Hamilton Rhododendron Garden, Hiwassee, Georgia

May 14, 2005

Clayton and Ellen Teague, Rod and Brenda Nave and Linda and Ron Jones. Exploring these beautiful gardens with our old friends was delightful play. Later at dinner we reflected upon the fact that all three couples were married in 1962 and we spent a lot of time together in the first two or three years after we married since the guys were in graduate school together as well as being close friends from the BSU. This was on the occasion of the Georgia Tech BSU gathering at Lake Chatuge.

The rhododendron garden was within walking distance of the Lodge, but required a scramble up a steep hill.

Seeing the beauty of the rhododendrons certainly made the climb worthwhile.

Jane Strange, Ellen Teague, Brenda Nave, Linda Jones. We didn't have to walk into the garden very far to realize that it was something extraordinary.

The mountain laurel above, poised to open, provided an interesting contrast to the larger rhododendron blooms at right.

The broad easy walkway took us through an amazing variety of large rhododendrons.

Brenda shows one of the large beautiful bloom clusters that we found at plant after plant in this fantastic garden.

The upper, younger part of the garden showed some unusual species of rhododendron. This red spotted variety at left can be seen in the center of the view above. Sprinkled around the garder were a few mountain laurels like the one shown below.