Gardens in the Low Country are lovely from October through April
Charleston, Beaufort, Savannah, and Jekyll Island all have lovely, and different, gardens.
Charleston
A town garden in Charleston in March
Charleston is the only city on this coast with landscaping on a grand scale--at Middleton Plantation, which was landscaped in the eighteenth century under Henry Middleton by slave labor.
Magnolia Plantation has a large, intimate garden near the house, and a landscaped area of lakes, in which bridges and azaleas are reflected. Here, too, is a lovely cypress swamp with excellent wildlife viewing.
Cypress gardens is also built around a cypress swamp,and has a pretty lake where visitors can paddle about in a boat, as well as a large butterfly garden. Boone Hall boasts the loveliest live oak allée in the area. It also has a rose garden near the house, containing many varieties of noisette roses, which were developed in Charleston and are at their best in May.
View toward the Ashley River down the main axis of the garden at Middleton Plantation
Charleston has a long tradition of particular types of town gardens, many of which can be seen by walking down any residential street south of Broad Street (SOB!). Some of these gardens are on self-guided walking tours during the Tour of Homes and Gardens, which is held from mid-March to mid-April every year.
Some of Charleston's house museums, too, have lovely gardens, some stocked with plants appropriate to the date of the house.
Savannah
Some of Savannah's lovely squares are gardens in their own right, with flowering shrubs and beds of seasonal annnuals. A garden festival, with a tour of private gardens, is held in April, but a walking tour through the Historic District reveals a wealth of gardens at any time of year.
Jones Street, Savannah
Of Savannah's house museums, the Owens-Thomas House and the Davenport House have nice gardens. There are no big, plantation-style gardens near Savannah.
Beaufort
Beaufort has no impressive public gardens, either, but a stroll through the residential part of the Historic District reveals a wealth of imaginative private gardens spilling out onto the street.
Jekyll Island
The gardens of "Millionaire's Village," the Jekyll Island Historic District, are beautifully kept and dripping with flowers at any time of year.
Garden of the Massie Heritage Center, Savannah
Garden of the Nathaniel Russell House Museum, Charleston, in March
Troup Square, Savannah, in February
Jasmine on a Charleston garden fence in front of a redbud tree
A blue garden on Jekyll Island