COLUMBIA, S.C. — Plants are growing, and so is the gardening hobby. As the COVID-19 pandemic had many digging for new ways to manage stress and be more self-reliant, gardening has become a very popular outlet for people across the Midlands.
In April 2020 the stay-at-home orders were in place and, in search for virtual ways to connect with plant enthusiasts, WLTX started the WLTX Gandy's Garden Facebook group. It’s a community open to anyone looking to share garden advice, photos, and questions relevant to South Carolina gardeners with more than 1,500 members as of July 2021. A devoted group of members were able to meet for the first time on July 7, during our meet-and-greet and tour at Hampton-Preston Mansion and Gardens in downtown Columbia.
Hampton-Preston Mansion in Columbia is one of the oldest structures in South Carolina. The home was built in 1818 and featured a sprawling 4-acre garden at the Blanding Street site in the late 1800s, maintained by the Hampton and Preston families.
"The family left after the Civil War and, after that, the property went through a number of alterations," Keith Mearns, the director of grounds for Historic Columbia, explains. The property became a historic site in 1970, but the gardens surrounding the property was just flat grass until the 1980s.
In 2014, Historic Columbia began to rehabilitate the gardens. With support from the Darnall W. and Susan F. Boyd Foundation, the garden at Hampton-Preston today looks similar to the mid-1800s when the Hampton and Preston families owned the estate. The Boyd foundation has powered Historic Columbia's transformation of the site investing more than $1.5 million dollars over the last four years.
"One of the really important elements is the Hiram Powers fountain which is a re-creation of the original," Mearns explains. The garden was designed to show off the families’ wealth.
The pathways in the garden are the same as they were in the 1800s. The garden today has special elements like texture and fragrance and color for children and parents. There isn’t enough documentation to replant the display exactly as it would have been in the 1800s, but the garden includes many plants that were common at the time -- like weeping butterfly bush. "You don’t see it too often because it’s aggressive but we like to have it here in the garden and it really adds to the historic factor," according to Mearns.
Conifers were a popular choice for gardeners in the 1800s and the Hampton-Preston garden features many unusual species like Brazilian Monkey Puzzle Trees. The species has been around for as long as Ginko trees, back to the dinosaur times. It has sharp leaves to defend itself from being eaten from dinosaurs and other animals. This was one of the plants the Hampton-Preston family had access to in the Midlands.
Each plant in the garden is catalogued in a database on the Historic Columbia's website. The garden is open to the public from 10 am to 4 pm Tuesday through Saturday and 1 to 4 pm on Sundays. Hampton-Preston is one of three gardens maintained by Historic Columbia that’s open for free to the public. There’s more information on their website HERE.