Biltmore

Biltmore Estate's Azalea Garden Remains a Living Legacy to its Creators

Delicate in flower, yet bold in color and profusion, Biltmore Estates’ vast collection of native and hybrid azaleas bursts forth each spring in a myriad of intense hues.

What many guests to the estates’ grounds in Asheville, NC, may not know is the story of the man who brought his enormous collection of azaleas, numbering in the thousands, to Biltmore Estates.

Chauncey D. Beadle arrived at Biltmore Estate in 1890 expecting to remain for six months. In the end, he stayed for 60 years and gave the estate one of its most beautiful legaciesÑthe Azalea Garden.

The grounds surrounding George Washington Vanderbilt’s nineteenth century home were designed by premiere landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted. Olmsted’s plan called for formal gardens in the immediate vicinity of Vanderbilt’s French Renaissance chateau, and gardens that were more natural, conforming to the Carolina landscape, as one moved further away from Biltmore House.

When Vanderbilt opened his home in 1895, most of Olmsted’s inceptions were complete. The formal Italian Garden, with its reflecting pools and statuary, led to the Shrub Garden or Ramble, with its paths wandering through hundreds of native and exotic woody plants. Below the Ramble, the English Walled Garden sheltered patterned beds and borders, and formal paths led to the Conservatory. A discreet brick tunnel encouraged guests to walk the Spring Garden with its towering groves of pine and hemlock. Only then did guests reach the Glen, known today as Biltmore Estates’ Azalea Garden.

A Cornell-educated horticulturist, Beadle not only had an "encyclopedic knowledge" of plants, according to Olmsted, but was also described by his mentor as being passionate about his work. Once Beadle’s "temporary job" became his life’s work and Biltmore Estate became his home, he eventually was named estate superintendent. He simultaneously pursued a private passionÑcollecting plant specimens, particularly the native deciduous azalea.

From 1931 to 1945, Beadle, his assistant and friend, Sylvester Owens and two companions, traversed the rugged hillsides of Western North Carolina and Eastern Tennessee, discovering and identifying thousands of cultivars of the native azalea. Keeping meticulous field notes, the men recorded their sojourns in detail.

Franklyn Owens, the widow of Beadle’s driver and companion, Sylvester Owens, remembers the stories her husband would tell of "The Azalea Hunters" when they returned home following a collecting venture.

"Syl would recall for me how Mr. Beadle would be sitting in the car, and he (Sylvester) would be down getting the azaleas,and he’d be gone so long that Mr. Beadle would call down and say, "Syl, that’s enough!’ They’d come back with that car full of different species they’d collected," said Mrs. Owens.

Once the specimens were collected, Beadle would plant them at his home, nurturing them to maturity.

"It was a love affair," said Mrs. Owens. "If Syl thought there would be a freeze, he and Mr. Beadle would get up in the middle of the night and burn those pots, you know, to keep the plants warm. He was crazy for those azaleas, and Mr. Beadle loved them even more."

In 1940, ten years before his death, Beadle requested that his thousands of azaleas, his collection that he called "his children," be removed from his home and replanted in Biltmore Estate’s Glen, one of the many gardens he tended for Biltmore EstateÑthe place to which he dedicated his life. The Glen was renamed Biltmore Estate’s Azalea Garden, and his life-long passion became a living legacy that Biltmore Estate’s hundreds of thousands of visitors continue to enjoy each year.

"The Azalea Garden, while beautiful, is far more than a collection of azaleas," says Terry Stalcup, Biltmore Estate’s Nursery and Landscape Supervisor. "In a time when many collectors were devoted to exotics, Beadle showed tremendous appreciation for plants native to our area and throughout the Southeast. He took a native plant, one easily taken for granted, and showed us that with tending and care, it could become something stunning in our gardens."

Today’s visitors to Biltmore Estate can view Mr. Beadle’s azaleas by taking a leisurely walk through the 15-acre Azalea Garden. Beginning in April and lasting well into June, gentle pinks and lavenders glow warmly beneath the canopy of century-old pine groves.

Serpentine paths, designed by Olmsted, follow the garden’s gentle slope past mounds of vibrant reds, oranges and shimmering white azaleas. A quiet brook bisects the garden, which is also filled with masses of wildflowers, magnolias and dogwoods.

Admission to Biltmore Estate includes the grounds and gardens surrounding Biltmore House, the estates’ three restaurants and The Biltmore Estate Winery. The estate, which is located on Highway 25 just north of Exits 50 or 50B off Interstate 40 in Asheville, is open 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily except Thanksgiving and Christmas days.

For more information, call 1-800-543-2961 or 1-704-255-1700. Or contact The Biltmore Company at One North Pack Square, Asheville, NC 28801 or visit the estates’ web site at www.biltmore.com.