This Charming Charleston Garden Is Pure Parterre Perfection

Stephanie Hunt
18th century charleston, south carolina, home design by ben lenhardt in the parterre garden, kingsville boxwood borders with corner globes of japanese boxwood frame variegated asiatic jasmine knots and smaller spheres of oregano
This Charleston Garden Is Pure Parterre PerfectionGross & Daley

“Parterre gardens are to be enjoyed from above, designed so the lady of the house could gaze from a piazza,” says Ben Lenhardt, pointing to the broad second-story porch of this 1743 home he and his wife have fully restored.

Though small, his Charleston garden amplifies a refined lyricism, more exquisite chamber music than robust symphony. With boxwood-lined precision and plantings true to those found in the 18th-century Carolinas, it’s a celebration of history and preservation as much as form and finesse.

18th century charleston, south carolina, home design by ben lenhardt white lady banks roses tumble over a garden wall with creeping fig
White Lady Banks roses tumble over a garden wall with creeping fig.Gross & Daley

There was no preexisting garden, just a lovely “borrowed landscape” of live oaks, massive magnolia, loquat, dogwood, and hollies surrounding the property. Lenhardt, a retired CEO who serves as chairman emeritus of The Garden Conservancy and board member of the Chicago Botanic Garden, embraced the blank slate, creating a series of garden rooms, including a narrow brick-lined front courtyard, then a central parterre aligned with sightlines from the main house.

Espaliered Little Gem magnolia, Iceberg roses, and white lantana climb the brick kitchen house. This unusual treatment was a “happy accident,” he says, noting that a prostrate lantana plant had toppled over and began ascending on its own. “I tucked it behind Iceberg roses for support.”

18th century charleston, south carolina, home design by ben lenhardt a double border of white gardenias embraces geometric kingsville littleleaf boxwood, with an old ligustrum tree standing guard above two gardenia standards
A double border of white gardenias embraces geometric Kingsville little leaf boxwood, with an old Ligustrum tree standing guard above two gardenia standards.Gross & Daley

A brick walkway leads past the original privy turned “poor man’s Hidcote Manor folly,” Lenhardt jokingly explains, and into the larger back garden, where brick and stucco walls are encircled by Pink Perfection camellias, sasanquas, crape myrtles, and dogwoods—“all the usual suspects.” A 90-year-old palmetto, one of Charleston’s tallest, stands sentry on the lawn.

The middle parterre room’s strict white-and-green palette disappears, allowing Lenhardt to play with plant varieties and introduce color. “The bigger the property, the more sins you can get away with. A small garden is like a magnifying glass; you can see every error.” And clearly, every success.

2023 World's Most Beautiful Gardens winner for Parterre Perfection; Design by Ben Lenhardt.

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