibley Horticultural Center

Pine Mountain, GA - Events of Friday, March 30, 2012

Even though it was mostly cloudy on Friday with a chance of rain, we went back into Callaway Gardens because we still had a lot we wanted to see. One of the things Paul wanted to see was the Birds of Prey show at the amphitheater behind the Discovery Center.

We were a little early for the show, so we stopped as we passed through the Discovery Center to check out the sculptures of wildflowers made from thin, copper sheet and wire by artist Trailer McQuilkin. The metal is painstakingly cut, shaped, soldered together, and the assembled flowers are then painted with oil paints. Natural materials such as stones, sticks, pine cones and leaf fragments from other plants are included to create a life-like scene. The sculpture is so realistic, there are brown spots on some of the leaves and occasional holes in the leaves as though some insect had taken a bite. Each sculpture takes approximately two months to create. In order to create the sculptures, McQuilkin researched each subject extensively.

The collection at the Discovery Center, which was commissioned by Dean Day Sanders of Atlanta and donated to Callaway Gardens, contains 42 sculptures. The flowers pictured below are plumleaf azaleas, which are the emblem of Callaway Gardens.

Life-like sculpture of plumleaf azaleas made from sheet copper

Display of tools and materials used by the artist to create wildflower sculptures

After seeing the wildflower sculptures, we headed to the amphitheater for the Birds of Prey show. In the show, they bring out about half a dozen different raptors so the audience can see them up close and personal. These birds have all been injured in some way, and although most of them can fly, they could not survive on their own in the wild. The owl, for example, is partially blind in one eye as the result of being hit by a car. Without adequate depth perception, it would not be able to hunt.

Great Horned Owl

Red Tailed Hawk

When we said you get to see the birds up-close and personal, we weren't kidding. Not only did the handlers walk through the audience with the birds perched on their glove, they released the birds to fly back and forth over the audience. The handler at the back of the amphitheater would release the bird to fly to piece of meat placed on a perch, branch or rock by the other handler at the front of the amphitheater.

The Red-tailed Hawk swoops low over the audience.

After the show, we stopped on our way back through the Discovery Center to see the art exhibit. Margery loved the intense colors of the landscapes featuring azaleas.

Margery admiring some of the landscapes on display in the Discovery Center

After seeing the art exhibit, the mostly-cloudy sky was starting to brighten up a bit, so we decided to drive over to check out the Sibley Horticultural Center, which is an indoor-outdoor conservatory and garden featuring tropical and sub-Mediterranean plants as well as perennials and annuals.

Outdoor flower beds at the Sibley Horticultural Center

Opened in 1984, the Sibley Horticultural Center has 26 floor-to-ceiling glass doors that measure 24 feet tall and weigh 1,600 pounds each. These doors can be opened to allow the indoor and outdoor gardens to blend together. Because of Georgia's mild winters, the doors are open much more than they are closed.

Massive doors open to allow the indoor gardens to blend with the outdoor landscape.

Another view of some of the glass doors

More glass doors

The indoor and outdoor landscapes blend together so well you sometimes have to look up to see the ceiling supports to remind you if you're inside or outside.

Tropical palm trees, bananas and ferns thrive in the conservatory.

This rock wall with Mediterranean plants was part of a 2003 rennovation.

A 22-foot waterfall cascades into a pool below.

Some of the beautiful flowers at the Sibley Horticultural Center

After we toured the Sibley Horticultural Center, we headed back to the motor home for a while. Later in the afternoon, we met a couple who follows our blog and with whom we have been corresponding by email for quite some time for a late lunch/early supper (lupper) at Three Lil' Pigs barbecue restaurant in Pine Mountain.

Three Lil' Pigs Barbecue in Pine Mountain, GA

Mike and Gerri are fellow bloggers and former full-timers who now live in nearby LaGrange. They love Callaway, and they gave us some very valuable tips when we were planning our visit.

Three Lil' Pigs has a half a dozen picnic tables outside and about half a dozen smaller tables inside. We opted for an inside table because it was starting to spit rain just as we arrived. It later turned into quite a downpour, and we got about 1.5 inches by the time the storm system moved out of the area the following afternoon.

We all had chopped pork barbecue sandwiches, which were delicious.

Mike, Gerri, Margery and Paul at Three Lil' Pigs

The sandwiches are $6 and come with slaw and chips. The portion size is very generous.

The chopped pork was piled high.

We had a good time getting to know Mike and Gerri face to face. We chatted for a long time, but eventually the restaurant started to fill up with the dinner crowd, so we had to vacate our table and say our good-byes.

There is still more to see at Callaway Gardens, so look for our next post.

Callaway Gardens Part II: Victory Garden

Pine Mountain, GA - Events of Thursday, March 29, 2012

After we left the Azalea Bowl, we headed for another section of Callaway Gardens known as Mr. Cason's Vegetable Garden. This 7.5-acre demonstration garden was the last major project initiated by Cason Callaway before his death in 1961. This garden was used for several years as the southern setting for taping portions of the PBS program Victory Garden. Paul hasn't watched Victory Garden for quite some time, but he used to watch religiously, and he learned a lot about gardening from the program.

On our way to Mr. Cason's Vegetable Garden, we passed the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Trail, so we stopped. At the beginning of the trail was a log cabin that was relocated to Callaway Gardens in 1959. The cabin was built around 1830 in nearby Troup County from hand-hewn, longleaf pine logs.

