It’s Bedtime for Tulip Bulbs

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gardener planting bulbsWe pause now from our holiday postings to bring you a mini-preview of things to come this Spring.

In our region, November is the time to plant springtime bulbs. And that’s exactly what Biltmore’s Walled Garden crew did earlier this month, spending many hours on hands and knees tucking tulip bulbs into the ground for their long winter’s naps. They’ll need the rest – the tulips, we mean – because they have a show to put on.  (Not that our hard-working crew doesn’t need the rest, of course!)

When April arrives, our annual Biltmore Blooms event (formerly known as Festival of Flowers) will already be underway. The bulbs currently in the ground will transform themselves into bright green stems and showy petals in coordinated hues of pink and dark purple; and yellow, orange and light purple.

Estate-wide, the horticulture team planted around 96,000 bulbs. They dug thousands of 6-inch deep holes and dropped between eight and six bulbs into each one to ensure three or four weeks of bloom time.

Parker Andes, Director of Horticulture, suggests if you’re planting tulip bulbs in your garden at home, wait until the soil’s temperature drops to below 60 degrees Fahrenheit.  Arrange them so their pointy sides are facing up.

 He also advises that bulbs in the ground often serve as a subterranean buffet for critters like voles. If you have problems with these tiny rodents, add a little gravel to each hole to keep them from tunneling toward your bulbs.

Extra tidbit in the name of Trivial Pursuit:  What do Biltmore gardeners talk about while planting tulip bulbs? Any number of things, says Travis Murray, Walled Garden Crew Leader. The day we took these photos, the topic was “Favorite 1980s Horror Movies.”

Our Annual Christmas Party

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For more than 120 years, Biltmore has celebrated the holidays with a party for employees and their families. Today's annual gathering begins with a warm welcome from Bill Cecil Jr., great grandson of George Vanderbilt. The party is something staff looks forward to every year, and it's a wonderful opportunity to see co-workers and their loved ones fill the halls of Biltmore House. Children sit on Santa’s lap and whisper their wishes, while staff members hand them gift chosen as carefully for them as those that Edith Vanderbilt selected for earlier generations. This beloved tradition was started by George Vanderbilt when he first opened his new home on Christmas Eve 1895.

Children sit with Santa and Mrs. Claus at the Biltmore Christmas partyMaking a list and checking it twice

In October 1898, George and Edith Vanderbilt returned to Biltmore after a June wedding in Paris and an enviably long honeymoon. Mrs. Vanderbilt quickly settled into her new home and became involved in the lives of the families living on the estate. Within weeks of her arrival, our archival correspondence documents that she had already begun planning the holiday celebrations for estate staff.

Each year, Edith gathered the names of each of the children on the estate and carefully selected items she thought they would like. A “Christmas Tree Fund” was established to purchase gifts. Anna Wheeler, the wife of estate veterinarian and a close friend of Edith Vanderbilt, sometimes helped with the holiday preparations. In an unpublished memoir, Anna fondly described these special times:

“Mrs. Vanderbilt kept a book in which the individual presents were recorded yearly; her idea was to avoid duplication, but it served another purpose in assisting [her] in the better knowledge of each family. It was just another example of her predominate kindness and her executive ability. Mrs. Vanderbilt did the buying, and labeling and wrapping of all those many gifts.”  

Edith Vanderbilt's Christmas list for Biltmore familiesGifts for all

Given the Vanderbilts’ conscious support of the community, it’s no surprise that they believed in buying local. Edith made a point of purchasing the majority of toys and gifts from area merchants, though some specialty items were also ordered from F.A.O. Schwartz, an upscale department store in New York City. For the adults, gifts tended to be practical in nature. For her first Christmas here, Edith purchased comforters, mufflers and shawls from H. Redwood & Co. in Asheville.  For the youngest members of the estate, treats of special sweets, clothing, games, and toys were standard gifts.  Leaving no detail un-attended, Mrs. Vanderbilt personally labeled and wrapped these goodies, using one of the bedrooms in Biltmore House as her staging area. Anna recalled that the room “assumed the appearance of a Santa Clause storage place.”

A family enjoys Biltmore's Christmas party

Describing a scene almost identical to what still takes place today, Mrs. Wheeler wrote, “Every family received a package which contained a gift for each member. The brilliant tree, in its magnificent setting… the faces of those surrounding it, and the beautiful and gracious hostess are never to be forgotten.”

Enjoy our seasonal celebration with your family

Make Biltmore part of your family's holiday tradition by learning more about our Christmas at Biltmore and Candlelight Christmas Evenings celebrations.

