My Visit to Afton Villa Gardens in Louisiana

We visited the gardens on March 9.

This is the entrance to Afton Villa Gardens.

You can see the Azaleas are just beginning to bloom.  In a couple of weeks they will be magnificent on either side of the road.

Afton Villa was a Plantation Home in Louisiana along the Mississippi River.  But it burned down in the mid 1900's.

A beautiful Garden was planted among the ruins of the house.

It is my favorite place in Louisiana.

And one of the most beautiful gardens I have ever seen.

You can visit at anytime beginning in March 1 and it is in bloom with something!

We came across the owner of Afton Villa Gardens working with one of her gardeners.

Can you believe this is her gardening garb??

She was a gracious hostess.  Very Southern Lady!

There had been a downpour the day before and she told us she was "fixing" the pansies.  Some of them were mashed in the rain.  Then she apologized because the Tulips were not all blooming yet! Some of them were blooming but she told us she liked for them to bloom at the same time!  Meeting her was a unexpected treat and added a personal touch to the day.  It was obvious that this was her garden.

The grounds were all so lovingly tended.

Coming off of what would have been the house (Afton Villa)  was the Formal Gardens.

This is a view from the Formal Gardens down a sloping hill to the Music Garden.

This is one of the statues depicted playing music.

In a week or two the wisteria will begin to bloom.

My favorite was the field of Daffodils.  There will also be Tulips later.

A trail leads you among the Daffodils.

Three Friends in the Daffodils!  I am on the right.

Daffodils are such a happy flower!

William Wordsworth wrote a wonderful poem about them!

The Family Cemetery is surrounded with Sweet Olive which was in bloom.  It is the most wonderful scent you can imagine.  Very subtle and elusive.  You get a whiff of the scent and stop and wonder if you really smelled it.  Then a breeze brings it to you again and you find yourself trying to follow the scent to get more. I love it!!

If you love to tour Gardens you should not miss this one.

Afton Villa Gardens.

Daffodils

I wandered lonely as a cloud

That floats on high o'er vales and hills,

When all at once I saw a crowd,

A host, of golden daffodils;

Beside the lake, beneath the trees,

Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.

Continuous as the stars that shine

And twinkle on the milky way,

They stretched in never-ending line

Along the margin of a bay:

Ten thousand saw I at a glance,

tossing their heads in sprightly dance.

The waves beside them danced; but they 

Out-did the sparkling waves in glee:

A poet could not but be gay,

In such a jocund company:

I gazed...and gazed...but little thought

what wealth the show to me had brought:

For oft, when on my couch I lie

In vacant or in pensive mood,

They flash upon that inward eye

which is the bliss of solitude;

And then my heart with pleasure fills,

and dances with the daffodils.

by William Wordsworth