Azaleas and Azaleas! 23 Seconds of Pure Beauty

A man named Chauncey Beadle made the world a more beautiful place.

A picture, as they say, is worth a thousand words. And sometimes a 23-second video of azaleas is worth even more.

Earlier this week I wrote about the Biltmore Estate in Asheville, North Carolina and the French chateau-style home built by the Vanderbilt family in the late 1890s. As spectacular as that 250-room showplace is, the gardens are the real attraction of the place.

I am not a flower person, so I am going to be sadly remiss in terms of telling you the names of things. Nor, frankly, am I the type of person who typically likes to stroll through gardens.

But these gardens were truly wonderful to behold. So many colors and patterns and scents. If you’re ever in the area on a visit to the Blue Ridge Mountains, go, go, go. I can’t recommend the experience more highly.

We arrived too late in the season to catch the peak of the tulip bloom. So the ones we saw were a little past their prime. I can only imagine what the 80,000 tulips on the property look like when they’re bursting forth earlier in the spring.

Frederick Law Olmsted, the landscape architect of Central Park in New York City, designed the layout of the gardens at the estate. There are several different gardens, each with its own attributes. This is the Walled Garden.

The gardens, 75 acres in all, are terraced. Proceeding down from the Biltmore family home, there’s a logic to how they proceed and how you walk through them. It’s a lovely place for a walk.

The Conservatory is one of the highlights. You’re seeing things—orchids, ferns, palms—that look like they belong in the rain forests of the Amazon.

If you happened to watch Rory McIlroy’s stirring win at the Masters in early April, you saw a hugely dramatic last round (and playoff) of championship golf. What you also saw, as you do whenever you see the Masters on TV, is an extraordinary display of azaleas in bloom.

The Masters takes place in Augusta, Georgia, in the same geographic region as the Biltmore. The Masters is known for its azalea displays. So is the Biltmore.

You walk down the pathways of the Azalea Garden and you are transported into a different world, so quiet, serene, and lovely.

A man named Chauncey Delos Beadle designed and originally planted the Azalea Garden. It was his vision. He’s gone now. For 50 years he acted as superintendent of the Biltmore’s grounds; he dedicated his life to it. There is a plaque placed on a rock in his honor.

The heart of the garden begins at the end of this path. It is where the azaleas become thickest and most intense. As soon as I stepped into it I realized that what was occurring around me was very, very special. I pulled out my phone and started filming.

We all owe a debt to those who came before us, those who left the world a better place than when they arrived. Mr. Beadle was one of them. Please, enjoy.