Images:
— Featured image: Children of a Biltmore employee enjoy meeting Santa and Mrs. Claus at Biltmore's annual Christmas party
— First image: Santa and Mrs. Claus listen to children's Christmas wishes
— Second image: Receipt for Edith Vanderbilt's 1898 Christmas order from F.A.O Schwartz in New York
— Third image: Floral Design Manager Cathy Barnhardt enjoys Biltmore's Christmas party with her family, ca. 2010

Happy Birthday, George

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It’s a special day at Biltmore: the 150th anniversary of George Vanderbilt’s birth! His parents, William Henry and Maria Louisa Vanderbilt, welcomed him into the world at their family home near New Dorp on Staten Island, NY on November  14, 1862. Named in honor of a paternal uncle, little George was the youngest of a large, lively brood. Every so often we run across objects in the collection that shed some light on how the Vanderbilt family celebrated special occasions together.  It’s always touching to me (particularly after 150 years!) to come across tokens of these traditions. Maria Louisa was a devoted and loving mother to each of her eight children and she and George maintained a particularly close relationship throughout their lives. Today seems like a fitting occasion to share two of the birthday gifts that Maria Louisa bestowed upon her youngest son.

Tucked among Biltmore’s 23,000 books are three treasured volumes that George received from his mother for his ninth birthday. Inscribed “George from Mama Nov. 14th 1871”, the books are part of a popular series of novels written by the Reverend Elijah Kellogg, Jr. With titles like Boy Farmers of Elm Island and The Ark of Elm Island, one might guess that George had a taste for adventure, but the stories are also instructive. Throughout the series, the main characters are faced with all sorts of ethical dilemmas challenging their resolve to be upstanding young men, all while navigating the treacherous waters of the West Indies.  Maria Louisa Vanderbilt’s carefully-selected gift gives us a hint of George’s boyhood interests, as well as how deeply she valued and encouraged her children’s moral and intellectual growth.

Filed away in George’s personal papers, we found an unsigned and undated poem. The three pages are bound with a ribbon and composed in perfect penmanship. Upon reading it, it becomes apparent that the poem is from his mother and was written on the occasion of his 21st birthday. She reflects back upon his birth, celebrates his coming of age, and shares her hopes for his future.

Crowned in an aureole of light, I see grand dreams and visions bright

…there is no scope to youth’s vast boundless wealth of hope, and boundless opportunity for good…”

Through her carefully-crafted prose, Maria Louisa bids her son to heed the call of work, to put right what he finds wrong , and:

To give a kindly word of cheer

To those who heavy burdens bear

Such work will bless, when nobly done.

And such work comes to every one.

He helps the age in which he lives,

Who does his best – and his best gives

To carry sunshine everywhere…

A later stanza relates every mother’s dream of having her child’s greatest aspirations fulfilled.

If in thy heart deep-hidden some cherished wish there be,

One that may bless thy future – that wish is mine for thee.

And with this wish in parting, there comes to light the way

The season’s ripe perfection crowning this festal day.

I can only imagine the pride that Maria Louisa would feel in knowing that her son did indeed improve the age in which he lived, and was able to bring his “grand dreams and bright visions” to fruition as she had hoped. She would undoubtedly be elated to learn that George’s life’s work resulted in the creation of a bounteous estate, a peaceful oasis, and an enlightened community that are all still going strong 150 years later. Happy birthday, George!

Thank you to those who serve and have served

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A flag containing an array of stars hangs in the Banquet Hall of Biltmore House to honor Biltmore employees who served during World War I. Its 53 stars represent each person – 50 blue stars mark those who returned home, and the three gold stars represent those who died in action.

Today, Nov. 12, 2012, we honor the men and women who have served our country, and those who were and are employed by Biltmore.

Edith Vanderbilt commissioned the flag, known as the Service flag, in 1920. These flags grew in popularity during World War I after Army Captain Robert L. Queissner of the Fifth Ohio Infantry designed and patented a flag to honor his two sons serving on the front line.

In 2005, Biltmore’s Museum Services team had a reproduction of the flag made, which had hung in the Banquet Hall for more than 80 years. It had deteriorated over time and eventually it could no longer support its own weight.

For many years, we knew that one of the blue stars represented Herbert Noble, an English butler who worked in Biltmore House. In 1930, journalist Louis Graves wrote:

“Herbert Noble had been employed at the Vanderbilt home before the war; he had begged to be released to go to England and enlist; and he had come back to America with his ribbon, his wounds, and his memories of the great adventure, and had found his old job waiting for him.”

Herbert’s star was the only one to which we could attach a name. Until last week, that is.

