Visiting the Gardens

The Gardens are accessible to the public for visiting at all times.

Cassina Garden Club gets its name from the “cassina” berry of the yaupon holly ilex vomitoria. The name “cassina” means “Black Drink” and was derived from the Timucua Native Americans that were living in Southeast Georgia and Northern Florida in 1513 when the Spanish explorer Ponce de Leon landed near Saint Augustine. The Timucuans would use the heavily caffeinated leaves to make a tea for ceremonial use to, as the name ilex vomitoria suggests, to purge the body. The yaupon holly is indigenous to the southeast coastal plain. Because of its historical connection to the area, it is an appropriate name for the first garden club of Glynn County.

Visitors will find holly bushes anchoring each of the quadrants in the Cassina gardens. There are two areas of George Taber azalea; azalea Ericaceae Rhododendron Indica. Profuse, pink springtime blooms are so plentiful and large that they completely hide the foliage, making 'George Taber' azalea a perfect landscape shrub in our gardens of zone 9b. This deciduous shrub is native to the southeastern United States and is a hybrid of two species of azaleas, the Rhododendron vaseyi and the Rhododendron calendulaceum. The basic design for the Cassina gardens was adopted by the club in the 1950s. The design’s most recent update was in the winter of 2023 with a generous donation from former member Charlotte Dennis. View the slideshow below to see the transformation.