As the weather turns warm and spring flowers bloom, the urge to get out into the countryside is strong. Summer vacation is near, so you start planning a trip.
FLOWER GROWER travel hounds who search out beautiful garden spots to visit have come up this time with some very special ones.
Tulip Time
Every year in May, Dutch descendants living in Holland, Michigan, step out in old Netherlands costumes to exhibit their famous tulips. During a colorful four-day festival,
May 11 to 14, visitors will have a chance to view millions of tulips blooming in parks, private gardens, nurseries, and in more than ten miles of lanes winding through the city streets.
The original tulip bulbs were imported from the Netherlands with money appropriated by the town council. So many visitors came to see them in bloom that Tulip Time was made a formal event and has become one of the most popular flower festivals in the country.
This year, a flower show of dramatic tulip arrangements will be at the armory. In addition, local merchants will don Dutch costumes for the traditional side-walk scrubbing each morning.
There will be a parade of bands and floats, folk dances and songs, barbershop quartets, water follies, and a variety show featuring the famous Klompen Dancers—hundreds of local high school girls dancing in wooden shoes.
Visitors can also see Little Netherlands, a colorful Dutch village miniature depicting the charm of Old Holland. In addition, the Netherlands Museum provides a graphic understanding of the Dutch background. And the Baker Furniture Museum has a permanent exhibit of antique furniture.
Paneled rooms, drawings, and carvings, with a special exhibit of fine cabinetmaking from the 16th century to the present. You can write to Tulip Time, Inc. Civic Center, Holland, Michigan, for information and reservations.
Longwood Gardens
Longwood Gardens, the late Pierre S. du Pont’s estate in Kennett Square, Pennsylvania, is a horticultural wonderland. In his will, recently disclosed, Mr. du Pont bequeathed the bulk of his fortune—more than $33,000,000—to the Longwood Foundation “for the maintenance and improvement of the gardens.
Over the years, he developed Longwood as a horticultural exhibit “for public inspection, education, and enjoyment.”
If you have yet to be fortunate enough to see the formal gardens in Europe, you’ll especially enjoy Longwood’s fountains. They were laid out after a plan of those at the Villa Gamberaia Florence and are among the world’s most elaborate and beautiful waterworks.
The nursery, formerly Peirce’s Park, dates back to 1800 when the Peirce brothers started a collection of trees and shrubs, mostly of foreign origin.
Among the unique specimens of trees are: a ginkgo, said to be one of the original trees imported into this country, a cucumber magnolia, several fine copper beeches, an ‘English yew tree, and some bald cypress.
The beauty and wealth of flowers in the glass-enclosed conservatory are impressive. It is high enough to house trees and so large that a hundred bungalows could be put inside.
Points you should take advantage of are the stone clock tower with its quarter-hour chimes, the delightful open-air theatre with its water curtain, the old boxwood, and the lake in the woods.
The Roan
If you live in the South or want to go there, you’ll find it a rewarding experience to visit The Roan, a mountain 6286’ feet high, rising sharply from North Carolina to the east and Tennessee to the west.
Hundreds of acres on the smooth mountain top are carpeted with thick grass and dotted with clumps of purple (Catawba) rhododendron, making it one of the most magnificent natural botanical gat dens in America. Fraser balsam fir and red spruce cover 850 more acres.
That’s why it’s often called the “Christmas Tree Mountain.”
Midsummer days on The Roan are rarely warmer than 75° degrees Fahrenheit; at night, the temperature drops to 40° and 50° degrees Fahrenheit. It’s also a haven for hay fever victims.
When the rhododendron blooms, about June 15 to early July, North Carolina and Tennessee folk celebrate their annual Roan Mountain Rhododendron Festival. The highlight is a coronation ceremony held on the state line to crown a Rhododendron Queen from each state.
Newly paved roads have recently been opened up the mountain and through its rhododendron gardens, which are part of Pisgah National Forest. So you can drive to Baskerville, North Carolina, and a sign points the rest of the way.
For over a hundred years, botanists from many countries have visited The Roan to study its unusual plants. As a result, heather is widespread, and in the meadows, some plants are common in eastern Canadian mountains.
Plans are underway for some resorts to be built on the mountain In private interests, supervised and approved by the U. S. Forest Service. Meanwhile, there are facilities in the nearby mountain cities of Spruce Pine, Bakersville, and Burnsville.
Visitors will find a good selection of motor courts, hotels, and restaurants. In addition, there are good picnic and camping sites on the mountain and springs which supply ice-cold water.
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