Log cabin c.1830 

Interior of the log cabin

The Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Trail displays native plants from coastal, meadow, bog, and forest areas of Georgia. Many of the species are rare, threatened or endangered.

A few of the wildflowers along the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Trail 

After walking the wildflower trail, we continued on our way to Mr. Cason's Vegetable Garden.

Panoramic view of Mr. Cason's Vegetable Garden

Tomatoes, swiss chard, lettuce and cabbage in the kitchen garden

Paul remembers seeing this barn many times on Victory Garden.

Flower garden near the barn

Cardinal in the flower garden

By the time we finished visiting the Azalea Bowl earlier, then walked the wildflower trail and visited the vegetable garden, it was mid afternoon. We decided to call it a day and head back to the motor home. There is still plenty to see at Callaway Gardens. We'll tell you more in our next post.

Callaway Gardens Part I: Azaleas

Pine Mountain, GA - Events of Thursday, March 22, 2012

The main reason we went to Pine Mountain, GA was to see Callaway Gardens. We arrived in Pine Mountain on Wednesday, and we headed to the gardens on Thursday morning.

Callaway Gardens entrance

Cason Callaway was the founder of Calloway Gardens, which opened to the public in 1952. Cason made his money in the milling of cotton. He and his wife Virginia acquired land in the area of the present-day Callaway Gardens to build a weekend retreat from their home in nearby LaGrange, GA. They originally named the retreat Blue Springs.

As Cason's brother took leadership in the family cotton mill in the late 1930s, Cason continued to acquire more land around Blue Springs and began farming. He initiated new methods of restoring the eroded, worn-out soil in the area and pioneered improved food processing methods. People came from all around to learn. Cason Callaway, the industrialist, had become Cason Callaway, the farmer.

Then, in 1948, a heart attack forced Cason to scale back his farming, so he turned to gardening. He felt the garden was so beautiful he wanted to share it, so he opened Callaway Gardens to the public in 1952. Cason callaway died in 1961, and the gardens have been run by family members through the Ida Cason Callaway Foundation, which was named for the founder's mother.

Since Cason's death, the gardens have undergone numerous expansions and additions. Today, there are two golf courses, an inn, a lodge, cottages, a horticultural center, a butterfly center, several additional garden areas, a bike trail and more. In 2004, Callaway Gardens began selling home sites, so you can now live on the property. There are also many special events.

We had difficulty planning our visit using the Callaway Gardens web site. Some information seemed a little vague to us, and other information was buried and hard to find. However, we knew the gardens were large (the entire property covers 13,000 acres), and we knew there was a lot to see and do. We figured we would probably not be able to see everything in one day, especially since we didn't want to leave Freeway alone all day. Daily admission during special events (such as during azalea season when we were there) is $25 a day ($20 for seniors 65 and over). Since annual passes cost $45 ($40 for seniors), we opted for annual passes since the cost was the same or less than it would have cost us for daily admission for two days. The passes allowed us to go into the gardens and see whatever we wanted at a more leisurely pace, especially since the campground was located only 10 minutes from the garden entrance, and it also gives us the option of visiting Callaway when we are on our way south in the fall.

We stopped at the Discovery Center pick up our passes and a map. Although azaleas are scattered everywhere in the gardens, they are concentrated in two main areas. We headed for the Azalea Bowl, which was the closer of the two azalea areas.

At Callaway Gardens there are numerous walking trails, but the gardens are too large to be able to see everything on foot. There is ample parking at many convenient locations, and there is also an extensive bike trail around the gardens. We drove everywhere rather than unpack our folding bikes from the back of the car.

The Azalea Bowl, which was opened in 1999, is one of the latest additions to the gardens. It encompasses 40 acres and has 3,400 hybrid azaleas and 2,000 trees and other shrubs. The walkways meander down a gentle slope toward Falls Creek Lake.

Start of the trail at the Azalea Bowl

Within a fairly short distance, we came to a split in the trail. We followed the left fork toward the Ida Cason Callaway Memorial Chapel. There weren't many azaleas along this particular path as it skirts the upper part of the Azalea Bowl, but we did enjoy seeing some of the other plants and trees and listening to the birds as we walked along the woodland trail.

Woodland stream along the Azalea Bowl Trail

Cinnamon fern

Paul with Japanese Cedar tree

We arrived at the chapel, which is built mostly from native material. The Ida Cason Callaway Memorial Chapel was dedicated in 1962 and is the site of organ recitals and many weddings.

Ida Cason Callaway Memorial Chapel

Interior of the chapel

After visiting the chapel, we headed toward the lower part of the Azalea Bowl along the lake where most of the azaleas are located.

Azalea season at Callaway Gardens is supposed to be March 22 through April 22, but the winter was so mild and the spring was so warm, many of the azaleas bloomed much earlier than usual. Knowing the azaleas would be early, we timed our visit for the early part of the season, but many of the azaleas were already past their peak by the time we arrived. Fortunately, there are many varieties of azaleas at Callaway Gardens that have differing bloom times so there were still some azaleas in full bloom and even a few that still had unopened buds. We may have missed the peak by a week or so; but there were still some beautiful blooms to see.

After walking the trails at the Azalea Bowl, we headed for another part of the gardens. Along the way, we passed an area where artists had set up their easels to paint.

Artists trying to capture the beauty of the azaleas

Stay tuned for news about our next stop on our tour of Callaway Gardens.