“French Tea” at Magnolia’s Summer Garden

Event Details

Magnolia Plantation and Gardens will serve a “French tea in the Lowcountry” on April 6 amid colorful azaleas and a stringed classical trio, reminiscent of a bygone Southern tradition but with a French twist.

Magnolia’s 21st century version of a “French tea” will support the newly formed Friends of André Michaux Charleston Garden Project, named for the French botanist who collected plants and other biological materials in colonial South Carolina for the French government. Tea drinking was popularized in France around 1636 following the tea plant’s arrival from China, about two decades before it was imported to England. Enshrined in Southern culture, stylish high-society teas in the 1920s and 1930s were common at Magnolia during the cultural renewal dubbed the Charleston Renaissance.

Tickets are $65 per person for a “French Tea in the Lowcountry,” beginning promptly at 1:30 p.m. near the horticultural maze. The tea ends at 3:30 p.m. Advance tickets are required. For tickets and additional information, please visit the website listed above.