Drayton Hall
Wing Haven invites you to uncover the Lowcountry’s legacy through its gardens, traditions, and flavors. Join us for an exclusive look into five beautiful private and historic gardens in Charleston, SC, a guided tour of Moore Farms Botanical, and a special visit to Drayton Hall.
Trip highlights:
Savor welcome cocktails and a locally inspired dinner at The Establishment
Enjoy a two-hour guided tour of Moore Farms Botanical with the Director of Horticulture, Daniel Livingston, followed by a garden pergola lunch.
Step into the past at Drayton Hall to discover distinctive garden elements including an 18th-century formal garden, a naturalistic landscape garden, a less formal woodland garden, and more. The house itself dates back to 1738 and provides a glimpse into 18th-century life.
Explore five stunning historic gardens, each surrounding homes dating back as early as 1743, offering a glimpse into centuries of charm and elegance.
Learn from noted gardener, preservationist, author, and former chairman of The Garden Conservancy, Benjamin Lenhardt, as we walk together through historic gardens on Church Street and Ashley Avenue.
Relax and unwind midway through our walking tour of Charleston Gardens with a seated lunch at Bar167—a modern twist on classic Southern cuisine.
Stroll through the history of Charleston or shop during your free time.
Toast to a memorable trip with farewell cocktails and a decadent dinner at Oak, Charleston’s iconic steakhouse set in a historic building in one of the oldest parts of the city.
Cost includes two nights at the five-star Charleston Place hotel located in historic downtown, dining to include two boxed lunches and fine dining for one lunch and two dinners, ground transportation to and from Charlotte, five private garden visits, and admission to Moore Farms Botanical and Drayton Hall—all while enjoying fellowship with old and new friends!
Price Per Person: $2,250/member; $2,500/non-member. Price includes a double-occupancy room; single rooms are an additional $370 fee.
Wing Haven will maintain a waitlist in the event the trip sells out. Non-refundable after March 3, 2025.
TRIP AGENDA
Tuesday April 1
7:30 am Park Road Shopping Center—Board bus, welcome and registration with coffee refreshments (4101 Park Road, Charlotte)
8:00 am Bus departs
10:30 am Tour Moore Farms Botanical Garden
Guided Tour with Director of Horticulture Daniel Livingston
Moore Farms Botanical Garden
Moore Farms
Moore Farms was founded in 2002 by South Carolina native Darla Moore, who sought to prove that her family’s ancestral croplands could be transformed into a place of beauty and an example of horticultural excellence.
As her garden grew, so did Ms. Moore’s vision for the future of the property. Soon she began to see the potential of the garden as a place for horticultural research and education and as a place of enjoyment for visitors. Moreover, she saw that the garden could become a source of pride for the people of her hometown and home state. The garden, she determined, would become a gift to the ages – an enrichment to the lives of others.
Today, a visitor to Moore Farms Botanical Garden will find a garden that is mature beyond its years, and spectacular in its variation of design features, plant species, and inclusion of art. This diverse wonderland now thrives in soil that was once carpeted with row crops.
12:30 pm Boxed lunch enjoyed in the shade of an outdoor pavilion.
3:30 pm Arrive at hotel, check in at The Charleston Place
4:00 pm Free Time
5:50 pm Meet in lobby for a short walk to dinner
6:00 pm Welcome Cocktails and Dinner at “E” Establishment
Wednesday April 2
8:45 am Meet in hotel lobby and walk to Church Street Gardens
9:00 am Capers-Motte House Garden
Capers-Motte House Garden
Capers-Motte House Garden
This three-and-a-half-storied Georgian, stucco-over-brick dwelling was constructed circa 1750. Upon entering this garden—large by Charleston standards and divided into four garden rooms by tall Podocarps hedges—four neatly trimmed hollies stand guard. The first garden room has a walkway with four stone urns planted with large bird’s nest ferns facing the Beckett boxwood edged lawn panel that is surrounded by various camellias, nandinas, and salvias. The second small demi-lune shaped garden contains another fountain which is enclosed by mature camellias in all shapes, sizes and colors. An oval pool surrounded by old Charleston bricks is the centerpiece of the largest garden room and is anchored with four mature Japanese maples. At the west end of the terrace is a pergola covered with wisteria and sheltering a seating area from which the garden can be appreciated. On either side of the terrace are beds of perennials, including farfugium, azaleas, and ferns. Two original Gothic-style privies are reminders of the past. In the fourth garden, large barn doors can open onto Ford’s Court and Meeting Street. Brick walls enclose this area, making it a perfect protected area for citrus. The landscape architect of this property was Jan Frazee of Blowing Rock, North Carolina.
9:45 am Benjamin Phillips Garden
Benjamin Phillips Garden
Benjamin Phillips Garden
This Federal house was constructed circa 1818 and restored by the current owners in 1987. At that time, there was no garden, only a paved parking area. Shortly thereafter, Hugh and Mary Palmer Dargan designed this award-winning garden. The design is based on formal patterned gardens found in Charleston in the late eighteenth century. Access to this historic garden is through a handsome wooden gate entwined with confederate jasmine and roses which also envelop the doorway. The pathway to a second gateway is lined with confederate jasmine arches against a neighboring wall. The second gate opens onto a dining and entertainment terrace surrounded by confederate jasmine and roses climbing on the kitchen house, brick walls, and even piazza columns. In spring, this garden room looks like a cloud of snow everywhere.
