April 2023

When Bess and P.R. Smith chose to build a garden on five acres along Burnt Mill Creek in 1941, Charles Gillette, a renowned landscape architect from Richmond, Virginia, was brought in for the job. Azaleas and camellias abounded in the multiple spaces he created on the property at 615 Forest Hills Drive.  Twelve years later,…

Spring must be the best season in coastal Carolina, especially during April with all the great goings-on of the Azalea Festival and the Cape Fear Garden Club tour. In 1953, Bess and P.R. Smith’s garden on Forest Hills Drive hosted the ribbon-cutting ceremony on the inaugural garden tour. Bess was the founder of the garden…

“Lucy Honeychurch and her cousin, Charlotte, were immensely disappointed when they walked into their room at the Pensione Bertolini in Florence, Italy. They were promised a room with a view, a view of the water, and didn’t get it.” This opening scene of “A Room with a View,” the novel by English writer E.M. Forster,…

Two boys basketball high school head coaches in the greater Wilmington area achieved 400 career wins within weeks of each other. Rodney Orr at Heide Trask Senior High School in Pender County hit 400 in mid-January 2023 and Wells Gulledge at Eugene Ashley High School in New Hanover County attained the milestone victory in late…

Over his career, New Hanover County’s Eugene Ashley High School Coach Wells Gulledge has seen five of his players move on to play professionally; three in the National Basketball Association and two in the National Football League. National Basketball Association Brandon Ingram NBA Forward • 6’8”, 190 lbs. “Brandon went to Duke, and was the…

The 2023 Cape Fear Garden Club Azalea Garden Tour will feature at least 20 artists painting outside in private and public gardens throughout New Hanover County April 14-16. En plein air is French for “in the open air” and was popularized in the 19th century by French Impressionists who painted outside in gardens. The sixth…

On the days we are lulled into thinking winter is gone, I look for the first little green fingertips to claw their way through the cold dirt. This year, the confused little blooms burst onto the scene in late February, ready for their close-ups. Don’t believe it. I’ve seen April snows. Gardens are in my…

Night to Shine is a prom for people with special needs sponsored by the Tim Tebow Foundation held worldwide on the same date. This year, there were more than 650 events in 24 countries around the world on Feb. 10. The Wilmington event was hosted at Port City Community Church, and was memorable in many…

Anyone who drives in North Carolina has surely noticed the numerous beds of beautiful wildflowers lining the state’s roadways. The nationally recognized North Carolina Department of Transportation Wildflower Program helps make the drive just a little more enjoyable. Many people go into these flowerbeds with cameras to capture family portraits, engagement photos, and children’s pictures.…

When a long-standing Wilmington event was canceled, friends who had attended for years decided to start their own nonprofit so they could continue to bring the community together and give back. The Wilmywood Country Classic was born in 2016. It started with a group of friends and their mutual love of music and turned into…