Wilmington Azalea Festival Garden 5 Belles and Entrepreneurs

The beauty of Wilmington, North Carolina

Across the street from the garden of Susan and Rusty Carter on Country Ridge Road, a scene played out that was repeated numerous times that day.

The Cape Fear Garden Club was having a festival and invited crowds of garden lovers to the neighborhood. The Garden Club members were focused, as it should be, on making sure the gardens were prepared for the strollers and that the event was well managed. They made sure that those entering the grounds displayed the appropriate ticket and that the questions they could answer were answered.

Entrepreneurs love situations like this. There is always some unmet need that the organizers of an event cannot reasonably be expected to manage. The genius of the situation allows the entrepreneurs the opportunity for a small profit while enhancing the overall situation for the event organizer.

Across the street from Garden 5, four young women and their dog had set up a table upon which they had placed some cool looking lemonade. Operating in the best tradition of American business, they set a price they seemed to offer them the opportunity to make a fair profit while making their refreshing drink available to the public.

This scene played itself out at several locations along the Azalea Festival route. It was my impression that these young entrepreneurs had the best looking presentation of their goods among all the other aspiring entrepreneurs along the route. Perhaps it was their mascot that created that impression.

They had, as you might have guessed, a cute little dog with an attractive hat as an attraction for the animal lovers along the route to their sales pitch. They operated from a simple table as each member of the four; or is that five, person team performed their function. While one offered cool refreshment, another took the money while yet another poured the lemonade and kept up interest in the product. The fourth and fifth members of this team sat there looking cute.

I think anyone who came across these vendors would have to agree that they had a simple yet very appealing way of presenting their product on a hot sunny day in Wilmington.

Of course, these future belles were not without completion from the current belles who displayed their beauty in the garden itself. These more mature young women of high school years were decked out in beautiful period gowns reminiscent of the long past days of the south. Each lady wore a different colored gown that was suitable for the grandest ball.

The belles are sponsored by Garden Club members during their junior or senior year of high school to help the represent the club by dressing in period gowns and looking the part of the best of Southern Culture.

At the entrance to the garden were two women who may well have been belles in their high school years. Today, a little more experienced, the hostesses were busy marking festival tickets and making garden lovers welcome to the beautiful garden. Club members sponsored 125 young ladies to represent the club within twelve gardens this year.

In the Carter garden, four of these wonderful young women gave up part of their weekend to represent the New Hanover Garden Club as waves of enthusiastic garden lovers enjoyed the day in this very pleasant garden.

Some background on the Wilmington Azalea Festival.

The Cape Fear Garden Club organizes the annual Wilmington Azalea Festival. This non-profit, philanthropic, and educational association is organized to stimulate knowledge of gardening among amateurs in the Cape Fear Region of North Carolina. The organization works to provide education on gardening and horticulture. It works closely with agencies to encourage environmental improvement to protect, restore and preserve the natural world for trees, plants, birds so that these can be enjoyed in future years.

Founded in 1925, the Garden Club today has hundreds of active members. The Annual Azalea Festival is one of the biggest events not only for the club, but also for Wilmington, NC. Numerous related events, including a sizable parade, are held on the weekend of the event.

Wilmington itself is a unique city with an eclectic nature. Driving into the city, it appears to be a place of strip malls and small hotels. For many people traveling through to the New Hanover County beaches or south to Myrtle Beach, this may be the only city they see. They have no idea how much beauty and culture they are missing out on.

Just before the bridge out of town, a right turn will take the traveler to a quaint though lively waterfront downtown. Here the buildings are of brick and lined with interesting shops on one end. The other end of the street is lined with restored buildings going back to a more elegant time. The gardens in some of these houses can be explored by the public only during the Azalea Festival.

Going north along side streets on either side of the fast north/south routes through the city are enchanting tree lined neighborhoods with a wealth of interesting homes. Hidden behind and around these homes are a plethora of gorgeous gardens. A few of these homes are open at anytime other than those few, this is a special opportunity the festival affords us.