Orton Plantation Gardens 
Within the past thirty-five years the unique gar- 
dens at Orton Plantation have been developed in- 
creasingly. The ancient Live Oaks still enframe the 
gleaming portico of the mansion which, from the 
bluff, still looks outward over the rice fields to the 
river. 
The approach reveals the evergreen charm of the 
Low Country, its pines and wide-spread oaks, its 
black waters and thickets of bays and hollies, its 
smother of grape and smilax, jessamine and trumpet 
creeper, and, frequently, the silvery gray of Spanish 
moss. Such is the setting of Orton, and here each 
year come thousands of visitors to experience the 
pleasures it affords not often found in the turmoil 
of present-day life. 
Throughout the winter and always in spring hun- 
dreds of camellias sparkle in their brilliance. In 
March and well into April the blaze of Japanese and 
Indian azaleas turn Orton into a fairyland of color. 
The specialist will come from afar to see one of the 
finest collections in the country but the casual visi- 
tor will follow the lure of new pictures, new flower- 
ed or berried shrubs. During this season the beauty 
of the various gardens is enhanced by dogwood, wis- 
taria, rose, and redbud to be followed by the true 
Southerners, mimosa, bay, crepe myrtle and gar- 
denia. Each season is marked by its peculiar frag- 
rance; loquat, tea olive and osmanthus precede the 
long winter of the heavy scented daphne, and roses 
and jessamine carry on to the gardenias and sweet 
bay of high summer. 
Each separate garden about the broad sweep of 
verdant lawns has its own charm; the quarter mile 
of camellia bordered path, the formality of the 
house terrace, the neat garden scroll of interwoven 
azaleas and dark yew, the reflections of quince and 
wisteria, rose and holly in the long lagoon, and 
azaleas, flowering fruit trees along with many other 
exotic plants in the water scenes, the festoons of 
moss in the old graveyard, the cathedral arch of 
oaks above the green circle, all appeal and each in 
its season holds its sway. In rich greens or blaze 
of bloom Orton embodies the romance of the South. 
Garden design under the supervision of 
Robert Swan Sturtevant, M.L.A. 
The impressive walls of colonial St. Philip’s 
Church, with its marble tombs battered by shell fire 
from the Northern fleet and by the malicious hands 
of vandals, the site of Governor Tryon’s residence 
with its descriptive monument all lend unique con- 
trast to the brilliance of Orton Gardens in bloom. 
