For August. 1922 



233 



Gardening in South Carolina 



ANDREW ANDERSEN 



Wht-n I was called upon to go to South Carolina to 

 plan and plant an estate for the owner of a cotton mill 

 town, little did 1 know of what was ahead of me in the 

 way of climatic conditions and the labor situation in gener- 

 al. It was my first attemjjt in the South and amusing 

 indeed is it — to say the least — to see the native negro go 

 about his work. Slow and lazy as he is. he, of course. 



A i'ic7C of tlic rose i^ardcu on the Mchanc estate. Great Falls, S. C. 



knows more or less how to grow cotton, or can at least 

 jilow and apply the fertilizer to the fields. Most of the 

 plowing I have seen, however, consists mainly of scraping 

 the surface which is not exactly one of the best methods 

 for successful farming. Cotton is the watchword, though 

 one may see a good stand of corn or wheat occasionally. 

 As yet I have not seen a good pasture. 



I want particularly to tell you a little about the garden- 

 ing end of it : 



I'or certain reasons it was not practicable to import 

 white e.xperienced garden laborers, so the very first thing 

 to do was to get a gang of Africans interested in the pro- 

 fession of gardening, and this training was the most diffi- 

 cult task I have ever been up against. Sucli raw material 

 has been a steady handicap to proper plantings and the 



The stviinining pool shozvin;:; the /'lantiiii^ of nat'iTe cedars. 



preparations for such. December, January and February 

 form the iilanting season, but occasional hot and dry spells 

 through this period even necessitate great care and a well 

 established planting before hot weather sets in, is a neces- 

 sity to success ; otherwise failure is sure to come. Hot 

 Summer weather begins in May and continues into No- 

 vember. 



.\fter all, roses are doing splendidly, better than any- 



thing else. The rose bug is an unknown pest here. 1 am 

 growing hybrid teas and a few teas only, and such climbers 

 as Marechal Niel, Gloire de Dijon, the Van Flet, Tausend- 

 schon, American Beauty, and Silver Moon, the greatest of 

 them all. A snapshop of a rose garden planted in No- 

 vember and taken the following year in May is shown on 

 this page. 



I^'lowering shrubs such as magnolias, lilacs, spireas, 

 weigelas, deutzias, and a score of others are practically 

 llowering at the same time, but doing fine as they flower in 

 March or April. Ahead of these come the forsythias, bush 

 honeysuckles, azaleas, and not uncommon is it to see these 

 ])Oor harbingers of Spring being destroyed by a February 

 .~leet storm, magnolias included. 



It is not unusual to see wonderful specimeii gardenias, 

 and they, by the way, flower twice a year. Envonymous 

 jap, with its beautiful foliage and red berries is another 

 wonderful lawn specimen in this locality. The orlanders 

 are attractive for the same purpose and spread immensely 

 in a few years time, and last but not least I want to men- 

 lion the crape myrtle, another decoration for the lawn 

 and just coming in when flowering shrubs are scarce. 



Shade trees such as Norway maple. European linden^ 



A speeiinen tree for S'oiilheni lan'iis. Ligustruin iiepaleiise. 



elm and plane are quite at home, and right here I want 

 to call attention to one beautiful native tree, the willow 

 oak, an evergreen oak so to say, with foliage resembling 

 the laurel willow, slightly narrower, a very graceful and 

 desirable tree for all purposes (Oiierctis phellos). 



The woods are full of red cedars, hollies (large leaf) 

 and the most beautiful dogwood I have ever seen. With 

 this material we have made some very beautiful plantings 

 with an occasional sprinkling of a corkbark elm and red 

 oak. 



The long leaf pine is a wonderful looking tree, but 

 does not want to be moved, at least this is my experience 

 with this variety of pine, and I am sorry to say that I have 

 failed utterly ! 



For the plantings at the main entrances and for lawn 

 sjiecimens and driveways we bought nursery stock from 

 the North. The plantings at the swimming pool are 

 native cedars. The large tree or bush in circle of one of 

 the pictures is a Ligustrum nepalense, a beautiful large 

 leafed evergreen with its large blue berries in big clusters 

 remaining on the tree all winter, a good specimen tree 

 for a Southern lawn. 



The spruces, particularly so, pungens and pungens 

 i^^laitca Kostcriana, are looking very well and making fine 

 (Continued on page 237) 



