Wednesday, May 20th - The Gardens of Charleston

Give fools their gold and knaves their power,
Let fortune's bubbles rise and fall,
Who sows a field or trains a flower
or plants a tree, is more than all.

Whittier

Today was my day to visit the old Southern plantations.  In high school a very good friend was quite taken by all things Gone with the Wind – I was influenced and I have to confess, I was in search of Tara …

My first stop was the Magnolia Plantation – still a family run plantation.  The house was more like a summer home with furniture from the 1800’s – the quilts were a highlight for me – beautiful.  But the real star of the property was the garden – it was huge, many gardens really, going along the river and then up into the property.   The gardens felt very ‘natural’ or native to the countryside – they made me think of my Mom and her love of native gardens – though if you get here Mom, you need to be sure to come when the camellias are in bloom! (The quote is from the gardens here.)

Next was Middleton Place – also known for their gardens, but this time, very, very formal gardens.  They were inspired by the French gardens of Versailles and were stunning - almost the diametric opposite from Magnolia Plantation.  I did the garden tour and that definitely helped me appreciate what I was seeing – for all the formality though, my favorite was the huge oak tree by the river.  Another visit to be carefully timed – this time for the azaleas by the reflecting pool.

My last stop was Drayton Hall, the only original house of the three that survived the Civil War.  They haven’t restored it, instead they are simply preserving it – without furniture, it is stunning and you truly appreciate the bones of the house: beautiful dark wood inside, 24 inch walls, 3 coats of paint over three hundred years, incredible ceilings plastered by hand in the formal rooms.  The tour guide was excellent – my education on Georgian architecture grew exponentially!  (and the alligators they've seen in the stream on the property opened my eyes to the very different wildlife on offer here - if I have to choose, I think I'll take the bears from home ....)

However, of all the things I saw today, the most beautiful surprised me … it was a flower bouquet cemetery – seriously, I saw this field of what looked like hundreds and hundreds of flower bouquets standing up from the grass – I had to stop.  There were no headstones, instead at each plot there was a spot for a brass vase, and in almost all cases, it was filled with plastic flowers.  For plastic, the flowers were beautiful – and in all types and arrangements.  Just beautiful.

For dinner, I headed into Charleston and found an Italian restaurant, nothing special food wise but they had live music and a fun atmosphere.  

Postscript - I have to admit, I didn't find the Tara in my mind - and discovered after I left the area, that the closest to it was Boone Plantation - ah well, something to be able to go back for ... and I will go back as there is much of the Carolinas and Georgia still to be explored!