Why do we talk about wings in our gardens?

When you read posts from our horticulture department, you'll often see a reference to "upper right wing" or "upper left wing." Why? It's all about a butterfly!

In the featured image above you can see Anna Hyatt Huntington's original design of the paths through the gardens.  She worked around what was left of the formal garden and structures from Brookgreen Plantation, and created the layout that we have today. Oak Allée leads to the base of the butterfly. The curving paths at the back of the gardens lead to the steps at the garden wall and form the antenna, and of course, the other curving paths are the wings.

The upper left wing is to the west of the Old Kitchen and the upper right wing is to the west of the Brown Sculpture Court. The lower right wing contains the Children's Garden and the lower left wing is now called Nana and Papa's Garden. 

Here is a detail of our current property map -  see the butterfly?

BG_PropertyMap_close_up.jpg

Brookgreen has added more gardens since the 1930's of course, but the original garden structure, designed and installed by our founders, remains the foundation of the sculpture gardens.