Product Description

A stunning tour with the owners of many of historic Charleston's most beautiful, but rarely seen, private gardens. < BR>

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #251451 in Books
• Published on: 2005-11-09
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 112 pages

About the Author
Louisa Pringle Cameron grew up amidst historic gardens in her native city of Charleston, South Carolina. Author of the best-selling book The Private Gardens of Charleston, Louisa is an accomplished gardener, watercolorist, lecturer, and author. She lives with her physician husband and son in an eighteenth-century house in Charleston's old historic district.

Lauren Preller Chambers is a freelance photographer who lives on Sullivan's Island, South Carolina.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
Charleston, founded in 1670, has an important history of gardening. It has been as alluring to horticulturists as it has been appealing to sophisticated travelers throughout its history. Mark Catesby, a naturalist, historian, and artist, documented plants and sent them (along with seeds) back to England in the early 1700s. The French government funded Andre Michaux's plant collecting expeditions to America, where he and his son eventually established a nursery near Charleston in 1787. The Gardenia and the Poinsettia were named for botanically-minded early Charlestonians, and the first rose to be hybridized in America, Champneys' Pink Cluster, was grown at a large garden just south of the city.

Customer Reviews

Gorgeous Secluded Gardens and Lush Green Landscapes
"Today, the garden has something in bloom all year-round: roses and sasanquas at Christmas; pansies and snaps in winter; jasmine, bulbs, and alyssum in the spring; geraniums, phlox, petunias, and impatiens in the summer. Window boxes spill periwinkle, violas, verbenas, and ferns."

Louisa Pringle Carmeron loves gardening and she grew up in the mysterious world of historic gardens in Charleston, South Carolina. She lives in an eighteenth-century house and joins Lauren Preller Chambers in the creation of this beautiful book.

Many of the gardens in this book cannot be seen from the street and are hidden behind ancient walls and are not open to the public. So this book is a taste of the wide variety of hidden paradise. Gardens include a Japanese Garden with delicate ferns, Italian themes with cypress reaching to the pale blue sky, Misty morning gardens near a Marsh, Herb gardens and Formal gardens with gothic style carriage houses.

The quaint house with jasmine growing over the mailbox attached to a white fence reveals a sense of care and beauty. Flowerboxes outside the windows add a sense of nostalgia. The lush foliage speaks of a more humid climate.

As you read this book you can imagine having picnics behind a walled garden or sipping tea on a greenhouse porch. Shaded benches and courtyards are all part of the charm. One of my favorite pictures is the courtyard with cedar trees and a fountain. The paving stones look very natural and you imagine the owners of the home must enjoy sitting out in the cooling shade in the summer.

~The Rebecca Review