Garden Travel
Interesting nurseries and gardens outside the southern California area
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A Low Country Plantation
A hunting estate in the South Carolina backwoods
Imagine my surprise when I discovered a chapter on this home in the book Lowcountry Plantations Today, given to me by my prescient friend Lisa some years before. Last September my sister Mary Lynn and I were on our way to go kayaking at the ACE Basin near Beaufort, South Carolina when we passed this home out in the middle of nowhere. Surrounded by 100+ year old oaks, the estate includes gorgeous barns as well. According to my Lowcountry book it is called Bonny Hall Plantation and was built circa 1897 on the Combahee River. Once owned by the Doubleday publishing family, it is now reputed to be the domain of a Hollywood producer. Somerset Maugham wrote The Razors Edge in the guest house there in the 1940’s.
Our kayaking guide, Kim, owns Beaufort Kayak Tours (www.Beaufortkayaktours.com) with her husband David. She is a local as well as a naturalist and very well informed about the area. We kayaked in the swamps where the land was used for rice production before the Civil War. Now a lot of the land is owned by wealthy families who use it for hunting part time. This is a good thing because it preserves the land and saves it from development.
That’s us, kayaking away!
On the web:
Australian Native Plant Nursery (click on website at right) features Eucalyptus “Moon Lagoon”, a collectable drought tolerant shrub.
11⁄18: Huntington Gardens (San Marino) offers an all day Ranch symposium on urban agriculture. (www.huntington.org)
11⁄19:
- Huntington Gardens (above): Thanksgiving Flower Arrangement class.
- Theodore Payne Native Plant Foundation (Sun Valley): 3 part Native Plant Design Symposium (www.theodorepayne.org)
- Descanso Gardens (La Canada): Heritage Oak Walk (www.descanso.org)
College of Charleston
C of C campus
The first leg of my September trip to the Low Country was booked through Road Scholar (formerly Elder Hostel — I really love their new name). Road Scholar is a nonprofit tour company dedicated to “lifelong learning”. They have a mouthwatering array of trips in their catalog, many involving some type of volunteering. My Charleston leg was orchestrated by the College of Charleston, a very old (1770) and wonderful public liberal arts and sciences school. We stayed in a lovely hotel, the Francis Marion, and ate our meals in the student dining room. That was so much fun; carbo loading and enjoying the high energy of the students. In the morning we would hear talks given by experts on the history of the Civil War, Charleston, cooking, music and more; afternoons were devoted to sightseeing. Many of our group had enjoyed 6 or more trips with RS. I would have to give Road Scholar and College of Charleston an “A” for my experience!
The C of C campus has amazing old oaks
On the web:
Australian Native Plant Nursery has a new shipment of books from…Australia! Click on their website to the right of this post.
Thursday, November 10: Huntington Gardens (huntington.org) Talk and sale on Native Trees for Native Gardens by Lili Singer
Saturday, November 12:
- Descanso Gardens (Descansogardens.org) La Canada: Flower Market Tour, Fruit tree pruning and Fall color walk
- San Diego Botanic Garden (sdbgarden.org) San Diego County: Bromeliad Bash
- Theodore Payne Native Plants and Flowers (theodorepayne.org) Sun valley: Irrigation 101 and Native Plant Horticulture
Savannah’s Urban Forest
Continuing my low country trip, the next stop after Charleston was Savannah.More of a “real” working city than Charleston, Savannah is home to the terrific art school SCAD (Savannah College of Art and Design), and has a very “lived-in” look. There are little restaurants and bars in every square (and some alleys). We enjoyed touring the famous 22 squares, or vest pocket parks, with Jonathan Stalcup, a local architect who restores and sells historical structures (www.architecturalsavannah.com). The high point of the day was the urban forest of Southern live oaks, or quercus virginiana (question: if Elizabeth the 1st hadn’t been a virgin what would they have named everything?) It must be such a privilege, living with these gorgeous trees. The heaviest of the native hardwoods, these trees were used for structural beams and ship building. Some of the oldest trees are over 1000 years old, with 35′ circumferences and a height of 55′. They are uniformly draped with tillandsia usneoides, misnamed spanish moss. My sister Mary Lynn and I picked some to take home, ignoring the chigger warnings. The next day we had some bites and the tillandsia went back on the trees!
On the web:
Tuesday, 10⁄25:
- Huntington Gardens, San Marino: Lecture on propagating, growing and caring for figs (www.huntington.org)
- San Diego Botanic Garden, Encinitas: Succulent wreath class (sdbgarden.org)
Thursday, 10⁄27: The Arboretum, Arcadia: Propagation workshop with Dave Larrom (arboretum.org)
Saturday, 10⁄29:
- ***** Australian Native Plant Nursery in Ojai (australianplants.com) is extending their sale to Saturday, 10/29 — Click on box to the right!*****
- Theodore Payne Foundation for Native Plants, Sun Valley: Native plant horticulture with Lili Singer and Low Impact design class on managing rain and irrigation water (www.theodorepayne.org)
- Nopalito Native Plant Nursery, Ventura (nopalitonursery.com) : Planting, pruning and watering native plants in the fall /free with preregistration.
Alligator!!
A 5 foot baby!
I took this on my recent tour of the Low Country with my sister, Mary Lynn. Not a great photo, but I didn’t want to get any closer. As per Wikipedia, since 1948 there have been more than 275 unprovoked attacks on humans in Florida, of which at least 17 resulted in death. There were only nine fatal attacks in the U.S. throughout the 70s, 80s, and 90s, but alligators killed 12 people from 2001 to 2007. In May 2006, alligators killed three Floridians in less than a week. This photo was taken at Middleton Plantation outside Charleston, South Carolina. I was thrilled to see this guy out of the water as I had seen 3 in the water posing as floating logs — not very exciting. I think he (or she) might be more of teenager than a baby. There were all sorts of families standing around which didn’t phase him, but someone closed the top on their stroller and bam, he was out of there!
An interesting fact: the range of alligators is increasing northward along the Atlantic Coast towards Virginia. Look out, Washington, DC! Our politicians may not be at the top of the food chain much longer!
And finally, I leave you with these words of wisdom from naturalist and TV personality Jack Hanna: “The best thing to do is just leave them alone. Alligators want to be away from you just as much as you want to be away from them.”
On the web:
Sales:
- The Theodore Payne Foundation for Wildflowers and Native Plants Annual Native Plant Sale, October 14 — 15 in Sun Valley (San Fernando Valley) (www.theodorepayne.org)
- San Diego Botanical Garden, Encinitas: 29th Annual Plant Sale, October 15 — 16 (www.sdbgarden.org)
- Jungle Music/Encinitas: owner Phil Bergman has posted a “new arrivals” section on his website showcasing new palm trees, cycads and tropical plants (www.junglemusic.net)
Classes, etc:
- Huntington Gardens, San Marino: everything you wanted to know about Gingko, Oct. 11/ Iris: the Rainbow Flower Talk and plant sale, October 13/Flower Arranging: the Craftsman Esthetic, Oct. 15/Orchid Sale and Show, October 14 — 15 (www.huntington.org)
- Descanso Gardens, Flintridge: In Praise of Grasses event and Paint your Garden with Wildflowers lecture, October 15 (www.descanso.org)
- Potted/Atwater Village is sponsoring a weekly contest for best terrarium with a grand prize of $500.00 (www.pottedstore.com)
- Los Angeles Arboretum, Arcadia: lecture on Natural landscapes/Garden Spaces with Amy Nettleton, October 12 (www.arboretum.org)
- Fullerton Arboretum, Fullerton: Eat the yard: Organic Edible Gardening Part I, October 15