From the terrace you enter another walled room highlighted with a parterre of four quadrants encircling an antique sundial with scampering white clematis. Old camellias provide color and height in each quadrant while crab apple trees lend a canopy of pink and white when blooming. The parterre edges and pathways are lined with Kingsville boxwood, the slowest growing and smallest leafed boxwood in the Lowcountry. Oyster shell paths provide different vantage points from which to see this enchanted garden. Two garden houses on either side of the west wall, with clay pantile roofs, were constructed to house garden tools and storage and to appear as old privies.
10:15 am George Matthews Garden
George Matthews Garden
George Matthews Garden
The owners are garden enthusiasts, and the husband designed the garden rooms surrounding the 1743 house to be compatible with the early Charleston architecture and southern climate. Greeting you is a small ‘Kingsville’ boxwood parterre with a Colonial-style fence on which climbing Iceberg roses and white mandevilla bloom. At the rear of this garden is an old Ligustrum which has been pruned to show its oriental derivation below which are two standard gardenias in planters. The driveway provides the entrance to the rear gardens and is planted with Wintergreen boxwood, single stem loquat trees, and Podocarpus. Edging the drive is a line of variegated Aztec grass interspersed with holly ferns. The next garden room is an early eighteenth-century style parterre of Kingsville and Wintergreen boxwood, variegated Asiatic jasmine and oregano globes in the center. The kitchen house is covered with climbing white Iceberg roses, an espaliered magnolia, and a potato vine and a cascading Lady Banks rose on the corners. As one steps up to the second level of the garden, one faces two small rooms—one with white foxgloves among strawberry begonias lining the walk to the rose-covered garden house, and the other an exotic garden of palms, Fatsia, papyrus, and hellebores. Through a Podocarpus hedge, shaped as a wall with entry posts and finials, one views the last garden room, with its brick and brown stucco walls as a backdrop for a shrub border of camellias, hollies, azaleas, hydrangeas, tea olives, and four white crepe myrtle standards surrounding a newly installed gravel garden. This sustainable garden contains anchor plantings of boxwood, pittosporum, and holly among succulents, agaves, and perennials in shades of gray, chartreuse, blue, purple and pink. Above the bench is a bower of Lady Banks roses. On either side are English urns filled with seasonal plantings. The garden was named one of the “World’s Most Beautiful Gardens in 2023” by Veranda magazine.
12:00 pm Seated luncheon at Bar167
1:30 pm Walk to afternoon gardens
1:50 pm Laster Garden
Laster Garden
This garden was built in 1881 and was first the home of the Thayer Family and then the Lynah Family. Kim and Eric Laster’s property is only 1/4 acre, but offers an experience of traditional Victorian garden outdoor rooms, a pool and an herb and citrus garden. It is unusual in Charleston because of its sunny exposure and abundant air movement—not being hemmed in by buildings on all sides. It was designed nearly 25 yrs ago by Gene Johnson, who is a neighbor a block away. In fact, it is Gene & Betsy Johnson's garden that we will walk down to see after the Laster Garden.
2:25 pm Isaac Motte Dart House Garden
Isaac Motte Dart House Garden
Isaac Motte Dart House Garden
Gene and Betsy Johnson’s garden is also known as the Isaac Motte Dart House, built around 1800 and was listed on the Smithsonian Institution’s Archives of American Gardens’. In 1995, the property was a virtual wasteland consisting of two derelict buildings and a large garden lost to asphalt paving for a parking lot.
Restoration began by dividing the garden into seven rooms using fencing, walls and hedging. All paths, set on axis from the main house and carriage house, are boxwood lined to produce a seamless transition from one garden to the next. Upon entering the drive, you'll find a beautifully designed garden to the left, featuring five parterres with distinct geometric shapes. Notable highlights include two quatrefoils inspired by the carriage house windows, bordered by rectangular and square beds, and framed by East Palatka holly hedges and Camellia sasanqua. Further down, an ovoid garden with a Trachelospermum jasminoides arbor and a four-square parterre garden with boxwood create a harmonious landscape. At the end of the drive, a shade garden showcases plants with varying textures. Continuing, a meandering path leads through rose and herb gardens, offering a smooth tour around the house, ending at a pedestrian gate.
3:00 pm Walk back to hotel
3:15 pm Free Time
5:45 pm Gather in hotel lobby and walk to dinner
6:00 pm Farewell Cocktails and Dinner at Oak
8:30 pm Return to hotel
Thursday April 3
7-8:00 am Checkout
8:30 am Bus departs
9:00 am Arrive at Drayton Hall
Drayton Hall
Drayton Hall, located in Charleston, South Carolina, is a significant and well-preserved example of 18th-century Palladian architecture. It is one of the oldest surviving plantation houses in the United States, with its history dating back to the 1730s. The estate provides an immersive experience into colonial life, showcasing the cultural, architectural and historical evolution of the area. Visitors can explore the beautifully preserved house, its grounds and its collections, which include fine arts and historical artifacts. The site is also notable for its groundbreaking preservation efforts, making it a living museum of Southern history. Drayton Hall is a site of the National Trust for Historic Preservation.
11:15 am Bus departs for return to Charlotte. Enjoy a boxed lunch
en route
2:30 pm Arrival at Park Road Shopping Center (4101 Park Road, Charlotte)