Summerville's Flowertown Festival 2025

Summerville is at present shimmering in a sea of magnificent multitudinous masses of magenta. It is the annual azalea bloom putting on its best dress for the upcoming Flowertown Festival hosted in Summerville's Azalea Park. In the past few years due to pre-spring warm-ups, the grand show was long gone by the time the festival arrived.

The flowers are the official doorkeepers of spring greeting all to the celebration of warmer days. Drive anywhere on the streets in the town's historic district between Central Ave and S. Main Street and you will be convinced Summerville is rightfully crowned the "Flower Town in the Pines."

Rightfully called the "Flower Town in the Pines" because Summerville is also famous for its pine trees, but unfortunately, the pollen bloom that rains down from their branches when the weather warms is not enthusiastically embraced with happy celebration like the azaleas. With that being said, pine trees and azaleas are a perfect collaboration because azaleas grow well in their shadows.

The varieties of azaleas are as bounteous as its blooms thanks to hybridizing, or crossbreeding. They are native to North America, so it is likely they greeted our arriving ancestors in some form. All North American species are deciduous, meaning they drop their leaves. The evergreen varieties come from Japan, where they can be hundreds of years old.

The azaleas that helped make Summerville famous are most likely the non-native variety. The first hybrids were planted in Charleston, South Carolina. John Grimke Drayton imported the Azalea Indica from Philadelphia where they were grown only in greenhouses by a nurseryman who also had a branch nursery in Charleston and introduced them into the estate gardens of his rice plantation on the Ashley River. Marie Clinton Hastie wrote about the beginnings of her grandfather's garden, "it was somewhere in the mid 1840s that the Azalea Indica was introduced to Magnolia." His garden was the first in America to plant azaleas outdoors. An interesting fact of history: The plantation house was burned during the Civil War. In 1873, John Grimke Drayton had his small, pre-Revolution summer house in Summerville taken apart and moved by barge down the Ashley River, where it was rebuilt on the ruined house's foundation.

Azalea Park visitors in the early days

In 1932, Grange Cuthbert became the mayor of Summerville. He came up with the plan to take some of the land deeded to Summerville by the "Civic League" between Central Avenue and Magnolia Street and turn it into a mid-town paradise. George Segelken, a pioneer in azalea propagation, entered the picture. Thanks to his generosity Summerville became the place to see these prolific plants in all their abundant glory in 1935. People came from all over to view the lush beauty of the town's Azalea Park. Segelken named the salmon pink colored azalea "Pride of Summerville." The park is the predominant venue of the Flowertown Festival.

The Flowertown Festival ranks as one of the largest festivals in the Southeast with an origin that goes back to 1973. The three-day festival also carries the well-deserved distinction as one of the Top 20 events in the Southeast by the Southeast Tourism Society, attracting over 200,000 attendees. One of the main features of this family-oriented festival centers on the promotion of arts and crafts. More than 200 craft artisans and vendors are given the opportunity to showcase their creative wares throughout Azalea Park.

The current festival was predated by a previous event in 1941, when Summerville celebrated the first Azalea Festival--a four-day event that included dances, concerts, a parade, and a formal ball. The festival promoted local business and celebrated the town's community pride, a pride as old as its trees. Summerville's rich history dates all the way back to the late 1600s.

Somes things about the Flowertown Festival seem to never change, such as the many familiar vendors you see every year. However, some things have changed. There was a time when a replica of the Hunley was featured as you entered S. Main Street next to the Townhall.

Also, the 2025 Farmer's Market will begin on Saturday April 5, hours 8am-1pm.

Well, that is Summerville—azaleas and the biggest festival in the Southeast. While visiting for the Flowertown Festival, when you see me walking around town be sure to say, "Hey." I am always interested in making new acquaintances.

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All Roads in Summerville Lead You "Into the Woods"

I only saw brief portions of the movie called Into the Woods. However, anything with Johnny Depp in it is definitely going to have unmistakable weirdness weaved into the characters. So, going into the James F. Dean Theater to see Steven Sondheim's adaptation, I was totally unaware what to expect in the way of a storyline. The live stage production is loosely inspired by the Grimm Brothers' fairy tales including Little Red Riding Hood, Jack and the Beanstalk, Cinderella, and Rapunzel with a witch thrown in to conjure up a little chaos for an unfortunate baker and his wife who want a child. They can undo their bad luck by collecting four objects in three days: the cow as white as milk, the cape as red as blood, the hair as yellow as corn, and the slipper as pure as gold.

