September 4 - Charleston: Magnolia Plantation (YRE)

The Audubon Swamp Garden

Magnolia Plantation and Gardens, the oldest plantation on the Ashley River, dates to 1676.  Originally a rice plantation, Magnolia became known for its gardens after the Reverend John Grimke Drayton inherited the property in the 1840s and began to rework its gardens in an English style. According to legend, he built the gardens to lure his bride south from her native Philadelphia. Dripping with pink and red azalea flowers and framed by live oak trees, the gardens of Magnolia on the Ashley were quite well known in the Antebellum period, and were photographed by Mathew Brady, who would later become famous for his photographs of the Civil War. Another visitor to Magnolia in this period was John James Audubon for whom Magnolia's Audubon Swamp Garden is named.

Cypress "Knees"

Slave Cabin

Today, Magnolia Plantation is a thriving tourist attraction with a restored plantation house, slave cabins and a slavery history tour, a nature train, a marsh boat tour, a wildlife area, a petting zoo and, of course, gardens. Many of today's attractions were built starting in 1975 during the garden's renewal.

We had to buy entrance tickets in order to do the volkswalk, and the various ticket options were confusing.  We didn’t know which tickets we needed for the volkswalk, so we bought the basic ticket and that turned out ok.  We also bought the Nature Boat tickets and we were able to enjoy the boat tour after our walk.

We chose the 5K walk and got to see almost everything but the the Wildlife Observation Tower and the Waterfowl Refuge.  (We saw the Waterfowl Refuge on the boat tour.  Our walk included, or at least passed by the entrance to, the following features:

•          Barbados Tropical Garden - indoor tropical garden with many varieties of orchids
•          Biblical Garden - plants mentioned in the Bible, with an Old Testament area commemorating the twelve tribes of Israel, and New Testament area representing the twelve disciples
•          Camellia Collection - First Camellia japonica plantings date from the 1820s, with current plantings containing nearly 900 varieties, of which almost 150 originated from the gardens' own nursery
•         Cattail Wildlife Refuge
•          Cypress Lake - Bald cypress trees, up to 100 years old, along riverbanks and wetlands.
•          Flowerdale (50 acres) - Oldest sections established 1680. Formal plantings of annuals set within triangular beds enclosed by boxwood hedges
•          Long Bridge - Built in the 1840s, one of seven bridges on the grounds
•           Maze - replica of England's famous Hampton Court maze
•         Nature Center and Zoo - domesticated animals typical to Southern plantations, injured or orphaned native animals, and exotic birds including Malayan jungle fowl, guinea hens, and peacocks
•          The Audubon Swamp Garden
•          Slave cabins
•          A very old cemetery
•          A barge used long ago to transport goods to Charleston. (Because the Ashley River is tidal in this area, it was possible, with careful timing, to take the 3 ½ hour barge trip in both directions!)
•          Plantation House - Oldest section built prior to the Revolutionary War near Summerville, SC, and transported down the Ashley River after the Civil War. The wide verandah and huge columns are a fairly recent addition.

The Old Cemetery

Gator!

We saw some turtles and alligators in the Audubon Swamp and we saw a number of interesting birds on the boat tour, including egrets, herons, wood ducks, ibis, and anhinga.  There were several ancient live oak trees on the property, as well as fresh water lakes and salt marshes.

The gardens, with the exception of “Flowerdale,” were not the formal type of gardens I was expecting.  It was more like someone had planted flowers and ornamental plants (such as coleus) here and there in the woods. It was a nice change from the typical botanical garden. It probably would be best to go earlier in the year when more flowers are in bloom.

We “forgot” to go to the orientation film, and I am sorry to have missed it.  The ticket seller did not mention it and there wasn’t any prominent signage directing new arrivals towards it.  It might be a good idea to include it in the walk instructions as the first step in the volkswalk.

The Plantation House

The gift shop at the Plantation House was delightful.  It was several notches above the usual tourist trap.  In fact, the Magnolia Plantation and Gardens overall did a very good job of maintaining authenticity and avoiding Disneyfication.

Rating:
 

Walk Route: B

 Walk Documentation: B