South Carolina Gardens

 Abbeville County Museum: Poplar and Cherry Streets, Abbeville, SC 29620. Museum: (864)459-2696. Garden: (864)459-9011.

The museum offers an 1859 jail, the Creswell Log Cabin and an educational garden.

 Boone Hall Plantation: Off US 17 on Long Point Road North of Charleston, Mount Pleasant, SC 29464 (843)884-4371.

This early 18th century former cotton plantation displays a live oak allee, and formal gardens with a serpentine brick wall and herringbone paths, hundreds of varieties of camellias and azaleas, and thousands of brilliant annuals.

 Brookgreen Gardens: 1931 Brookgreen Gardens Drive, US Highway 17 South, Murrells Inlet, SC 29576 (843)235-6000 or (800) 849-1931.

This 300 acre garden (with over 2000 species and varieties of plants) displays more than 500 pieces of sculpture from 200 artists set among tranquil gardens, fountains, courtyards, allees, ponds and woodland. Special areas include the Dogwood Garden (4 quadrants with pools), the Small Sculpture Gallery (a cloister-like garden), the South Carolina Terrace, the Live Oak and Magnolia Allees, the Diana Pool, the Palmetto Garden (with reflecting pool), the Fountain of the Muses Garden, the Arboretum, and and Dogwood, Opuntia and Cypress Ponds. The visitor can also enjoy a 50-acre wildlife park with animals and native plants and an aviary.

 Charles Towne Landing: 1500 Old Towne Road (Highway 171), Charleston, South Carolina 29407 (803)852-4200.

The original site of Charleston, this state park offers a natural habitat zoo, freshwater lagoons, the 1670 Experimental Crop Garden, 80 acres of beautiful English Park Gardens and more.

 Columbia Museum of Art: Main and Hampton Streets, P.O. Box 2068, Columbia, SC 29202 (803)799-2810.

This museum of fine and decorative arts includes a terrace garden.

 Cypress Gardens: 3030 Cypress Garden Road, Monck's Corner, SC 29461 (843)553-0515.

The black swamp waters reflect and accentuate the plantings of azaleas, dogwoods, daffodils and wisteria in this 163 acre garden. Visitors may use either the three miles of foot paths or flat bottom boats.

 Drayton Hall: 3380 Ashley River Road, Charleston, SC 29414 (843)769-2600.

This 125 acre former plantation offers an 18th century Georgian Palladian house and remnants of the formal park-like landscaping.

 Edisto Memorial Gardens: US 301 within the city, Orangeburg, SC 29115 (803)533-6020.

An All America Selection rose test site, this 150 acre garden on the bank of the Edisto River offers 50 beds of roses with 4,000 plants representing 75 labeled varieties, plus displays of azaleas, wisteria and other Southern favorites. A wetlands area, the Horne Wetlands Park, can be viewed from a 1/2 mile boardwalk. The Gardens also feature a butterfly garden, a sensory garden and a beautiful terrace garden near the adjacent Arts Center.

 Fryar's Topiary Garden: 145 Broad Acres Road, 1 mile north of I-20 Exit 116, Bishopville, SC (843)484-5581.

This 3 acres of elegant topiary, created by Pearl Fryer, includes graceful arches, spirals, and geometric designs plus many more whimsical creations.

 Gardens at Nicholls-Crook Plantation: 120 Plantation Drive, Woodruff, SC 29388 (864)476-8820.

This plantation, now a bed and breakfast, displays annuals and perennials in 18th century style gardens that feature heirloom specimens as well as improved varieties of 19th century originals.

 Glencairn Garden: Charlotte and Edgemont Avenues, Rock Hill, SC (803)329-5540.

This 7.6 acre garden offers lovely sculpted terraces, flower beds, 3,500 azaleas, lawns, a reflecting pool and fountain and walking paths.

 Hampton Preston Mansion: 1615 Blanding Street, Columbia , SC 29201 (803)252-7742.

