Gibbs’ Inspiration Garden designed for home gardeners
By Barbara Schneider, Gibbs Gardens
Photos courtesy of Gibbs Gardens
Inspiration blooms at Gibbs Gardens—it’s everywhere. Thousands of vibrant azalea blossoms and Knockout roses burst into bloom throughout Gibbs Gardens’ amazing, one-of-a-kind Inspiration Garden.
“I designed this garden especially for home gardeners,” said Jim Gibbs, the owner/designer/developer of Gibbs Gardens. “I wanted to introduce new, hardy planting choices that work best for home gardens and show gardeners how mixed groups of plantings work together based on sun, shade and part-shade light requirements.”
Planned for easy strolls on walkable pathways winding through 15 acres, the Inspiration Garden features unique dwarf and rare plant collections, huge boulders/stone work and vibrant flowering favorites.
Native, Encore Azalea collections
The Inspiration Garden is amazing year-round, but April through May is prime time for dramatic displays of new and native azaleas and low-maintenance roses.
The Native Azalea Collection includes more than1,800 early-, mid- and late-blooming native azaleas, representing more than 100 varieties in shades of pink, orange, red, yellow and white. The Encore Azalea Collection includes more than 1,200 plants—all 33 varieties—in bloom from April through November. Thousands of Kurume, Indica, Glendale and Satsuki azaleas have been added through the years to extend the azalea color season. New azaleas and existing native azaleas combine to create displays of more than 3,000 azaleas.
Gibbs planted the Drift Groundcover Rose series—all dwarf and low maintenance—plus the Knockout Rose series. Set against Japanese Maples, conifers and an exciting selection of flowering trees and shrubs, the roses add exciting bursts of beautiful color.
The Evergreen Dwarf Conifer Collection features hundreds of dwarf conifers representing 200 named species in a wide range of colors, textures and forms.
The Dwarf Japanese Dissectum Maple Collection includes more than 100 varieties. In addition, Gibbs has planted hundreds of Acer palmatum and Acer japonicum throughout the Gardens, interspersed among shade-loving or deciduous flowering shrubs.
“We started with low-maintenance dwarf conifers,” said Gibbs. “They are evergreen, creating a four-season garden and providing beautiful blue-gray, green and chartreuse color, even in winter when everything else is bleak and trees have dropped their leaves.”
The Inspiration Garden blooms twice a year, in spring and fall. For more information on what it took to build this unique garden, go to:
Gibbs Gardens Daffodil Festival was voted #1 in America March 2025 for 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; “Georgia, swathes of splendor,” by Georgia Daffodil Association; “Thirteen Best Botanical Gardens in America” and a top garden in Georgia by the Atlanta Journal Constitution, Explore Georgia and the “100 places to visit in North Georgia before you die.” Gibbs Gardens always has something new in bloom. The six feature gardens and 18 seasonal color gardens offer unique and continuous delights for garden lovers of all interests. To learn more about Gibbs Gardens go to gibbsgardens.com.
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