The Mepkin Abbey Botanical Garden (3,200 acres) is a natural area and

botanical garden A botanical garden or botanic gardenThe terms ''botanic'' and ''botanical'' and ''garden'' or ''gardens'' are used more-or-less interchangeably, although the word ''botanic'' is generally reserved for the earlier, more traditional gardens, an ...

located on the grounds of Mepkin Abbey, a

Trappist The Trappists, officially known as the Order of Cistercians of the Strict Observance ( la, Ordo Cisterciensis Strictioris Observantiae, abbreviated as OCSO) and originally named the Order of Reformed Cistercians of Our Lady of La Trappe, are a ...

monastery located at 1098 Mepkin Abbey Road,

Moncks Corner, South Carolina Moncks Corner is a town in and the county seat of Berkeley County, South Carolina, United States. The population was 7,885 at the 2010 census. As defined by the U.S. Census Bureau, Moncks Corner is included within the Charleston-North Charleston-S ...

. The garden is open to the public daily except Mondays. The grounds began as the Mepkin Plantation, home of American patriot

Henry Laurens Henry Laurens (December 8, 1792) was an American Founding Father, merchant, slave trader, and rice planter from South Carolina who became a political leader during the Revolutionary War. A delegate to the Second Continental Congress, Laure ...

. The house itself was burned by the

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies. ** Britishness, the British identity and common culture * British English, ...

and again by the

Union Army During the American Civil War, the Union Army, also known as the Federal Army and the Northern Army, referring to the United States Army, was the land force that fought to preserve the Union of the collective states. It proved essential to th ...

in the

Civil War A civil war or intrastate war is a war between organized groups within the same state (or country). The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government policies ...

. Today's garden was established as landscape gardens on the country estate of noted publisher Henry R. Luce and his wife

Clare Boothe Luce Clare Boothe Luce ( Ann Clare Boothe; March 10, 1903 – October 9, 1987) was an American writer, politician, U.S. ambassador, and public conservative figure. A versatile author, she is best known for her 1936 hit play '' The Women'', which ha ...

(who are buried on the site). The grounds feature live oaks and a

camellia ''Camellia'' (pronounced or ) is a genus of flowering plants in the family Theaceae. They are found in eastern and southern Asia, from the Himalayas east to Japan and Indonesia. There are more than 220 described species, with some controv ...

garden designed by landscape architect

Loutrel Briggs Loutrel Winslow Briggs (December 12, 1893 - May 1977) was an American landscape architect active in Charleston, South Carolina. Briggs was born in New York City, graduated from Cornell University in 1917 with a degree in "Rural Art" (landscape arch ...

External links

Mepkin Abbey
Official Website Botanical gardens in South Carolina Protected areas of Berkeley County, South Carolina Trappist Order {{US-garden-stub

See also

External links