Gibbs Gardens’ 24 Unique Garden Areas Inspire Home Gardeners
By Barbara Schneider, Gibbs Gardens
Photos courtesy of Gibbs Gardens
Le Jardin, one of Jim Gibb’s new gardens, features plants with contrasting color, heights, shapes and blooms.
August is a month of fairy-tale beauty at Gibbs Gardens—and this Cinderella is dressed for the ball. Marvelous displays of color—their bold hues sparkling like jewels—dance across the 376-acre garden in every direction.
From the Flower Bridge entrance throughout the vast Valley Gardens and Japanese Gardens up to the elegant Manor House Gardens, each unique planting design is a work of art.
These displays encourage home gardeners to explore the plantings, check out colors, varieties, mixtures of flowering plants—and gather ideas for their own gardens.
The Flower Bridge welcomes visitors with artistically arranged, blossom-filled baskets bursting with flowers of all shades and hues.
Gibbs Gardens’ Waterlily Garden is a favorite spot for photographers to capture beautiful waterlilies and their reflections.
For a double dose of breath-taking color, the Monet Waterlily Gardens’ tropical and hardy blooms create magical reflections in the ponds. Garden owner, designer-developer, Jim Gibbs, describes waterlilies as, “nature’s jewels that sparkle and reflect in our ponds.”
Heirloom roses are a garden favorite for their amazing color variety and graceful beauty.
Abundant displays of roses in pinks, red and white provide strong contrast to bright green lawns in the Valley Gardens. “We planted a wide variety of roses—floribunda, grandiflora, Knockout shrub roses and the new Drift roses—to accent or expand existing plantings,” said Gibbs. “One section in the rose gardens features more than 100 beautiful Heirloom rose bushes in all colors.”
Jim Gibbs likes to use a serpentine design to draw visitors’ eyes forward to follow the color.
Dramatic S-curved ribbons of vibrant Knockout roses sprawl across the Valley Gardens. A classical 130-foot-long trellis covered with blush pink New Dawn roses crowns the Manor House Gardens.
Jim Gibbs’ newest garden builds on the sounds and movement of water to create a restful area for visitors.
With a backdrop of fragrant magnolias, the Manor House Gardens offer picture-perfect views of artistic annual and perennial gardens, the new Fountains Garden and views of the North Georgia Mountains.
While August can bring afternoon temperatures on the warm side, mornings are delightful—especially early when the gardens open. Twenty-nine ponds, streams and waterfalls flow throughout the gardens with natural spring water. Thousands of trees provide abundant shade.
Summer hours are Wednesday through Sunday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. The last admission is 4 p.m., when the entrance gates close. Gibbs Gardens is located at 1987 Gibbs Drive in Ball Ground. For more information or to purchase tickets, visit gibbsgardens.com or call 770-893-1880.
World-class destination garden
Atlanta’s local ABC channel, WSB, named Gibbs Gardens one of Georgia’s Hidden Treasures during its June 1 program. “We are honored to be named one of Georgia’s Hidden Treasures and very appreciative of the wonderful recognition we’ve received this spring,” said Gibbs. WSB’s recognition comes just two months after Gibbs’ Daffodil Festival was voted “the best flower festival in America for 2025” by USA Today 10 Best Readers' Choice Awards.
Gibbs Gardens also is honored to be recognized by these organizations: National Garden Clubs’ Award of Excellence; Flower Magazine’s one of “The 10 Best Places in the World to See Daffodils”; one of “Thirteen Best Botanical Gardens in America”; and rated a top garden in Georgia by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. To learn more about Gibbs Gardens, go to gibbsgardens.com.
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