| Gardens and Historic Houses of Savannah & Charleston including the Glorious Gardens Festival A Pacific Horticulture Tour ** SOLD OUT ** March 25-April 1, 2012 Escorted by Pacific Horticulture Society president Greg Graves. Tour Manager Scott Borden Suggested reading for this tour, click HERE Step back in time to a world of colonial mansions, antebellum homes and peaceful public squares shaded by ancient live oaks. Experience the beauty and charm of America’s only tea garden and taste freshly-brewed American Classic Tea. Our visit is timed for peak bloom of magnolia, daffodil, iris, camellia, early azalea and rose, flowering fruit tree, and so much more. Our Savannah walking tour features the home and garden found in the popular book Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil . We will have exclusive access to private gardens not open to the public in both Charleston and Savannah. Sunday, March 25: Savannah. Individual arrivals. Check in to the Planters Inn for a 3- night stay. The Planters Inn is a small boutique hotel, centrally located on Reynolds Square in the historic district and walking distance to the Riverfront and Marketplace. Meet the other guests a 6pm for a welcome drink followed by dinner at the famed Olde Pink House restaurant next to the hotel. Dinner Monday, March 26: Savannah After a leisurely breakfast, enjoy a private Garden Walk with noted landscape designer John McEllen. John’s travels in Italy, Spain, and South America have influenced his design. He brings water features into play and approaches the outside as a green room. John will treat us to a number of Savannah’s finest private gardens. Along the way we’ll stroll past beautifully restored antebellum mansions and peek into gardens that have made Savannah world famous. The city is built around 22 green squares and parks bursting with blooming azaleas. Savannah has a history as a center of elegant ironwork. Learn about native Savannah ironsmiths, including nationally acclaimed John Boyd Smith IV, featured in "This Olde House", whose work can be seen along many of the streets and squares of the historic district. Among the homes we pass will be Jim William’s famous Mercer House featured in the book and movie "Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil". Lunch will be at Mrs.Wilkes’ Boarding House where the family has offered fine Southern food for 4 generations. Our tour ends here in the Design District, with the afternoon free for shopping, relaxing in the lovely squares, or walking along the riverfront. Breakfast/lunch Tuesday, March 27: Savannah. After a leisurely breakfast, enjoy a private guided Garden and Historic Homes Walk. We will visit wealthy cotton broker Andrew Low’s 19th century English Regency style house, the home of Girl Scouts founder Juliette Gordon Low. The property has a beautiful courtyard garden. We continue to the Ships of the Sea Museum and Gardens located at the Scarborough House, built in 1819 for the owner of the Savannah, the first steamship to cross the Atlantic Ocean. John McEllen maintains the plants. He will give us a special tour of the garden which is the largest in the Historic District, providing an elegant setting for a colorful exhibition of ship models, paintings and museum antiques. Our day includes a visit to a property that evokes the heyday of Savannah’s Golden Age, the Owens-Thomas house and courtyard gardens. Once host to Lafayette, it is considered the finest example of English Regency architecture in America by architectural historians. Inspired by classical antiquity, this style of architecture takes its name from England's King George IV, who ruled as Prince Regent from 1811 to 1820. The property has a beautiful English- inspired parterre garden and an original carriage house which contains one of the earliest intact urban slave quarters in the South. Lunch will be at the River House Seafood Restaurant. Breakfast/lunch Wednesday, March 28: Savannah/Beaufort/Charleston We will be met at the hotel this morning by our private coach. En route to Charleston, we take a walking tour of historic Beaufort. Wander through the lovely village with its beautiful and stately homes and gardens, many of which were built prior to the Civil War. These were summer homes of the wealthy plantation owners, who made fortunes growing rice and cotton. Learn about the history of the earliest settlements in this area, and experience the unique beauty of the placid marshes and broad alluvial rivers rolling down to the sea. We will be guests for luncheon in a historic home, served by the ladies of the Beaufort County Open Land Trust. Afterward, we will enjoy a bit of free time for shopping and browsing on Bay Street. We arrive Charleston late afternoon and check into The Mills House Hotel. This charming 150-year old hotel was recently refurbished with each room individually decorated using period furnishings. The hotel is centrally located on