The Cassina Garden Club of St. Simons Island turns 90 years old and what better way to celebrate than by attending their 12th Annual Tabby & Tillandsia Garden Walk? The Club has been very busy the past few years restoring the historic 1830 tabby slave cabins at Hamilton Plantation on Gascoigne Bluff and they’re eager to show off the completed project to the public as well.
On Sunday, April 22, the week prior to Garden Walk, the club invites the community to join them at “Music at the Cabins,” an inaugural event presenting live music at the historic grounds. The event is free and open to the public and will feature singing saxophone phenom Michael Hulett. Bring your chairs and blanket and pack up a picnic dinner with your favorite beverages and plan to enjoy this musical evening on the bluff with friends. The restoration project took approximately four years to complete and it’s time for a party! Educational tours of the cabins will take place beginning at 4:00 p.m. that day, and the concert will be from 5:00-8:00 p.m. Please come out and let the club express its heartfelt gratitude to all those who have supported the restoration and those who continue to provide financial assistance.
The following Saturday, April 28, Gascoigne Bluff and the cabins will be a check-in site for the 12th Annual Tabby & Tillandsia Garden Walk. This one-day event features a self-guided tour of eight of some of the most private and unique gardens on St. Simons Island. There will be special activities at the cabins and on the grounds as well. These activities are free and open to the public. The Marketplace will be open there from 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. and will feature works by local artisans, a plant sale, and tours of the restored cabins and gardens. A Garden Party with delicious refreshments made by club members will take place from 1:00-4:00 p.m. and will feature music from the Golden Isles Strummers ukulele band from 2:00-3:00 p.m. Additionally, artists will be painting in the gardens and on the grounds at Gascoigne Bluff and there will be a Plein Air Artists’ Sale of their works from 3:00-4:00 p.m.
The Garden Walk would not be possible without the generosity of the community and sponsors involved. Premier Sponsor ACE Garden Center has been supporting this event since its inception and their participation is greatly appreciated. Please show your thanks by stopping in to ACE Garden Center to do some shopping for your own garden. On April 28-29, present your Garden Walk ticket to receive 10% off all plant purchases. Joining ACE this year as a Premier Sponsor is Magnolia Manor. Additional sponsors include: FarmRich (Distinguished), June Brown, Carter Land Services, Coastal Bloomers, Crystal Pools, Elegant Outdoors Landscaping, Gene’s Greens, Jeff Homans, Low Country Walk, Premier Printing, Redfern Pest Solutions, Restoration Imports, Synovus Bank (Contributing), and Beachview Event Rentals and Design (In-Kind). Two Friends in Redfern Village will be showing their support by offering a Sip & Shop event where proceeds from sales will be donated to Cassina Garden Club on Wednesday, April 25 from 1:00-6:00 p.m. Del Sur Artisan Eats offers special pricing for Garden Walk attendees on April 28, stop in for lunch or dinner and receive 10% off your bill when you present your ticket.
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Last year, Garden Walk attendees were wowed by an amazing collection of hand-tended orchids, the stunning setting of the Live Oaks at Captain’s Walk, and the gorgeous pond and gazebo at Grey Owl Inn, as well as many other features. The Garden Club’s hope is that you are impressed by the beauty you encounter on the tour, that you take away some education, and that you are inspired to be creative in your own gardens. What can visitors expect this year?
Garden 1: 1604 Ocean, East Beach.
This transplanted 1950s cottage had been moved to its present location from a site at The King and Prince Resort. The large oak that provides the canopy in the front was the only landscaping feature. This allowed the new owners to create a garden to suit their lifestyle and new future on the island. What emerged is a lovely casual garden where al fresco dining can be enjoyed. Thriving rosemary bushes, graceful agapanthus, white muhly grasses adorn the pebble paths and garden with autumn ferns that colorfully transform through the seasons.
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Garden 2: 104 Newfield, Harrison Point
As a Master Gardener, the owner of 104 Newfield embarked on a plan to create a property that would be filled with year-round greenery, seasonal blooms, and a courtyard in which to entertain and relax. Patience has paid off, and now, two years later, Southern staples of gardenias, azaleas, and camellias, are joined by citrus trees and raised beds for herbs and vegetables. The wrap-around porch is lush with hanging ferns, and beautiful flowers spill out of a plethora of pots.
