Middleton Place

Plan on property showing formality of gardens and layout

Carolina was a colony founded in 1663. The two Carolinas we have now occurred in a split in 1712. Middleton Place came into being during the colonial period and was given to Henry Middleton, President of the Continental Congress, as part of a marriage dowry. A considerable plantation of its day with about 50,000 acres in rice Middleton Place today is a resort and a significant historic property and garden of about 65 acres. The historic approach to the property was by the Ashley River to which the formal layout is oriented so visitors and Master alike would get the best view of the property as they approached from Charleston.

Aerial photograph on display at garden featuring Butterfly Lakes and Central approach

The house was of Jacobean style and the formal gardens were and are rather sumptuous in their design and layout. Among the most famous features are the Butterfly Lakes which were part of the water system for flooding the rice paddies. It must be considered influenced by Versailles which was under construction and development at the same time. The continuous influence of the French during the Independence War can be seen in the gardens as well as the relationship of Middleton and Andre Michaux (who was eventually Royal Botanist to Louis XVI) who, as a consequence of their friendship, sent the first Camellias in the United States to the plantation.

Middleton family influence with the South and cessation from the Union caused the property to be targeted and the Mansion and the property to be burned in 1865. What remained was further damaged by the Great Earthquake in 1886. Since then, the family fortune has allowed, with help of all manner of enterprise, the restoration of the property. Today, Middleton Place operates as an elegant southern resort with a beautiful inn where guests have access to the garden. Most of what was plantation has been developed by neighboring communities and Charleston. Along Ashley River Road are two other well known historic properties also open to visitors: Drayton Hall and Magnolia Plantation. These offer modern varied views of how historic plantations are managed: one more historic and the other more commercial.

Modern Archway leads into a definitely historic landscape

Formal pathways framed by trees, azaleas or camellias with focal gateways are the norm

Moss covered views and brick perforated walls framing edges



Multi-purpose water features were used to manage rice paddies. Today they serve the local alligators and tourist for photo vistas

Wood Nymph was hidden and survived the assault of the Union Troops

Modern installation near restaurant serves as an overlook on old Rice Mill and Pond

Remaining entry stoop to the Mansion which as you can see was never rebuilt




View of formal parterre from Middleton Oak

I did not photograph the Middleton Oak as I found it sadly deformed by its loss of limbs. The tour guides at Middleton Place speak of it with great reverence and claim it to be larger than the Angel Oak featured in my last blog. I borrowed these images from the Comtesse de Sparr (above) and Joel8X (below) to give you and idea of what it is and what it was. You decide if it is grander than the Angel Oak. Personally, I think the Angel is grander and certainly older whether it is one trunk or ten!

Middleton Place is certainly a marvelous garden to visit and I hope one day to stay at the resort. My visit in June was rather late in the season and hot. Few plants were in bloom and I was rushed to see the gardens and skip the museum and slave quarters. I highly recommend that when you visit you prepare yourself for a stiff garden admission price of $25.00 (more if you visit the other historic structures) and that you do it in the vicinity of Mother's day. Then, you will enjoy the thousands upon thousands of Camellias, azaleas, and roses that abound in the garden it will also be cooler with any luck. It is a magnificent place. Regardless you will enjoy its beautiful location and hopefully you will explore a back path to the Cypress Lake where the terrain appears as though barely been touched by man or time.

Wonders Along the Road

It is not everyday that you get the opportunity to travel along these kind of roads in places that exist in the mist and the history of the past. Yes, we live in modern times, but when you really take account, some of the best things about us are in our history. As I was driving to Charleston I could not cease to stop here, there and everywhere to look at what was before me that even at a slow drive was passing by way too quickly. The results of these stops provided me with some of the greatest discoveries. I tend to read anything and everything historical and sometime ago I had read of the Angel Oak.

This Southern Live Oak (Quercus virginiana) tree is approximately 1400 years old. It managed to survive Hugo that severely damaged a section of the tree, but it has managed to recover and continues to grow rather well. Even though the canopy in partially damaged, you still manage to see a magnificent specimen tree which has limbs that flow in the air like feathers to lenghts of 90 feet. Newton was right about gravity but seeing 90 foot horizontal limbs floating in air makes you question what is subject to gravity? In all the tree takes up about half an acre of land. It is monumental without question even though the Middleton Oak (stay tuned until next week) is purported to be the largest single trunk whereas the Angel Oak is supposed to be multiple trees that grew together to become siamese triplets or whatever. I can't tell how anyone can tell, but I will go along with the story.

The truth is that regardless of what you call it the tree is a marvel of nature that has managed to survive in a culture that is often more interested in lumber than in trees. Take into account the number of hurricanes that have tested its buttressing limbs or the fact that its swampy location on John Island would be the death knell of many another plant, it has survived to become the oldest living organism east of the Mississippi River.

Visitors of every language were there to view and photograph the Angel Oak whose trunk is covered in Resurrection Fern (Polypodium polypodioides). Aptly named for it will wither and disappear when weather fails to provide it with the required moisture. When rain falls the seemingly dead branches unfurl and create lush green carpeting that so typifies it.

The secondary epiphyte that lives on the oak is Spanish Moss (Tillandsia usneoides). The moss and the fern both use the tree only for support and as a place to collect water, nutrient and air which they both require. Unfortunately as they grow they place additional weight on delicately balanced limbs. Sometimes the two epiphytes are removed to lighten branches in peril. As you can see some branches are now aided by the support of metal columns. This practice is often questioned as whether it is beneficial or not. For now, they have been used to stabilize the tree.

Parting to another destination I stopped by the mailbox to look upon it one last time. The tree which was taken over for protection by (not-so-near) Charleston now has a sort of visitor center where locals weave the famous Charleston Baskets. Efforts are to raise funds to maintain and protect the tree without charging admission. I hope these continue to safeguard its beauty which when seen from afar is not very different from the rest of the neighboring forest. No doubt this has also helped to hide and to save it.