Garden Ideas for Every Season Bloom at Gibbs Gardens

By Barbara Schneider

The vibrant color of flowering plants greets visitors throughout Gibbs Gardens. Image By Bill Howell.

Each year, Gibbs Gardens is filled with incredible beauty, dazzling colors and vivid contrasts—as the land is reborn once more. From the welcoming Flower Bridge to unique featured and seasonal displays, Gibbs Gardens’ floral beauty and natural setting are awe inspiring.

“I never get tired of seeing the transformation,” said Jim Gibbs, owner/developer/designer. “The gardens are overflowing with an incredible variety of plants, bushes and trees throughout our 372 acres—offering visitors uniquely beautiful views everywhere they look.”

The vibrant color of flowering plants greets visitors throughout Gibbs Gardens. Image By Bill Howell.

This isn’t a matter of chance. Gibbs has been designing, planting and nurturing his gardens for more than 40 years. His incomparable Inspiration Garden—designed with home gardeners in mind—is bursting with lush azaleas in shades ranging from delicate pinks to bright red.

The vibrant color of flowering plants greets visitors throughout Gibbs Gardens. Image By Bill Howell.

Gibbs planted many varieties of rhododendrons in the Valley Gardens. These evergreen shrubs bloom in May and flower into June. Colors vary with many shades of pink, red, white, purple and lavender. More rhododendrons are planted on a forested north-facing slope of mature deciduous trees with gentle sloping walkways gracing the hillside.

The vibrant color of flowering plants greets visitors throughout Gibbs Gardens. Image By Bill Howell.

Roses, ‘the poetry of nature’

Gibbs’ Rose Gardens are unmatched when it comes to variety, planting design and pure beauty. Climbing roses, ‘Knock Out’ roses, ‘Drift’ series dwarf roses and more than 500 heirloom rose bushes create dramatic swaths of vibrant color from May until the first frost arrives.

Artistic groupings of ‘Drift’ and ‘Knock Out’ roses grace the Inspiration Gardens. Beautiful plantings of ‘Knock Out’ roses flow through the Valley Gardens. In the rose garden above Le Jardin, Gibbs planted many varieties of roses, including more than 100 varieties of heirloom roses. Ranging in color from shades of red and pink to yellow and white, rose bushes curve across acres of bright-green lawns to create dramatic color contrasts.

The vibrant color of flowering plants greets visitors throughout Gibbs Gardens. Image By Bill Howell.

More roses are planted on four levels near the Manor House where dry-stacked Tennessee fieldstone walls buttress the rose terraces. Fragrant, climbing ‘New Dawn’ blush-pink roses, adorn a 135-foot-long serpentine wooden arbor. Go to http://gibbsgardens.com/garden-photos/roses/heirloom-rose-list for Gibbs Gardens’ heirloom roses listed by rose type and color.

The vibrant color of flowering plants greets visitors throughout Gibbs Gardens. Image By Bill Howell.

Water iris attracts butterflies, birds to Japanese Gardens

Beautiful all year, the Japanese Gardens offer bonus surprises in May as clumps of bright-blue to purple water iris appear along the edge of the ponds. Attracted by their vibrant color, curious butterflies and birds hover to explore the flowers.

Japanese maples reveal bright red leaves while ‘Satsuki’ azaleas add bursts of color in contrast to the dramatic deep-green of mature bushes pruned bonsai style. The sounds of waterfalls, leaves rustling in the breeze and birds singing blend together for nature’s May’s song.

Blossoms are everywhere—from the intricate flower baskets along the entrance Flower Bridge to the natural Fern Dell, from hillsides graced by colorful azaleas and majestic rhododendrons to hardy water lilies bursting with blooms in the Monet Waterlily Gardens.

Twilight in the Gardens returns

Gibbs Gardens’ Twilight in the Gardens concerts are back, with performances from 6-9 p.m., the second and third Saturdays in May and June. The popular 120 East is set for May 16. Concerts are set for June with the American Flyers Band performing June 13 and the Stephen Lee Band set for June 20.

World-class destination garden

Gibbs Gardens Daffodil Festival, voted No. 1 in America for Best Flower Festival in March 2026 and 2025 Best Flower Festival, a contest sponsored by USA Today. Honored with the National Garden Clubs’ Award of Excellence, Gibbs Gardens has been named one of “The Best Places in the World to See Daffodils” by Flower Magazine; one of “Thirteen Best Botanical Gardens in America” and a top garden in Georgia by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. To learn more about Gibbs Gardens go to gibbsgardens.com.

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