Garden 3: 105 Newfield, Harrison Point
A blue grey Century Cactus (American Agave) is the most prized plant in the garden at 105 Newfield. It began as a 12-inch experiment and now towers over 8 feet tall as a triumphant success story. This perfectly describes the gardening style of the owners here: they have a passion for growing plants that are atypical of the island and they do so with style and success. Swamp hibiscus, outdoor philodendrons, and numerous perennials that should not thrive easily in this climate are all faring well. They love challenge and enjoy seeing their efforts as they sit on their Victorian wrap-around porch. Hand-painted gardens thrive in the home as well, including a garden greenhouse theme in the great room, and an ivy-covered trellis adorning a ceiling. Daring and dazzling creativity abounds!
Garden 4: 311 John Shaw, Shaw’s Bounty
Citrus trees lining the driveway and a large king palm are what welcome you to the marsh property on Dunbar Creek. African jasmine and azaleas are just some of the heat-loving plants that add beauty. Potted tropicals, variegated ginger, flax lilies adorn the pool and pebbled walkway. The majestic view that draws your attention, however, is that of the sweeping marsh and the stately oaks that frame it. A well-placed bench beckons you to sit and take it all in.
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Garden 5: 1059 Sea Palms West, Enclave
Two tree spirits carved into the oaks by Keith Jennings and an old-fashioned wooden swing are perhaps some of our favorite features at this stop. When the owners acquired an adjacent property, they challenged a local landscape architect to create a sanctuary of tranquility and beauty that blended the two properties. Now, a winding brick pathway connects the adjacent lots sand emerges from behind a hedge to the open grounds of a guest house and its evolving gardens. A labyrinth is in the planning stages and a butterflies, bees, and birds will enjoy the wildflower garden. There is also a beautiful brick potting shed that is a source of fun and inspiration for the gardener.
Garden 6: 207 Dunbarton Drive, Dunbar Creek
The mature plantings of azaleas, camellias, hydrangeas, and ferns were embraced by the current owners who love their trees and the comfortable position of the home nestled in the Southern landscape. To add color and texture, the planted two myrtles as well as lantana, liriope, nandina, and pittosporum. The backyard patio features two cut-out beds with a border of boxwoods, center camellias and scattered agapanthus. Feeders, bird houses and a dense treed wall attract birds of all species, including a pair of painted buntings who wintered in the garden, providing hours of birdwatching pleasure from the lovely porch for the home owners.
Garden 7: 11712 Old Demere
Several 300+ year-old live oaks stand as sentinels on the property at 11712 Old Demere, which also boasts approximately three acres overlooking the marsh, making this a very special place. An artfully arranged band of bricks and mondo grass borders the home’s entrance at the end of a long drive. A pool and pergola in the backyard were specifically designed to complement the home and to enhance the beauty of the landscape made up of marsh grass, ferns, and palms, and several citrus trees that offer lemons, limes, and unusual sour oranges.
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Garden 8: Cassina Garden Club’s Tabby Slave Cabins and Gardens
As we explained earlier, the Cassina Garden Club began the work of restoring the tabby slave cabins located at Gascoigne Bluff in 2012-2013. Their work was completed in 2017, and these early plantation era (1793-1865) cabins that housed Hamilton Plantation’s slaves can now be seen as they were in their original days. Shards of Indian pottery, hand-painted marbles, colonial ironwork, tabby from 1750, antebellum glass, and bricks made at Frederica were just some of the artifacts that were unearthed and identified during the project. These are an invaluable tool in showing virtually every period of the island’s history.
Plantation gardens generally contained herbs, vegetables and cotton and were constructed in an elliptical shape around the plantation home. The gardens on the Cassina grounds were designed in the same manner by combining an adaption of an actual drawing and descriptions of several other plantation gardens. Today’s garden offers plants indigenous to the coastal Georgia climate. Cotton, okra, peanuts, and a Southern red cedar tree, measuring the largest in the state of Georgia, can all be found on the Cassina grounds. Birds and butterflies love it just as much as the two-legged visitors, if not more; the property has been declared a certified butterfly way station and a wild bird sanctuary.
Tickets for the 12th Annual Tabby & Tillandsia Garden Walk are $25 are can be purchased at ACE Garden Center, GJ Ford Bookshop and St. Simons Drug on St. Simons Island, and at dot&army in Brunswick. On event day, you can purchase tickets at the cabins at Gascoigne Bluff. Additionally, you can buy tickets on the website at cassinagardenclub.org, and pick them up at the Will Call table at the cabins on tour day. For additional information regarding tickets, call 912.638.9808 or email lcarlton@bellsouth.net. Come out to enjoy the music, the fellowship, the gardens, and celebrate 90 years of the Cassina Garden Club’s wonderful work beautifying our community. We’re so lucky to have them here!