Charleston's prestigious Museum Mile, near King Street Antique District and the Craft Market. Breakfast/lunch Thursday, March 29: Charleston This morning we will enjoy a “Cobblestones and Gardens” private walking tour. We’ll meander down lovely streets and lanes and view the marvelous architecture of homes built more than a century ago. We’ll peek into the lush private gardens of this quaint old city and breathe their fragrant aromas. Visits include the Heyward-Washington House, (c. 1772) which houses the finest collection of Charleston-made furniture in the city and a formal English garden lovingly maintained by the Garden Club of Charleston. We will see Cabbage Row, the inspiration for the American opera, “Porgy & Bess” and visit St. Michael’s Episcopal Church. Our elegant luncheon at Mills House Hotel features Charleston in Bloom by Jan MacDougal. This slide lecture on the local flora of the low country will bring the gardens of Charleston to life. Jan conceived the name Glorious Gardens and was former chairwoman of the Historic Charleston Foundation spring tour. Before arriving in Charleston 34 years ago, Jan was a New York State Horticulture Judge, a National Council Flower Show Judge and is now a Master Gardener. Jan also guides in the gardens at Middleton Place. Because of her special interest in daffodils, Jan is known locally as the "Bulb Lady". Many national magazines have published her flower arrangements, including a cover for Gourmet. She has arranged flowers for Prince Charles, Princess Anne, the Emperor of Japan, and two vice presidents. Later this afternoon we will attend the Glorious Gardens Festival. We end with a wine and lemonade reception and visit to the Nathaniel Russell House garden. Breakfast/lunch Friday, March 30: Charleston area. Today we tour two of America's earliest plantations and gardens: Magnolia Gardens and Middleton Place. Magnolia Gardens and Plantation, founded by the Drayton family in 1680, is considered one of the most beautiful, romantic gardens in the world. As we stroll the garden paths through a Cypress Swamp which was turned into a garden by the Rev. John Drayton prior to the War Between the States, the beauty of these unique gardens will take our breath away. After this special garden tour with Magnolia’s head gardener or with Taylor Nelson, descendent of the Drayton family, we board the tram which will take us into part of the Audubon Swamp Garden, home to scores of water- loving creatures and traversed by boardwalks, dikes, and bridges to allow us close (but safe) contact with its inhabitants. We may see an alligator and will have the opportunity to view the abundant bird population of the low country. Next, we visit Middleton Place, a Registered National Historic Landmark and the plantation home of the Middleton family since 1741, with the oldest formal gardens in America. In the stable yards we will be treated to a bird's-eye view of life on an 18th century working plantation. While at Middleton, we will tour the remaining wing of the Middleton House furnished with heirlooms from the family and enjoy a delicious lunch featuring regional cuisine in the restaurant. Breakfast, lunch Saturday, March 31: Charleston/Wadmalaw Island. We depart Charleston this morning for a look at America’s only tea plantation on rural Wadmalaw Island. Cross beautiful marshlands and travel lovely live oak canopied roads as we learn about the history of the large plantations which once occupied these islands and hear of the unique culture and language of the people who worked these plantations. Enjoy views of rich farm land and forests, see St. John's Episcopal Church and the Angel Oak, a 1400 year old live oak tree. The highlight of the trip will be a stop at Charleston Tea Plantation. Over 100 years ago, tea planters brought their finest tea bushes from China, India, and Ceylon to the South Carolina low country. Now the descendants of the plants are growing strong nestled on a serene sea island. Includes a tour of the factory and trolley tour of the grounds conducted by Bill Hall, a third generation tea taster and tea maker. Later we will visit one of Charleston’s exquisite private gardens and enjoy a light lunch. The rest of the afternoon is free in Charleston. This evening we meet for a special farewell dinner at Magnolias, offering exquisite southern cuisine on Charleston’s seaside. We will be entertained with Legends of the Low Country from storyteller Tim Lowry. His stories will include the American Revolution and Civil War told with Southern style, charm and wit. Breakfast, lunch, dinner Sunday, April 1: Departure. Transfer independently to the airport. Breakfast For more information, please contact: Sterling Tours, Ltd Insurance Information 2907 Shelter Island Drive Suite #105-262 Terms and Conditions San Diego, CA 92106 Tel: 619 299-3010 800-976-9497 CST2023849-40  |
Sterling tours, ltd
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