Charleston South Carolina Garden Tour 2012

Every Spring there are tons of garden tours to choose from in Charleston. Although the gardens we toured on this trip were not as spectacular as those we saw on the Atlanta Perennial Garden Tour last year, we still enjoyed a delicious day.  By the way, it's not too late to partake of the Atlanta tour - it's May 5-6, 2012.  There will also be more garden and house tours in September and October in Charleston.

This was my favorite garden.  It was once owned by John Blake in the 1800s, and is now owned by an architect named Mark Maresca, who lovingly restored the gardens back to their parterre design.  He was kind enough to explain to me that when he first bought the house, the area you see in the picture above was covered by dirt.  Upon digging it up, the original design of the garden was revealed.

As we walked through the neighborhoods, we saw many amazing houses and gardens along the way.  I loved the stain glass in this place.

This was hands down my favorite plant on the whole tour.  I took a picture and showed it to several garden experts, and none of them knew what it was.  Once I got home I googled it, and this is a "White Giant" Calla lily.  I am so buying one!

I love gardens, but my favorite thing about Charleston is the horses.  The driver of this carriage stopped right by us and explained the house we were standing in front of was the most expensive piece of real estate on the Charleston market right now, going for 20+ million.  We couldn't see it from the street due to all the magnolias in front of it, but apparently it's a showplace, complete with ballroom.  Here's the plaque outside...

You can read it more easily by clicking here.