The Museum Services team recently discovered new information about the Service flag through ongoing cataloging and research of the many thousands of documents in the Biltmore Archives. Within these documents exists the elusive list of 52 employees – 49 men and 3 women – who are remembered by these stars. Not all worked at the estate, but some worked at Biltmore Estate Industries and Biltmore Hospital as well. Just like Herbert Noble, many of those who returned to the U.S. after the war went back to their jobs, as Edith Vanderbilt made sure their jobs would be waiting for them when they got home. The identity of the 53rd star, a gold one that is not on the list and presumably added later, is still a mystery.

So now the process of researching the names, positions and stories of those on the list begins.

Biltmore House hosts share the flag’s history with our guests every day, noting that the names have never been known or confirmed. It’s exciting to think that now they’ll be able to share this new discovery with our guests.

Design Biltmore's Next Wine Label

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Although the calendar claims it’s still officially fall until December 21, it’s all about Christmas for us right now! Christmas at Biltmore kicked off last Saturday and Candlelight Christmas Evening tours begin tonight. It’s also the season for our commemorative Christmas at Biltmore Wine to appear around the estate, in our online store and in retail stores across the region.

Every year we hold a competition to design a wine label inspired by the holidays at Biltmore, with the winner’s artwork appearing on Christmas at Biltmore Wine bottles.  The competition is intense, drawing hundreds of entries from around the country.

Need a little inspiration?

Check out these wine label designs from previous years.

2012 Christmas at Biltmore Wine bottle was designed by Marcus C. Thomas

The gorgeous painting on the 2012 Christmas at Biltmore Wine bottle was designed by Marcus C. Thomas of Weaverville, NC. What makes Marcus’ artistry even more breathtaking: He is a quadriplegic, paralyzed below the neck and uses his mouth to paint his incredible works of art. Thomas will be at Biltmore Winery to sign bottles of the 2012 Christmas at Biltmore Wine Dec. 22, 2012. Marcus, his wife Anne and their yellow lab Bella live and create in Western North Carolina, where the Appalachian mountains serve as a source of infinite inspiration.  Visit marcusthomasartist.com for more information.

 

 

 

 

facade of Biltmore House and a Christmas tree is by Meagan Warren of Matthews, NC

This beautiful winter scene depicting the facade of Biltmore House and a Christmas tree is by Meagan Warren of Matthews, NC and was the winner in Biltmore’s 2011 wine label design contest. Meghan noted that “Like Biltmore, this label inspires magical memories of Christmases past, present, and the wonder of those to come.” Her label cast the most votes in our 2nd annual contest which drew 128 entries and thousands of votes cast across the country.

 

 

 

 

 

“Snowy Sunset Scene” is the name of the winning label in the 2010 wine label design contest. Designed by Teena Steenerson of Mauldin, SC

“Snowy Sunset Scene” is the name of the winning label in the 2010 wine label design contest. Designed by Teena Steenerson of Mauldin, SC, she was looking to capture a vintage look and feel of our annual Christmas at Biltmore celebration.

 

 

 

 

 

Interested in participating?

Now through January 13, submit an original design, photo or piece of artwork. A panel selected by Biltmore will identify up to five semifinalists. The semifinalist submissions will be featured on Biltmore.com beginning February 1, 2013 for fans to vote for their favorite. The winning submission will appear as the label of the 2013 Christmas at Biltmore Wine and receive prizes valued at $900.

How to Enter

Submit your best original design, photo or piece of artwork online at biltmore.com/contest. Include a three-sentence summary telling us why your entry embodies “Christmas at Biltmore.”

May I Park Your Car?

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We hear often from our guests that it is our staff who make Biltmore special.  And we agree!  Every person in every job has the same goal of making our visitors love their time with us.  At Inn on Biltmore Estate this is especially true, where guests stay several days and interact with employees throughout their visit.  But who are they really?  Let us introduce you!

May I Park Your Car?

These smiling faces often make the very first impression when a guest arrives at the inn.  That’s a huge responsibility, one that sets the tone for the guest’s entire stay. And they take that responsibility very seriously.  Not that they don’t have fun on the job – because they do.

The smiles tell the story. Meet Shane Robinson, Justin Pinner and Chris Roberts – Valets at Inn on Biltmore Estate.

Each describes himself as a “people person,” and on a recent beautiful November afternoon the three were working side by side to welcome guests, assisting them with their luggage, answering questions, parking their cars and retrieving their cars from the parking lot. “What’s not to enjoy,” says Justin. “It’s a beautiful location, you meet people from all over the world, you’re outside and you’re getting exercise.”  The three have a great sense of humor and clearly enjoy working together.

And all of this while staying in constant motion.  On average, Justin and his colleagues run between 7 and 8 miles per day to deliver guest vehicles to the parking lot or back to the front door where the guest is waiting. On days when the weather turns fierce with rain, wind, cold temperatures or all three together, it just makes them run faster.  No need to stop by the gym on the way home from work, this job has that benefit built in.