This lovely 1818 mansion situated on 4 acres offers gardens and a formal boxwood maze.

 Hatcher Garden & Woodland Preserve: 820 John B. White Sr. Boulevard (Reidville Road), Spartanburg, SC 29304-2337 (864)574-7724.

This 10 acre garden sanctuary displays over 10,000 plants including perennial and annual flower displays, wildflowers, shrubs, an old-growth forest and ponds.

 Heyward Washington House:  87 Church Street, Charleston, SC 29401 (843)722-2996.

This 1772 house, home to a signer of the Declaration of Independence, offers elegant formal period gardens.

 Hopeland Gardens: 210 University Park, Whiskey Road and Dupree Place, Aiken, SC 29801 (803)642-7630.

This 14 acre park offers traditional gardens, a Hall of Fame in the former stables, a wetlands garden, an open-air stage, a fountain and a touch-and-scent trail with plaques in Braille. Plantings include camellias, azaleas, wisteria, dogwood, crepe myrtle, magnolias, lilies and roses.

 Hopsewee Plantation: U.S. Hwy. 17, 12 miles south of Georgetown, SC (843) 546-7891.

This 18th century river-front plantation with grounds was home to a signer of the Declaration of Independence.

 Japanese Garden: Furman University, 3300 Poinsett Highway, Greenville, SC 29613 (864)294-2000.

This campus, nationally recognized for the beauty of its landscape, offers offers a Japanese garden with a small teahouse.

 Joseph Manigault House: 350 Meeting Street, Charleston, SC 29403 (843)722-2996.

This elegant 1803 neo-classic style house includes a garden entered through a Gate Temple.

 Kalmia Gardens of Coker College: 1624 W. Carolina Avenue (Business 151), Hartsville, SC 29550 (843)383-8145.

Named after the mountain laurel which blooms in spring, this lovely 30 acre garden features azaleas, camellias and other ornamental shrubs in addition to walking trails throug a blackwater swamp, laurel thickets, pine-oak-holly uplands and a beech bluff.

 Magnolia Plantation and Gardens: 3550 Ashley River Road, Highway 61, Charleston, SC 29414  800-367-3517.

The magnificent gardens of this 400 acre pre-Revolutionary War Plantation include the Barbados Tropical Garden (America's oldest garden), the Horticultural Maze (of camellias), the Biblical Garden, a topiary garden, and a wildflower garden, plus many more attractions. The new Audubon Swamp Garden spans 60 acres of blackwater cypress and tupelo swamp accessible by a boardwalk. Flowers planted along the paths and in floating islands on the swamp waters include a variety of bog plants, ornamental grasses, colorful wildflowers and native and exotic shrubs.

 Mepkin Abbey: 1098 Mepkin Abbey Road, Moncks Corner, SC (843)761-8509.

This former plantation, willed by Henry and Claire Booth Luce to the Catholic Church, offers the Nancy Bryan Luce Gardens (designed by landscape architect Loutrell Briggs) and a chapel. After a long and turbulent history, its present use as a Trappist monastery is more in keeping with its name which means "serene and lovely".

 Middleton Place: 4300 Ashley River Road, Charleston, SC 29414 (843)556-6020 or (800)782-3608.

Magnificent formal gardens in the grand classic style grace the 65 acre grounds of this plantation. Myriad features include allées, ornamental canals, sundials, minor vistas, statues placed at strategic viewpoints, terraces, walks, artificial lakes, grassy ramps and the 1,000 year old Middleton Oak. Plantings include rare camellias, azaleas, kalmia, magnolias, crepe myrtle, roses and more.

 Nathaniel Russell House: 51 Meeting Street, Charleston, SC 29401 (843)724-8481.

This 1808 neoclassical house, headquarters of the Historic Charleston Foundation, is set among gracious gardens.

 Park Seed Company: 1 Parkton Avenue, SC 254 North, Greenwood, SC 29647-0001 (864)941-4213.

