Glorious Gardens, Charleston, SC

I'm on spring break and had the opportunity to go on the Glorious Garden tour sponsored by the Historic Charleston Foundation. There were 10 private homes which opened their gardens as part of the tour. I thought there were some common themes across all 10 gardens: all formal (large use of symmetry and boxwood parterres); all gated; very little if any perennials and grasses (a few used dwarf mondo grass as a ground cover, but I am not that familiar with mondo grass and whether it is a true grass); predominantly shrubs, small trees (Japanese maples, crepe myrtles, camellias), and vines; some minor use of annuals for color (pansies, impatiens). What's somewhat interesting to me is that the main use of color in the garden is in the front of the houses in window boxes. I'll post a number of the window boxes that I liked once I return to Chicago and can upload them.