 Other qualifications for the job? Be an excellent driver.  And you better know how to drive a straight-shift vehicle – it’s on the job application.

A Year of Special Events in Asheville, NC

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Estate-wide Events

Enjoy even more of Biltmore with our special seasonal events. From Biltmore Blooms to Christmas at Biltmore‘s awe-inspiring decorations, our events calendar is sure to give you a new, fun way to experience the estate.

The Vanderbilts at Home and Abroad Exhibition

Open all year

A Moveable Feast

Spring 2013 – to be announced

Biltmore Concert Series

Selected summer and fall evenings

Fall at Biltmore

October

Christmas at Biltmore Daytime Celebration

November 2, 2013–January 1, 2014

Candlelight Christmas Evenings

November 9–December 31, 2013

Biltmore Blooms

March 21–May 31, 2013

Events and dates are subject to change.

Easy Tips for Matching Wine with Food

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Don’t fall for the myth that pairing food and wine is hard―or only for candlelight dinners. Whether you are grabbing wine on the weekly grocery run or for a gift or for a special dinner with friends, keep these basics in mind and choosing wine can be quick and easy.

Remember that wine is like art; your favorite is what you enjoy most. Everyone’s opinion is valid. However, there are basic physiological realities―your tastebuds―that are constant when certain styles of wine are paired with certain types of food.

Remember the lessons from elementary school: you have at least four basic tastes in your mouth: sweet, salty, sour, and bitter. These basic tastes apply to wines, too.

Sweet Food

Sweet food will increase the perception of:

  1. Sourness
  2. Bitterness
  3. Astringency, so the wine appears more dry, stronger, and less fruity

Example: Pair Cheesecake with semi-dry, non-complex wine like Riesling -OR- Try pairing Port Wine and Chocolate cake as the wine must be sweeter than the food you are serving.

Salty Food

Salty food increases the fruity, sweet character of wine.

Example: Olives and Sparkling wine; Blue cheese and Cabernet Sauvignon; Parmesan Cheese with Red Zinfandel

Sour Food

Sour food will make the wine appear sweeter and less strong.

Example: Fish with Lemon sauce paired with a non-complex Sauvignon Blanc or Pinot Grigio

Bitter Food

Bitter food increases the bitterness in wine, so best to pair with non-complex wines.

Example: Mixed Green Salad, Nuts, or Grapes, paired with a Riesling or White Zinfandel

Matching Food and Wine

When pairing food and wine, it is important to remember that certain foods complement certain wines. The flavors of the food are amplified when matched with the appropriate wine and vice versa. Keep this in mind when you think you bought “bad” wine; you may just need to find the perfect food to go with it!

For example, if you start out with plain chicken:

  • When adding salt to chicken, pair with the dry, yet creamy, Sauvignon Blanc
  • When adding cheese to the chicken, pair with the crisp and semi-sweet Riesling
  • When adding bacon to the chicken, pair with the soft, velvety Pinot Noir

Select light-bodied wines with lighter food, and fuller bodied wines with heartier dishes.

 

What is a ‘body’ of wine?

The easiest way to explain this is with a simple milk analogy.

  • Wines that are light in body = Skim Milk They are light in color and don’t leave a film on your tongue
  • Medium body wine = 2% or Regular Milk It has a heavier texture than a light body and will linger in your mouth
  • Full bodied wines = Half & Half or Heavy Cream These wines are heavy, rich and coat your tongue and throat all the way down

Here is a helpful guide that you can print out and take with you anywhere!

 

Create Beautiful Wall Groupings

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One of the quickest and easiest ways to personalize your home is with wall groupings. Whether you’re showcasing family photos or favorite works of art, a carefully planned grouping can transform an entire room.Get started with these helpful tips from our Biltmore For Your Home partner, Larson-Juhl:

Try Coordinating Frames

Select coordinating frames for a sense of unity. Matching frames provide a common design element, especially when the content is eclectic. Your local custom framer can help you select the best design for your space.

Showcase Your Treasures

If you have valuable art, consider a gallery-style wall grouping with images hung side by side. Salon-style groupings are also popular with images displayed side by side and on top of one another. Sets or collections look best when arranged in more structured groupings.

Go Beyond the Wall

Shelves, side tables, and dressers are great locations for creating custom groupings, because they allow you to swap out pieces based on your mood and the season. Update one or two pieces from the grouping for an instant and inexpensive update.

More Ideas

Create unique wall art from unusual objects. Think outside of the box when trying to create a beautiful wall grouping. Sports memorabilia, children’s art, vacation photos, and mirrors can all be used to create a wall grouping as unique as your personality. You could also make your own custom art by taking a large piece of art and having your local framer cut it into equally sized pieces. Frame each piece individually and hang together on the wall to create an original mosaic.