Thursday, March 31, 2011

Middleton Place Charleston, South Carolina

Midddleton Place is the fabulous rice plantation in Charleston, South Carolina which has been lovingly restored after being neglected after the Civil War and the Great Earthquake of 1886.
Middleton Place, a National Historic Landmark includes the Gardens, House Museum, and Plantation Stableyards.

Click on photographs to enlarge.
It is the oldest landscaped Gardens in America, laid out in 1741, and expanded in the 19th and 20th centuries.
Start with a carriage ride around the property and into the rice fields.
 Middleton was a  self-sustaining Low Country Plantation.





 Live Oaks with Spanish Moss waving in the breezes.







 As signs warn, there are alligators in the ponds and river areas.
 Inside the Mill House one can "learn about the African Americans who sustained the agrarian plantation economy," as mentioned in the site's brochure.  the mill is located on the banks of the "Butterfly Lakes."





 The rice fields.
 Guess who is there too.

A bloom on a Camellia tree.

 More Camellia trees.
There were honey bees inside this Live Oak trunk.
 A classic vista, with the "Wood Nymph"  a marble figure (c.1810) by Rudolf Schadow.
The banks were lined with flowering Azalea shrubs.
Middleton, a wonderful place to visit when near Charleston, South Carolina.


Friday, March 18, 2011

Of Crocuses and Snowdrops

 Crocuses and Snowdrops pushing through Autumn's leftover leaves.
 Crocuses in purples,
in striped patterns,
 A very busy Bee.
 in whites.

 Click on the images to enlarge.


 Glowing in the March sunlight.
Snowdrops.
 A squirrel must have moved that one.


 This variety is smaller, a softer purple, and which multiplies well.



 A yellow.
 Bees, another reason to plant Crocus bulbs.
Vinca blue compliments the white Crocus.

 For the past thrity-five plus years Snowdrops have been stretched around the Jarvis House Garden.
 Eash Spring I have dug up the strays, and planted them in boarders.
 After a few years, thousands, maybe tens of thousands, have grown.
This week marks the real beginning of Spring on Long Island.