Middleton Place

Privately owned by many generations of the Middleton family, the plantation has survived wars, earthquakes and hurricanes. Today it's open to the public. There are omore than 65 acres of beautifully manicured plants, shrubs, flowers and trees, creating sweeping vistas and intimate garden rooms with a formal European style.

This tour, led by historical guide Marlene Ward, starts at a pile of charred foundation stones--the remainder of the central house torched by union troops during the Civil War. What would have been the terrace now overlooks the sweeping landscape that leads to the famous butterfly lakes and terraced gardens.

Terrace and Butterfly Lakes

The grass overlooking the river was actually one of the major achievements of the garden design. The lawns were all done by hand labor--it took 100 slaves 10 years to create them. The grass stairs mimic the stairs in front of the house. It must have been a magnificent sight to see all of this beauty in a land of mostly just vines and jungle.

Part of the preservation involves keeping the garden's historical integrity. That's the job of head horticulturist Sidney Frazier. Every year the living walls of camellias are meticulously pruned to create the allée designed hundreds of years ago.

Pleach Pruning

Although some of the flowers in the allée are still very beautiful, most were past their peak during this tour. This is a telltale sign that it's time to prune. For this area, Sidney wanted a tunnel effect; he achieved this using a method known as pleach pruning in which he removes lower limbs and allows all the other limbs to grow up and over. He cuts a branch back to where another branch is coming out to avoid leaving stubs, which may invite diseases. Sidney suggests pruning no more than six weeks after the blossoms peak because if he cut later than that, he might cut off next year's flowers.

The Octagonal Garden

The camellia allée leads to the sunken octagonal garden, which provided the Middletons refuge from the hot afternoon sun. It's one of three formal English gardens at Middleton with a symmetrical design. With formal gardens, there is typically a lack of color or very few blooms. Sidney says that when Henry Middleton created this garden, it was designed as a green garden. So flowers are an added element.

Maintenance

There is a lot of maintenance involved in keeping a green garden, and that starts with the boxwood hedges. Sidney and his crew prune them three times a year. The key, he says, is keeping all the hedges straight and symmetrical. He achieves this by tying a string to posts, which acts as a horizontal guide.

Sidney takes three passes with pruners to get the right height, trimming very little as he goes. Once the first pass is complete, he removes all of the clippings before making a second pass. Since he already trimmed in one direction, the plant is leaning that way. To counteract that, Sidney changes directions with each pass of the pruners. This gives it a nice clean cut, taking out any dips he may have had in the first pass.

With the boxwoods pruned to perfection, where better to take a rest than under the arms of Middleton's prize oak tree? This live oak tree is estimated to be over 1,000 years old. One of the signatures of the South is the Spanish moss that hangs in the tree. The moss actually doesn't harm the tree; it uses the tree only for support, although it does weigh more when wet.

It's easy to love the grace and grandeur of Middleton Place, whether taking a carriage through the grounds, strolling along the azalea hillside, or getting a birds-eye view of the butterfly lakes. This garden, which has endured so much over the years, is truly a national historic landmark worth visiting.