This former plantation—listed on the National Register of Historic Places—features a formal garden revived some 30 years ago by famed rosarian Ruth Knopf. Shaped like a pair of butterfly wings, the ever-blooming landscape is one of the best places to admire antique rose varieties, including rambling climbers from the Noisette class, born right here in Charleston. Now, new sweeps of native plants and a monarch waystation are enhancing pollinator activity, while the Gullah Heritage Vegetable Garden helps interpret the past.
The Latest:
A renovation of the Cotton Gin House is adding fresh appeal to the gardens this spring. Built in the 1850s for the gin used to process cotton, it was held up by timber supports for years. In 2023, a major project transformed the building into a museum, hospitality center, and event space with its own distinctive border of native plants.
The horticulture team also added a pollinator garden beside one of the oldest surviving structures in South Carolina, the circa-1750 smokehouse. They designed it to support bees and butterflies—and to attract visitors to that significant space, says director of horticulture Katie Dickson.
Similarly, plants are helping to show what life was like for people who were enslaved at Boone Hall. Between two dwellings, horticulturist Hannah Crane created the Gullah Heritage Vegetable Garden. “When their work day was done, families still had to tend their own gardens of crops needed to supplement their diets,” Dickson says. “These plots are an often-overlooked yet fascinating aspect of the American horticultural story.”
The Backstory:
Boone Hall dates back to 1681, when Major John Boone left England for Charles Town and built his home along Mount Pleasant’s Wampacheone Creek. In the mid-1700s, his son started planting the live oak trees that form the property’s signature oak allée.
Subsequent owners ran a brickyard and grew cotton, pecans, and produce. Canadian ambassador Thomas Stone bought the place in the 1930s, building the mansion fronted by a formal garden. The McRae family has owned Boone Hall since 1955 and continues to operate it as a farm and a historic attraction.
The outlines of Stone’s formal garden were still there when Ruth Knopf came on as head gardener in 1995. A renowned “rose rustler,” Knopf tracked down forgotten beauties growing in churchyards and along roadsides so that she could propagate and share them, rescuing the heirlooms from extinction. She planted dozens of these heritage roses at Boone Hall, bringing color and fragrance to the landscape she revitalized.
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Some 30 rose varieties perfume the gardens almost year-round, but especially in spring. Each one is labeled, making for a glorious study in heirlooms that can thrive in the Lowcountry.
Perennials layer into the alluring display, along with thousands of annuals. “We’re highlighting a lot of old-fashioned, romantic flowers, like foxgloves, delphiniums, and snapdragons,” says Dickson. “From April into early June, they’ll provide sprawling pastel color—a profusion of textures and fragrance.”
While at Boone Hall, explore the nine brick dwellings built between 1790 and 1810 to house enslaved people. Guests can also visit the Georgian-style mansion and take a tractor tour of the 738-acre property that is a working farm, growing produce, such as this season’s strawberries.
Read our archived feature about Charleston’s own Noisette rose, which blooms at Boone Hall.
The Details:
Boone Hall Plantation & Gardens
1235 Long Point Rd., Mount Pleasant
Monday-Saturday, 9 a.m.-5 p.m. & Sunday, noon-5 p.m. $28; $25 senior/military/AAA member; $12 ages six-12; free for ages five & under with an adult. (843) 884-4371, boonehallplantation.com
