Living Our Dream

Magnolia Plantation

St. George, SC - Events of Saturday, May 6, 2017

As we said in our last post, we scheduled a weekend break from our northward travels in St. George, South Carolina, because it gave us the option to do some sightseeing in nearby Charleston. After checking out several possibilities, we decided to visit Magnolia Plantation primarily because the plantation is on the same side of the Ashley River as the campground and was therefore closer than all of the other things we were considering.

Magnolia Plantation was founded in 1676 on the banks of the Ashley River by Thomas Drayton and his wife, Ann. Magnolia was a rice plantation, as were most of the plantations in this area.

Rev. John Grimke-Drayton inherited the plantation from his grandfather in the 1820s. He greatly expanded the gardens because he wanted to make his northern-born wife feel more at home in South Carolina low country. Grimke-Drayton adopted a more naturalized garden theme rather than the French-influenced formal gardens of the day. The gardens became known for its azaleas, which are said to have been introduced to America by Grimke-Drayton, and its camellias.

Admission to the gardens and grounds at Magnolia Plantation is $15. There are a number of special tours for $8 each that include a guided tour of the house, a nature tram, a boat tour on the river, a Slavery to Freedom tour, and a boardwalk tour of the swamp.

We opted for the guided tour of the house. We had a little over an hour before the start of our tour, so we visited the gardens first.

Entrance to the garden

As we said, the garden is primarily a natural, woodland garden. There is a camellia garden and there are lots of azaleas scattered throughout the woodland garden and in small clearings; but the camellias were done blooming, and the azaleas were almost done. There are some annuals to provide some pops of color here and there like the snapdragons, larkspur, and dusty miller at the entrance to the garden shown in the photo above and the red, mauve, and cream-colored salvia surrounding the bench in the photo below.

Bench surrounded by blooming salvia

Salvia

Planter boxes with snapdragons and pansies added color along the side of a bridge over a pond.

Bridge with planter boxes along the side

Closer view of flowers along the bridge

Speaking of bridges, there is a well-known one in the garden called Long Bridge. This bridge is the subject of many, many photographs. It is usually seen surrounded by a spectacular display of azaleas; but as we said earlier, there were very few azaleas still blooming when we were there. You can see a just couple of red azalea flowers at the left end of the bridge.

Long Bridge

Another place at Magnolia Plantation that is full of color is the conservatory. It is loaded with colorful tropical plants and dozens of orchids.

View inside the conservatory

Some of the many orchids in the conservatory

We finished up our tour of the garden just in time to head to the house for our 1:30 tour.

The house at Magnolia Plantation

Unfortunately, photography is not permitted inside the house, but we did learn a lot about Magnolia Plantation on the tour. The current house is the third house on the plantation. The first house was completed in 1680 by Thomas Drayton. It burned to the ground in 1811. A second house was built nearby using cypress wood and some of the bricks salvaged from the first house.

Rev. John Grimke-Drayton that we mentioned earlier was the owner of Magnolia Plantation during the Civil War. The second house was burned by Union troops in 1865.

The Drayton family had a cottage located about 14 miles up the Ashley River. Shortly after the end of the war, John Grimke-Drayton dismantled the cottage, floated it down the river to Magnolia Plantation on barges, and reassembled it on the burned out foundation of the second home. The cottage was to the left side of the house in the photo above. The porch, the tower (which contains a water cistern), and the right side were later additions.

The South was devastated after the war. Confederate money was worthless, and what wasn't looted was burned including homes like the one at Magnolia. John Grimke-Drayton had to sell another plantation as well as some of the acreage of Magnolia to raise money. He also opened the gardens to the public to help keep the plantation going.

Magnolia Plantation has been owned by the Drayton family for over 300 years. That was made possible by the fact it was always willed to blood relatives, never to a spouse. It is still owned and operated by 5 members of the original family.

We enjoyed our time at Magnolia Plantation. It was a beautiful day to enjoy the gardens - warm sun and relatively cool air with low humidity. We loved learning about the rich, family history of Magnolia Plantation.

As is usually the case, we had scoped out places to eat after our sightseeing. We were both hungry for barbecue because we didn't do much smoking over the winter due to the fact we were so busy with our involvement in the co-op and with our projects for our new site. We chose Fiery Ron's Home Team BBQ from the list of several barbecue joints with good online reviews Margery found nearby. Home Team BBQ has several locations in and around Charleston, and one of them was about 10 minutes from Magnolia Plantation.

Fiery Ron's Home Team BBQ

Home Team BBQ has pulled pork, smoked chicken, brisket, smoked turkey, and ribs. Sandwiches range in price from $10 to $12 and include one side. Platters are $12.50 to $14 and include two sides. A full rack of ribs is $24.

