Orton Plantation, which opens for the 2010 season today, is celebrating the 100th anniversary of the gardens with the Spring 2010 season. Extensive renovations have been made in the gardens to open up panoramic views to the Cape Fear River, remove competing vegetation, redesign and enhance the flower beds and restore and preserve the colonial rice fields. Among the predominant species in the garden are live oaks, camellias, azaleas, flowering fruit trees, daphne, hydrangeas, crape myrtles, dogwoods, and colorful spring and summer annuals. Lawns and water gardens lend variety to the lush vegetation.
Plan to come spend a day at Orton Plantation! The gardens will soon be in their glory. The historic landscape designed around the 1735 mansion and colonial rice fields overlooking the Cape Fear River and 20 acres of secluded walking trails surrounded by hundreds of acres of rice fields make Orton Plantation Gardens a wonderful place to visit.
Generations of locals and tourists travel to the historic property with its beautiful antebellum plantation house. Azaleas, dogwoods, camellias and various annuals bring a splash of color to the riverside oaks and pines.
One of the oldest plantations on the Lower Cape Fear and the only one with a manor house still standing, Orton has become a privately owned tourist attraction, celebrated for its elaborate gardens. In recent years, the plantation and its grounds have served as locations on a number of motion pictures.
When a cousin of the Sprunt family was seriously injured in an automobile accident In the late 1930s. Family members decided to open Orton plantation as a public garden for a long weekend to raise money for his medical bills, .
Visitors so enjoyed the gardens and grounds that the family continued to keep them open to the public. These days, the gardens are open each year, March through August and September through November.
The house and grounds are located at 9149 Orton Road S.E., Brunswick County just off N.C. 133, close to the Brunswick Town/Fort Anderson State Historic Site.
Hours are 8am to 5pm March – August and 10am – 5pm September – November (except they close for Thanksgiving Day).
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