Bright-pink azaleas flutter in a soft breeze as tulips the color of fire push through the ground. Tender buds flower on bushes in the rose garden, and Japanese koi swim in a pond blanketed with lily pads. Spirea bushes drip delicate white blossoms onto the grass.

Brick walkways weave through the 3-acre garden of Francis and Luann Tedesco on Milledge Road, where the garden design and planting scheme mimic the original plan laid out in the first decade of this century.

Most of the garden structures - the walkways, benches, arbors, teahouses and statuary - are original. The house was built in 1911, and the garden probably dates back that far as well.

It is one of a handful of Augusta's notable historic gardens that remain in their original splendor.

Built by Francis Hardy, a Chicagoan who wintered in Augusta, the home has changed hands several times. The Tedescos have attempted to restore the garden to its original look, based on old photographs and writings.

Gardens like this, common in the early decades of this century, led to Augusta's christening as ``The Garden City of the South.''

When the Georgia Golf Hall of Fame opens in 1998, it will highlight gardening in Augusta with re-creations of historic styles of flower gardens found in the city's gardening heyday.

The Garden City nickname came about in the 1920s when garden clubs in Sand Hills, the section of Augusta now known as The Hill, gave tours of private gardens to raise money.

``The Northern wealthy found that the climate here was pleasant, and the growing season longer,'' said Barry Smith, director of Augusta Trees and Parks. ``They built large estates on The Hill, and the rear of the properties had expansive gardens.

``They found that they could grow camellias and azaleas, which they couldn't grow up north. Most of these people employed private gardeners to maintain the gardens, and Augusta became known as the Garden City.''

``He had a million pansies,'' she recalls. ``Literally a million. In May he would let all the neighborhood children come and pick all the pansies they wanted, and we'd just pick them and pick them - aprons full - and we didn't even make a dent. We'd give them to our teachers, until they had to call our parents and ask them to tell us to stop because they didn't have any more room for them!''

Other Sand Hills gardens - on streets such as Milledge Road, Battle Row and Cumming Road, featured acres of rose bushes, azaleas, hyacinths, boxwoods and other varieties of colorful flowers and shrubbery. The upkeep of these lavish gardens required a great deal of time and money.

``Those old gardens really were magic,'' said Jeanie Lehmann, who also grew up in Augusta. ``It gave those of us who grew up here a lifelong love for gardening.''

Mr. Smith said that some of the city's leaders latched on to the ``Garden City'' concept and began to beautify public areas as well.

``They started planting boulevards and parkways with dogwoods, azaleas and oak trees,'' he said. ``The Trees and Parks department was established as a part of the government about 60 years ago, to develop the aesthetics of the Garden City and develop its green areas and street scapes.''

Few of the historic gardens remain. Many of the properties have been divided into smaller plots, and formal gardens are just too expensive and time-consuming for most folks to maintain. But a drive through Summerville on a spring day with the windows down still brings the delicate scent of wisteria, and the dainty pink and white blooms of Augusta's trademark azalea still brighten the landscape.

And every April, Augusta's most famous garden, the Augusta National Golf Course, is on television for all the world to see, in the peak of its blooming grandeur.

Come on, you didn't really think golf was the only reason to watch the tournament, did you?