The Flowertown Player's presentation of Into the Woods was an empty your bladder and settle into your comfy seat for a three-hour giant rompem' stompem' whopper of a tall tale, including the short intermission. As the play's red-caped little vixen (Mackenzie Comer) skipped between the trees from scene to scene, I inexplicably thought of the lyrics of the song of the same name by Sam the Sham and the Pharaohs, and it was surely looking good. The performance was everything a big bad review could want. So, listen to me.

The stage was set. The props were in place. The production team was intensely focused. Director Nina Kahn had her well prepared cast of 24 ready to hit the lights and hit the heights to kick off their three weekend "bag of magic beans". The musical performers were harmonious as a whole from the opening prologue to the closing finale, when they symbolically blew the roof off the theater. If there were any glitches in prop placement as they moved from scene to scene, I didn't see it. If there were any hick-ups in the casts dialogue as they moved from musical number to musical number, I did not detect any. However, I respectfully have to mention one tiny thing. I sat in row L, which was more than halfway back in the theater. I had to strain a little to hear some of the dialogue due to the music being a tad to dominant when the vocals were in less dynamic ranges, or maybe my hearing isn't what it used to be. I'll leave it to you to decide.

It was not so hard to hear one of the most entertaining singing collaborations of the play between Jonathan Ford and Elisha Black as Cinderella's prince and Rapunzel's prince, when they belted out "Agony" in confidence and stunning harmony. Along the line of upper decibels, there was no escaping the ear popping screams of "hair as yellow as corn" Rapunzel played by Rachel Hiester-Myers.

Other notable renditions were "Witch's Lament" sang by Sarah Daniel, "Moments in the Woods" performed by Liz Perez (the Baker's wife), who also teamed up with Justin Robinson (the Baker) in "It takes Two", "On the Steps of the Palace" executed by Meredith Lane (Cinderella) and singing "I Know Things Now" was Mackenzie Comer (Little Red).

Other cast notables were Bryce Beasley as bad boy giant-killer Jack, beside herself Rachyl Kissling as Jack's Mom, the well-dressed ravenous Wolf played by Zachary Henderson, Vance White II as the Narrator, long-time Flowertown Player Jamie Young, who did double duty as Mysterious Man and Cinderella's Father, Holly Matthew's as Cinderella's Stepmother, Angela Pinkham as Florinda, Julia Sorenson as Lucinda, Krissi Hardy as Cinderella's mother, Graycen Szalwinski as The Steward, and Leighton Winters (Sleeping Beauty), Maddie McCall (Snow White), Zach Rettig (Granny), Susie Hallat (Voice of the Giant), Patti MooPone (Milky White).

Finally, I must give special props to Julie Crist for her adept handling of one of the play's more challenging characters, "the cow as white as milk"--Milky White Puppeteer.

This musical fairy tale is unlike anything you have ever seen before. There is no yellow brick road that takes you to an Emerald City, but the witch is witchier, and who honestly said of herself, "I'm not good, I'm not nice, I'm just right. I'm the witch." And cute, bratty Little Red noted of the baker and his vow breaking wife, "You seem to argue a lot." Cinderella's not so pure, self-adoring prince confessed, "I was raised to be charming, not sincere." I could go on and on, but I will leave the rest for you to see and hear for yourself. 

I encourage you to purchase a ticket, slip on your shoes, and make your way to the little theater on Hutchinson Square to see one of the funniest scenes of the play that has to do with guess what, footwear, and gold ones at that.

The cast skillfully delivers plenty of laughs along their way Into the Woods where you will discover family life isn't always little blue birds chirping happy bird songs, but it can also be downright morally and ethically jaded at times. Nevertheless, there is a happy ending in there somewhere.

Dates: March 7 - 23

Times: Evenings at 7:30 pm, Sundays at 3:00 pm

Tickets for Into the Woods

Photographs by Flowertown Players