Charleston Tea Garden

In the late 1700s, French botanist, André Michaux, brought the Camellia sinensis plant to the United States and gave it to Henry Middleton.

[1] In 1960, they bought the former Pinehurst Tea Plantation in Summerville and in 1963 they moved out to Wadmalaw Island and operated a research station for about twenty-five years.

[1][2] The Charleston Tea Garden, as it is known today, was established in 1987 when Mack Fleming and William (Bill) Barclay Hall bought the land and the research station from the Lipton Company.

[1][3] Mack Fleming—a horticultural professor at Trident Technical College—had been running the garden for the Lipton Company and Bill Hall was a third generation tea tester from England.

[7] Mack Fleming, while working for Lipton, invented the Green Giant—a cross between a cotton picker and tobacco harvester—which is still used today to harvest the tea leaves.

Group tours and school field trips frequent the garden and private events are often held on the grounds.

[3] Since Bigelow bought the Charleston Tea Garden, they have been working on updating the machinery, the process, and expanding the grounds as well as production.

Drawing on his many years in South America Bill Hall brought in more modern tea manufacturing equipment to update the factory.

One of Bigelow’s main goals is to increase production through expansion and efficiency while retaining the charming atmosphere that so many people love to visit.

The garden served the visitors the first tea produced in the new season for free by allowing them the chance to taste it in hopes of pulling in new customers.