If you attended a seminar hosted by A Gardener’s Place, you may have met Hope Wright. In addition to her responsibilities as a sales associate in our garden shop, she conducts the free daily seminars on gardening and flower arranging offered throughout the year. Which means Hope is one of the lucky few who can gather materials from Biltmore’s gardens to create beautiful arrangements seen in displays.

Since she’s spent 14 years at A Gardener’s Place, it’s only natural that several of our gardens hold her most preferred locations on the estate.

One of her favorite walks begins at Biltmore House and continues down into the Shrub Garden, bypassing the steps that lead to the Walled Garden. She recommends stopping there to admire the glory of a Weeping Blue Atlas cedar.

As you continue toward the Shrub Garden, take a trail that cuts up to the right. Then turn around to view the many dogwood varieties that thrive here.

“This area is unofficially known as the ‘dogetum’, a take on the word arboretum,” Hope says. “I continue to be amazed at the variety of interesting dogwoods—my favorite is the variegated Weeping Kousa Dogwood.”

The view from this location on the trail is amazing. “You can see a tiny section of the Conservatory through the evergreens, and a fabulous view of the entire Walled Garden,” she says. “I like to sit on the cast iron Victorian bench and take a few moments just to appreciate the scenery.”

In springtime, you can see the tulips in full bloom, but summer also serves up beauty with the Walled Garden bursting with bright annuals. “Take a few minutes to go off the beaten path—there’s always a new sight to behold in every season,” Hope says.

Learn more about our gardens and grounds.

For Bryan McIntosh, the Spring Garden will always hold a special place in his heart. Since beginning his Biltmore career in Food & Beverage operations 12 years ago, he’s spent a great deal of his working life indoors, from managing the Stable Café to his current responsibilities overseeing all food & beverage services in Antler Hill Village as well as operations for The Biltmore Coffee Co. in downtown Asheville.

But the Spring Garden—a secluded space just beyond the Shrub Garden and shaded with towering pines and hemlocks— stands out to him for two reasons.

“It reminds me of a golf fairway, and it’s also the place where my wife and I were married,” he says.

“We met at Biltmore, so it was fitting that we got married here,” Bryan says. “The Spring Garden is an unusual place for a wedding so that made it different and special for us.”

Landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted may have named it the Spring Garden for two small springs found here. As befits its name, this garden is glorious in spring with vivid blooms of forsythia, spirea, and redbuds contrasting with majestic evergreens. But summer brings its own beauty to this location, with leafy shrubs and trees creating a calm retreat.

For Bryan, the Spring Garden also had another plus going for it—it was one of the few places where he had not managed an event on the estate so it didn’t have “work” connections for him.

“My wife and I looked all over the Asheville area trying to find an outdoor location for our wedding. We just kept coming back to Biltmore; you can’t beat it,” he says.

Learn more about our gardens and grounds.

Part of Maura Scarmack’s responsibilities as Senior Catering Sales Manager is to help couples find just the right spot to get married on Biltmore. She also assists with related events such as rehearsal dinners and bridesmaids luncheons, and coordinates wedding details with Biltmore’s food and beverage team. Maura travels around the estate frequently as part of her job, so she’s familiar with many of our outdoor locations.

Her favorite place is the Library Terrace. Why? Well, that’s one spot where her wedding day photography was taken—before Maura even worked for Biltmore! She says their favorite photo from that day was taken from the Terrace and hangs in their living room so they can enjoy it every day.

“On a beautiful day, when the wisteria is blooming and the sun is pouring through the leaves, it’s such a magical place,” she said. “The benches are an ideal place to sit and read a book, just as George Vanderbilt may have done more than 100 years ago.  And the views are, not surprisingly, spectacular.”

More recently, a favorite spot has been the Farmyard at Antler Hill Village. Her young daughter adores visiting the animals there, and Maura says she has just as much fun seeing everything through her child’s eyes!

“These trips to the Farmyard will surely be some of our sweetest Biltmore memories for years to come,” she said.

Learn more about our gardens and grounds.

Working in Parking & Transportation for the past three years has provided Julie Tatol with a wide ranging view of the estate, particularly when she leads the Legacy of the Land guided tour which goes into areas not usually open to estate guests.

For Julie, the best view on the entire estate can be found at Lone Pine Hill, the hill that rises in front of Biltmore House which is also known as the Vista . She says this expanse—now lush with hemlocks, pines, and rhododendron—is proof of George Vanderbilt’s environmental vision. Footpaths and horse trails are part of this space along with a romantic venue tucked under the trees.

The summit is crowned with a statue of Diana, the Roman goddess of the hunt. One of Julie’s favorite views is looking through the space between Diana’s marble arm and tunic.

“It’s like looking through a keyhole into a magical world. The view sweeps down the Vista to this fairytale castle and the Blue Ridge Mountains beyond,” she says.

In summer, Julie says the pergola that shelters Diana drips wisteria blossoms to match the lavender hues on the peaks at dusk. It’s a sunset venue she highly recommends, and one that is easily reached by a trail starting at Parking Lot A. We invite you to take in the view during your next visit!

Imagine preparing and serving breakfast, a breakfast buffet, banquets, lunch and afternoon tea to hundreds of guests each day and managing ten employees.  It’s sort of like juggling with many balls in the air, but Ryan Hadenfeld, Demi Chef at the Inn, says bring it on—he loves the challenge and the creativity.

“Creativity in the kitchen involves everyone and I try to foster that environment,” he says. “We like to create things our cooks want to cook, and they like the freedom. It never gets boring.”

Some of the recent creations offered by his cooking staff include a strawberry salad, flat bread made with naan and a red pepper coulee, and an asparagus and crab salad with truffle aioli. Yum!

Ryan is a fairly new Biltmore chef; he’s been here about six months. He started at the Bistro and recently transferred to the Inn. This is his first supervisory role.

“As a cook you work hard, make sure everything is prepped and keep your cool. Once you get into management, you do all that plus you must know human resources and organizational skills, and you have to look ahead. I love my job.”

Ryan occasionally works the omelet station in the mornings. He says everything is prepped and chopped each morning, and then guests pick their ingredients. About a third of the guests want a little bit of everything in their omelet, another substantial percentage only want ham and cheese. But he sees it all—one guest asked for smoked salmon, another for jalapenos, several request egg white omelets.

“It’s very cool to work the omelet station. We get immediate feedback and that’s great. Several guests have told me their omelets were the best they ever had,” he said.

Many of the eggs used for breakfast at the Inn come from heirloom chickens raised on the estate. Ryan says these chickens are raised in a natural setting and the eggs have deeper yokes, are richer and quite delicious.

A typical day for Ryan means he checks in with all his staff, making sure they have what they need. He creates special dishes and new menus depending on what’s fresh. He and his staff make their own sauces and pickles, cheese puffs, pate and butcher salmon and beef.

“My job is the sum of all the little parts—I make sure everyone does their job and I get whatever falls between the cracks,” says Ryan. “One day we were slammed at lunch and someone said they needed help checking on the tables, so I walked out and did that. It’s not what I normally do but we’re all a team here.”