Fairhope, Alabama
'BRADFORD AMARYLLIS GARDEN'
After thanking the city and its Museum of History's Director Donnie Barrett (who organized the dedication), Susie, the daughter of John and Estelle Bradford, cut the ribbon Tuesday morning at the former site of her parent's garden behind the city's library between School and Bancroft Streets.
She said her parents grew up in Atmore and were married in 1923; but moved to the Fish River area in 1923 where her father worked cutting virgin pine with his portable saw mill -- until the Great Depression hit in 1929 and they "had to move to town."
Their first house, where she grew up, was at the corner of School and Magnolia Streets and some of her neighbors were the Stubblefields, Clays, Sheldons, and 'Big Mama' Turner.
Later her father, nicknamed Tappy, "fell in love with camellias" and began grafting and raising them from seeds; he eventually organized the area's first camellia society and became its first president, she said.
Her mother on the other hand, similarly became enamored with amaryllis lilies and started experimenting with cross pollination creating many interesting new varieties (ie. the Clown, Lady Bradford and Tappy). -- which she sold via mail order throughout the region.
The whole area behind the current library was a terraced garden at one time, filled with camellias and azaleas; where the library building is today was a "solid field or amaryllises" that "put on quite a show in the Spring," she said.
Director Barrett also credited the plaque to former city horticulturist Jennifer Fidler, a proponent of historic horticultural preservation: a memorial garden to the Wiseman family who were instrumental in raising funds for construction of the new library was also being planned for the area at one time.
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| Corner of Magnolia and Bancroft Streets |
'BRADFORD AMARYLLIS GARDEN'
After thanking the city and its Museum of History's Director Donnie Barrett (who organized the dedication), Susie, the daughter of John and Estelle Bradford, cut the ribbon Tuesday morning at the former site of her parent's garden behind the city's library between School and Bancroft Streets.
She said her parents grew up in Atmore and were married in 1923; but moved to the Fish River area in 1923 where her father worked cutting virgin pine with his portable saw mill -- until the Great Depression hit in 1929 and they "had to move to town."Their first house, where she grew up, was at the corner of School and Magnolia Streets and some of her neighbors were the Stubblefields, Clays, Sheldons, and 'Big Mama' Turner.
Later her father, nicknamed Tappy, "fell in love with camellias" and began grafting and raising them from seeds; he eventually organized the area's first camellia society and became its first president, she said.
Her mother on the other hand, similarly became enamored with amaryllis lilies and started experimenting with cross pollination creating many interesting new varieties (ie. the Clown, Lady Bradford and Tappy). -- which she sold via mail order throughout the region.The whole area behind the current library was a terraced garden at one time, filled with camellias and azaleas; where the library building is today was a "solid field or amaryllises" that "put on quite a show in the Spring," she said.
Director Barrett also credited the plaque to former city horticulturist Jennifer Fidler, a proponent of historic horticultural preservation: a memorial garden to the Wiseman family who were instrumental in raising funds for construction of the new library was also being planned for the area at one time.
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