One of the hundreds of thriving bromeliads.
Green way: A view of the verdant woodland garden toward the marsh at the back of the property.
The canopy from numerous mature live oaks provides ideal light for the “woodland garden,“ including a variety of ferns, cast-iron plants, acanthuses, and hydrangeas.
After a day of gardening, Smeal and González relax, glasses of wine in hand, and survey their surroundings. “We look at what we’ve done and what we should do,” says Smeal. With seating spots throughout the property, the after-party rotates.
The stone terrace with potted agaves, aloes, and topiaries overlooks the back lawn, leading down to the marsh and their very own peninsula.
González (pictured above) and Smeal are always on the lookout for great specimens, whether in a store or on the side of the road.
The tropical garden stretches from the front of the house to the road and includes heat- and humidity-loving plants, such as a variety of Australian tree ferns, banana plants, bromeliads, elephant ears, and palms. “We get them from trips to Florida,” says Smeal of the bromeliads. “We have learned what grows in our microclimate and have gotten them to grow in the trees the way they are supposed to.” To accomplish this, Smeal uses industrial adhesive to affix the bromeliads to oaks and palms, then staples window screen mesh over the roots to save them from pesky squirrels. He covers the screens with Spanish moss, fittingly as he points out it’s the Lowcountry’s native bromeliad.
Lined by towering Italian cypress, this garden once hosted thirsty flowers, like hydrangeas. These days, grasses, including these Lomandra longifolia ‘Breeze,’ steal the show. “I think they are under-appreciated,” says Gonzaléz. “They are evergreen, easy to grow, and don’t need much once they are established. We love them.” The space that Smeal designed to be calm and meditative now concludes in a grasses garden of undulating Liriope muscari or Aztec grass.
Variety Show: (left to right) Blood lily; a bird’s-nest fern lives happily on an oak; the color of this neoregelia (a type of bromeliad) changes with the light; this hefty staghorn fern is rigged to a pulley system to lower it from its roost for tending.
The loggia near the home’s entrance provides another sip-and-see seating area.