We both had pulled pork platters with slaw and mac and cheese for our sides. The pulled pork wasn't very smokey, but it was nice and moist and tender. They have 6 different barbecue sauces. We both liked the sweet sauce because it provided a nice balance to the slaw, which was a little on the tart side. The mac and cheese was to die for! It was full of ooey, gooey, cheesy goodness. The portions were also very generous.

Margery with her pulled pork platter

We headed back to the 5th wheel to relax for the rest of the day and all day Sunday. On Monday morning, we continued our journey north. We'll tell you about it in our next post.

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South Carolina Botanical Garden

Piedmont, SC - Events of Friday, April 29, 2016

The South Carolina Botanical Garden is located on the campus of Clemson University in Clemson, South Carolina, which is about 40 minutes from where we were staying in Piedmont. When Margery was researching things to do on our way northward, she discovered the garden. Since we usually don't like to travel more than two days in a row, and since Piedmont was situated just about right for a stop, we decided to spend several days in Piedmont and visit the garden.

We headed to the garden on Friday morning. We wanted to go fairly early in the day because it was supposed to be hot and humid, but we didn't want to go too early because we were planning to stop for a late lunch at a Texas Roadhouse that was on our way back to Piedmont because Margery got an email coupon for a free appetizer for her birthday.

The South Carolina Botanical Garden covers 295 acres and has miles of walking trails through woods and through a meadow as well as display gardens and a 70-acre arboretum. Admission is free.

We started our visit at the Fran Hanson Discovery Center where we picked up garden maps.

Fran Hanson Discovery Center

Located adjacent to the Discovery Center is the Bob Campbell Geology Museum, which contains a collection of over 10,000 rocks, minerals and fossils. We also wanted to take a quick look around the geology museum while we were there; but when we first arrived, there were several school buses in the parking lot, and there were several groups of kids heading for the geology museum. Therefore, we spent a little extra time looking at the plants around the Discovery Center.

Tenacious pansy growing in a crack between the pavement and a brick wall

Perennials on a hillside

Colorful dianthus

After we looked around the grounds of the Discovery Center a while, we headed to the geology museum.

Bob Campbell Geology Museum

One of the school buses had already left, and the kids were gathering getting ready to board a second one so we pretty much had the geology museum to ourselves.

Margery checking out some of the displays of minerals

Margery showing the size of a casting of a dinosaur footprint

The museum has an interesting display of fluorescent minerals. Some minerals glow in various colors under ultraviolet light.

Minerals glowing under ultraviolet light

After spending a little time in the museum, we hopped into the truck to drive to the parking lot for the main part of the garden located about ¼ mile away. There were also several school buses in this lot. We started with some of the paths through the woods in a direction away from where it sounded like the kids were. Most of the paths near the parking area are paved and are lined with perennials. Unfortunately, most of the perennials were already done blooming, and it looked like they had only begun to plant summer annuals so there wasn't much color.

Woodland path

As we got farther from the parking area, the trails got more rustic and the sound of the school kids got more distant. There is a maze of trails, and most of them aren't marked so it's a little difficult to find your way. We eventually ended up at the restored Hunt Cabin.

Hunt Cabin

The cabin was built in 1826 by Charles Hunt, Jr. on 2,300 acres of land in Seneca, South Carolina, that were given to him and his wife, Martha, as a wedding gift by Martha's father. Charles and Martha raised their 12 children in it. The cabin was moved to Clemson in 1955.

We also passed a nature-based sculpture by artist Herb Parker called the "Crucible."

The "Crucible"

As we headed toward the demonstration gardens, we passed the picnic area where the remaining school students were just finishing having lunch and were beginning to gather to return to their buses. Ahhh - quiet would be returning to the garden soon.

As we said earlier, most of the perennials had already finished blooming, but we were pleased to see a couple of azaleas and rhododendron still doing their part to provide some color.

Azalea and Japanese maple in a small clearing

An orange azalea and a rhododendron

The garden doesn't have a rose garden per se, but there was one very large rose bush covered in spectacular blooms.

Rose bush

On our way back to the truck, we stopped for a photo of the conifer demonstration garden.

Conifer garden

We were a little disappointed that there weren't larger displays of plants in bloom. However, if you take the time to look, there were small pops of color here and there and a number of interesting plants to see.

Small pops of color

Some of the more interesting flowers

From the garden, we headed to the Texas Roadhouse where we selected Rattlesnake Bites for our free appetizer. Rattlesnake Bites are little balls of cheddar cheese and chopped jalapeños that are deep fried. We both had 6-ounce sirloin steaks ($8.99 early bird special). Everything was yummy!

There was rain in the forecast for Saturday, but it was sunny in the morning so we decided to do some more sightseeing. We'll tell you about it in our next post.