Glimpses of Charleston

A local's eye view

Flowers/Gardens

This giant frog lives in the garden of the Parker-Drayton House (c.1806 house) on Gibbes Street. The owners used to also have live roosters stalking the garden, but the cock-a-doodling bothered the neighbors. The frog is much quieter.
A classic Charleston sidewalk scene. This 1835 house on Legare Street has an amazing yard and garden, and still boasts some wonderful hydrangeas in window boxes. Always beautiful.
The sweet small in Charleston this time of year primarily comes from the Confederate Jasmine (aka Star Jasmine) which is in bloom all around the city. The photo-bombing roses just add to the sweetness.
This glass house is located behind the C. Bissell Jenkins House -- the first house constructed on Murray Boulevard.
This beautiful Charleston garden on South Battery was designed in the 1920's by the man who literally wrote the book on Charleston gardens in 1951 -- Loutrel Briggs.  (See Charleston Gardens by Loutrel Briggs.) 
This lush Charleston spring scene can be found on Limehouse Street.
This cool live oak tree dominates this yard on Murray Boulevard. Live oaks definitely help give Charleston and the Lowcountry much of its character. Live oaks have also played an important role in American history. During the War of 1812 the USS Constitution gained its nickname "Old Ironsides" because the British cannonballs just bounced off its hull -- which was made out of live oak wood.
This eye-catching garden on South Battery belongs to a house that was built c. 1800 by John Blake, one of the early presidents of the Bank of South Carolina.
Some wonderful flower boxes and pots on King Street, between Broad and Tradd Streets. These mid-1800's houses sure look good.
The pretty scene can be on Church Street -- the blooming azaleas help highlight the beautiful porch.
This beautiful overflowing flowerbed is a great accessory to a beautiful house on George Street built about 1790. The owner specified in his will in 1787 that the house be built for the benefit of his wife or daughters -- one of his daughters received it in 1791.
This gorgeous garden on Legare Street was the site for the Gaud School for Boys until 1918. Gaud, which merged with the Porter Military Academy in 1964 to become the Porter-Gaud School, is one of the most prominent schools in Charleston and South Carolina. Not a bad spot to get your start.
The house on Legare Street where you can find these beautiful flower boxes was built around 1835. In the 1890's, it was rented byt Capt. Thomas Pinckney. Pinckney was best known for being one of the "Immortal Six Hundred," who were Confederate officers that were captured and help prisoner during the Civil War. They were intentionally starved and 46 died as a result. They were "immortalized" because they refused to take an oath of allegiance to the United States, despite being put under such duress.
The church graveyards in downtown Charleston are beautiful and fascinating places. The flashes of color shared by early blossoms make the Circular Congregational Church's even more amazing.
This beautiful house was built in about 1799, but was moved from its original location -- which was about 100 feet north of the current spot -- in 1967. It was moved to make way for the development around what is now the Charleston Gaillard Center. You'd never know that this was not its original home.
This beautiful driveway services a pre-Revolutionary house on Tradd Street (built in 1774),  just across from First Scots Presbyterian Church.
This beautiful window and flower box belong to 58 Meeting Street, which was built sometime before 1772. Caught in the reflection is 60 Meeting Street, across Tradd Street -- which, while built in the 1740s,  in recent years has been well known for dressing up in hats on certain holidays (a witch's hat on Halloween and a Santa hat for Christmas).
These pretty window boxes can be found on the front of one of the 13 connected Georgian houses that make up the iconic Rainbow Row on East Bay Street. A classic Charleston winter scene.
The Pineapple Gate House, as the Simmons-Edwards House is more commonly known, is a wonderful c.1800 property on Legare Street. The garden was meticulously restored back to its original 1818 design following a extensive archaeological study.
Built in the late 1790's and with over 6000 square feet of space, the Bowles-Legare-Parker House is beautifully screened from Tradd Street (a better peek of it can be had from Greenhill Street).
Eye-catching beauty, from small to big, can be found all over Charleston. While this flower box and window may represent a smaller amount, the black disk on the wall indicates something larger. The Carolopolis Award, as represented by the disk, has been bestowed for over 63 years by the Preservation Society of Charleston on properties that have achieved excellence in historic preservation. Look around the city and you will find over 1400 of these symbols.
Sweetgrass, which is used to make the famous Charleston Sweetgrass baskets, turns a beautiful purple in the fall.
This barred view into the Circular Church's graveyard is through an old wall behind some private property on Queen Street. The graveyard is thought to be the oldest English burial ground in Charleston, with its oldest grave dating back to 1695.
Charleston gardens are well known for their beauty, and it's always a pleasure to be able to peek into one. This one on King Street is always great to see.
This beautiful Charleston driveway on Montegu Street is always a pleasure to see. Not a bad place to park your car.
A peek into a Charleston garden on Lamboll Street. "Charleston Gardens" was written by the landscape architect Loutrel Briggs, who is responsible for designing more than 100 gardens in the city's historic district -- but not this one.
Charleston always puts on a pretty face. These flowers on Greenhill Street help accessorize a downtown country lane.
The flower covered view into the garden at 22 Lamboll Street, which served as the rectory for St. Michael's Church from 1895 to 1927, is always a wonderful one. 
Charleston is proudly full of some amazing window boxes. These, featuring Colocasia -- otherwise known as Elephant Ears, for obvious reasons -- can be found on the southeast corner of Tradd and Meeting Streets.
The Crepe Myrtle tree is the longest blooming plant in Charleston. This stand is in Hampton Park, but they are found all over the city -- and the beautiful blossoms come in a variety of colors. 
This wonderful Charleston garden is part of a property on Montegu Street which was built in 1800 by Theodore Gaillard. Gaillard was a rice (aka Carolina Gold) planter and merchant.
These beautiful plantings are next to the Dock Street Theatre. The building which the theater has occupied since 1935 was built in 1809 as the Planter's Hotel. It was repurposed into a theater after falling into disrepair following the Civil War and was going to be demolished. 
This earthbound angel, being lit by a ray of sun penetrating the shade from the beautiful live oak tree, can be found on Gibbes Street -- with the Parker-Drayton House looming in the background.
The crepe myrtle tree is the longest blooming plant in Charleston. That a lot of "wow."
This beautiful Charleston front yard, highlighted by some huge hydrangea blossoms, is on Logan Street. Across the street is the graveyard of a church dating back to 1834. The church itself was substantially destroyed in the fire of 1861 and is no longer there.
This wonderful Charleston garden is at the very first house built on Murray Boulevard. The ceiling of the porch is painted in "Haint Blue." The Gullah-Geechee communities, found in coastal South Carolina and Georgia, believed that the blue would keep the spirits of the dead (the haints) from entering the house. Now common in Charleston and across the South, it may or may not work on the spirits, but it sure does make for a pretty porch.
These beautiful window boxes on Legare Street are bursting with hydrangeas. Did you know hydrangeas can be both evergreen and deciduous? The deciduous variety is, however, the more commonly cultivated variety. And now you know...
Hydrangeas, which are one of Glimpses favorites, are in bloom all over Charleston. This is a pretty impressive bunch of bushes. One of the very cool things about hydrangeas is that you can manipulate the color of the blossoms by changing the pH levels in the soil. Different levels of acidity cause the plant to generate different colors. Pretty cool.
In addition to being beautiful, Charleston window boxes sometimes double as the front yard. These, which are right on the sidewalk of King Street, are particularly eye-catching.