A city renowned for the preservation of its vast collection of Georgian and other antebellum architecture, Charleston is equally famous for the intriguing private gardens that make it one of the greenest cities in the nation. From within hidden sites and from behind ancient city walls, the nearly two dozen exquisite gardens Louisa Pringle Cameron profiles in this book leave little doubt that Charleston has earned its moniker as "a city set in a garden."
Although all are situated in Charleston, each garden is unique, offering the reader the aesthetic experience of discovery and renewal with the turn of a page. Readers step through shrubbery and meander under trellises bulging with flowering vines, with each photograph providing a unique perspective into the Carolinahorticultural character of this urban city. Surrounded by native gardeners' encouragements, tips, and stories, the narrative details a vibrant life and history in each space. The Secret Gardens of Charleston captures the distinct architectural composition of this remarkable city and provides a rewarding collection of ideas, advice, and anecdotes from the city's experienced gardeners.
Louisa Pringle Cameron grew up amid historic gardens in her native city of Charleston, South Carolina. Cameron is a graduate of Hollins College in Virginia and of Clemson University's Master Gardener Program in Charleston. She is an accomplished gardener, watercolorist, and lecturer.
Lauren Preller Chambers is a freelance photographer who lives on Sullivans Island, South Carolina.
"Cameron focuses on the efforts to resurrect gardens after 1989 when Hurricane Hugo covered many of them with salt water. . . . The eighty-six color photographs of these twenty-two gardens may provide the most lasting record of the city's gardening revival."—Charleston (S.C.) Post and Courier
