Why locals love it
Skip the house tour, walk the gardens. March is unreal.
What locals are saying
Founded in 1676 and open to the public since 1870, Magnolia is the oldest public garden in America — and it wears its age well, leaning into a Romantic-style naturalism that sets it apart from Middleton Place's clipped formality: live oaks draped in Spanish moss, alligators cruising the Audubon Swamp Garden, and early-spring azalea and camellia bloom that borders on theatrical. The à-la-carte ticketing is a genuine friction point — base admission is modest, but the house tour, nature train, wildlife boat, and Slavery to Freedom tour each carry separate fees that stack fast and catch visitors off guard. The Slavery to Freedom tour is not an afterthought; it's increasingly central to the plantation's identity, and the property leans into that history more deliberately than most.
