A Legacy of Color and Place 2-10-11

Belmont, North Carolina

A compelling aphorism of ancient times states, “Plant a shade tree under which you will never sit.” The idea is truly generous gifts are those requiring significant effort on our part but from which we will never be a direct beneficiary. Those who underwrite the development of a botanical garden are such people in spades. Often they will never get to see how their visionary gifts will bloom in the lives of people yet unborn.

Daniel Stowe is a name completely unknown to me until I saw it recently on a brown Interstate tourism sign. A botanical garden named after him is down a country road some ten miles further on. Only today did I make the effort to actually get off the Interstate and make the ten-mile trek to see what was named after a man unknown to me. Having fourteen hours before needing to be at an airport twenty miles away, I was quite unhurried and unscheduled. Expecting a country road I was a bit surprised to find myself instead passing through an admixture of prosperous suburbs, once prosperous suburbs, non-descript commercial metastases, and eventually pleasing open country.

Finding a most agreeable entrance and a surprising well-manicured road leading through ponds and native gardens, I found myself arriving at a visitor’s center that could have been on the grounds of Peterhof in Russia or a large olive estate in Italy. How could this grand structure be out here in the North Carolina countryside? Who financed this and why isn’t anyone here? Quite taken with the building, I roamed around taking a series of photographs of the exterior before the sunlight gave way to forecast rain and drear. As it was, I had about thirty minutes of bright morning sun to capture the essence of this fine visitor’s center and the surrounding gardens with their fine gates, trellises, and promenades.

Seeing only a couple of gardeners working, I never saw anyone else, save one woman alone who spoke minimal English and wanting only minimal conversation. I again wonder how it is I find myself alone in a world class treasure. I’m reminded of the time not so long ago when I was alone in the epic Frederiks Kirke in Copenhagen while the organist rehearsed, listening to sublime melodies under the third largest rotunda dome in the world. There’s much to be said for this kind of solitude. It is enriching beyond words.

With the sudden loss of sunlight and the absence of color in early February, it became a bit of a game to catalog the textures of the surprisingly diverse evergreens placed in a labyrinthine series of garden ‘rooms.’ Extensive ponds, fountains, and walks added interesting compositional elements to my images. After ninety minutes of ‘collecting’ this intriguing place I wandered back to the visitor’s center, figuring it would have an interesting interior. I was bowled over to find its central ceiling contains a vast dome of stained glass, reminiscent of the great stained glass once housed in the Baltic Exchange in London before terrorists blew it up in 1991. The present dome was salvaged from a large Baptist church no longer wanting it. Huh? I did not begrudge at all making a donation to this amazing garden. I did learn, after all, that Daniel Stowe gave four hundred acres and $14 million to establish these gardens a little over ten years ago. What was my $12? Employees present in the visitor’s center were hanging a photo show and invited me to bring a camera tripod inside and have a go at it.

“Inside’ proves to be an 8,000 square foot orchid house with an impossible collection of orchids and bromeliads, all in vibrant bloom. The house reminds me of the great Victorian glass houses to be found in European cities. This new orchid house is presently venue to a two-month color burst special event. The clouded-over sky provided perfect light to ‘collect’ hundreds of images of these wonders of horticulture, all finely displayed in the context of waterfalls, pools, and terraces.

I’m reminded I need to always pay attention to those brown highway signs. Some of them lead to paradise. And sometimes the staff of paradise will offer you a plate to join them for a grand luncheon in a great hall with a grand piano played nearby. I have Daniel Stowe to thank for his vision which showed me what paradise can look like, even in the middle of winter.