One of the local places that our homeowners had told us about was Brookgreen Gardens. We finally got there today and will definitely be going back, as it is $25 per person but you can go back for 7 days on the same ticket as there is so much to see.
We both think it is one of, if not the best gardens we have ever visited. It is on land once owned by Archer Milton Huntington and his wife Anna Hyatt Huntington, a sculptress. We learned about them when we visited the nearby Huntington Beach State Park (also part of their former land) and toured the remains of their estate. The gardens portion of their property was incorporated as a not-for-profit corporation dedicated to the collection, exhibition, and preservation of American figurative sculptures and the plants and animals of the Southeast.
They have succeeded. Brookgreen Gardens was recently named one of the Top 10 Botanical Gardens in America, and the gardens contain the largest and most comprehensive collection of American figurative sculpture in the country with over 2,700 works by 425 artists. There are other gardens with perhaps more colorful and abundant flowers, but the sculptures, gardens, ponds, and wide-spreading live oak trees with Spanish moss, definitely make this a Top 10 site. And we haven’t even visited the Lowcountry grounds and zoo or any of the inside galleries. More to come.
as you enter into the actual gardens
with “Southern Living” magazine to help promote the park
where we parked for most of our visit
to honor Arthur and Anna Huntington
The sculpture is “Samson and the Lion” by Glen Derujinsky, 1949.
This one was done in 1893 by Augustus Saint-Gaudens.
It is the largest sculpture at Brookgreen.
by Adolph Alexander Weinman
Peckish Travels 