The 9 acres of trial gardens of this mail order seed company display 1000 varieties of flowers, vegetables, herbs, and roses.

 Riverbanks Zoo and Botanical Garden: 500 Wildlife Parkway (off I-126 at Greystone Boulevard), Columbia, SC 29202 (803)779-8717.

The Zoo is home to more than 2,000 animals in naturalistic habitats with no bars or cages. Across the river, the 70 acre botanical garden features a Walled Garden (enclosed by an 8 foot tall brick wall) which displays an Art Garden, a Berry Garden, a Daylily/Summer Bulb Garden, a Fountain Garden, a Knot Garden, a Midnight Garden, a Perennial Garden, a Rose Garden, a Winter Garden, Shrub Borders and Seasonal Plantings. Two trails, the Woodlands Walk and River Trail take visitors through the natural landscapes of the river shore.

 Robert Mills Historic House and Park: 1616 Blanding Street, Columbia, SC 29201 (803)252-7742.

This Federal-Greek Revival brick house, designed by Robert Mills, includes park-like grounds with a boxwood hedge maze.

 Rose Hill Plantation State Park: 2677 Sardis Road (County Road 16), Union, SC 29379 (864)427-5966.

This 44 acre state park, former home of a South Carolina governor, has a early 19th century Federal style home, rose gardens, and a hardwood grove.

 South Carolina Botanical Garden: Location: Perimeter Road (east side of Clemson University campus), Mailing: 102 Garden Trail, Clemson, SC 29634-0174 (864)656-3405.

This 270 acre garden, growing from the original 40 acre Horticultural Gardens and the Forestry Arboretum, includes the Class of '39 Caboose Garden, the Class of '42/Golden Tigers Cadet Life Garden, the Jack Rouse Miller Dwarf Conifer Collection (50 varieties and cultivars), the Charles and Betty Cruickshank Hosta Garden (350 varieties), the Rhododendron Collection, the Flower Display Garden (2 acres), the L.O. VanBlaricom Xeriscape Garden, the Camellia Garden (300 varieties), the Therapeutic Horticulture Garden (raised beds), the Foothills Perennial Garden, the Pioneer Garden, the Meditation Garden (waterfall, gazebo and pool), the Japanese Maple Collection, the Hopkins Beech Grove, the Bernice Dodgens Lark Wildflower Meadow, the the Wildlife Habitat Garden, the Lake and Hills Garden Club Butterfly Garden, Magnolia Lane, the Roland Schoenike Arboretum (1000 woody plants), the Heritage Garden and more.

 Summerville Azalea Park: Main Street, Summerville, SC (843)871-6000.

This 8 acre public park offers hundreds of azaleas, dogwood, wisteria and crepe myrtle, as well as five butterfly reflecting ponds and nature walks.

 Swan Lake Iris Garden: 822 West Liberty Street (US 763), Sumter, SC 29150 (803)436-2640.

This 150 acre garden displays a profusion of Japanese irises and other flowers, including camellias, azaleas and magnolias. A 45 acre lake is home to eight species of swans.

 Timrod Park: 558 Spruce Street, Florence, SC 29501-5152 (803)665-3253.

Named after Henry Timrod, poet laureate of the Confederacy.

 University of South Carolina: 1100 Sumter Street, Columbia, SC 29201 (803)777-7000.

The Horseshoe, the heart of the original USC campus, is composed of 11 buildings with gardens interspersed.

 Walnut Grove Plantation: 1200 Otts Shoals Road (1.5 mi. from I-26 exit 28 on U.S. 221 N), Roebuck, SC 29376 (864)576-6546.

This 1765 plantation includes an herb garden and nature walks.

 Wells Japanese Garden: Lindsay Street, Newberry, SC 29108.

This city park, originally a private garden, contains lovely plantings, two ponds and bridges.

 White Point Gardens at the Battery: East Battery and Murray Boulevard, Charleston, SC.

The gardens frame vistas of the harbor and Fort Sumter.