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Orton Plantation Gardens :: Winnabow, North Carolina
Thanks for your interest in Orton Plantation Gardens. Please contact our staff to learn more about our gardens.
Abi Blackerby Marketing Director & Event Coordinator Email Abi
In 2009 Abi joined the Orton staff. While she specializes in marketing and event coordination, Abi also maintains and oversees the website, e-newsletters and the scheduling of weddings, garden tours and other events. Abi is the primary contact for media relations, advertising and event inquiries.
Charlotte has overseen ticket sales and other office administration duties since 1996. She currently manages our ticket sales staff, parking attendants, and handles the bookkeeping. She is the primary office contact.
Orton Gardens Ticket SalesStaff
Our committed and personable sales staff is here daily to assist garden visitors with garden information, group rates, season passes, hours of operation, directions, and all gift shop merchandise.
Barbara Carrico •
Ken Carrico
Ken Love •
Ellen Messick
Randy has over 20 years of experience in the landscape maintenance business. He came to Orton in 2006 to manage the full time and seasonal grounds crew. He is responsible for all aspects of gardens planning, installation, maintenance, repair, and upkeep. He lives on the property with his family.
Rick Johnson Seasonal Color Designer
Rick has over 25 years of experience in horticulture with an emphasis on winter and summer flowers. He has been the Landscape Superintendent at The Country Club of Landfall in Wilmington since 2003. He began assisting Orton in 2006 with summer and winter flower selection and maintenance.
Bruce Williams Consulting Horticulturist Email Bruce
Bruce has over 30 years of experience in the green industry as a college instructor, turf grass specialist, private consultant, and public garden director. For over 11 years he produced and hosted the home gardening television show, The DownEast Gardener. He has helped Orton with its extensive renovations since 2005 and now promotes Orton on his new home gardening television show, Grow Your Own, on WILM, the CBS affiliate in Wilmington. He also leads tours of the gardens and teaches landscape classes in The Pavilion.
David has spent his whole life at Orton following all aspects of the family business. He returned home in 2003 to manage the day to day operations of the garden business and oversee the restoration of the colonial rice fields. He also assists his father, Laurence Sprunt, in the timber and pine straw business. David is the 5th generation of family managers at Orton.
Clarence Jones Lifetime Employee & Friend
Clarence was born in 1908 and lived on or near Orton and worked at Orton his whole life. He grew rice at Orton until the last commercial crop in the early 1930’s. He helped install the original plantings in the gardens from the 1920’s to the 1970’s. We celebrated his 100th birthday in August of 2008 with a family reunion and celebration at Orton. He continued to offer routine planting and landscaping advice up until his death in November of 2008. Clarence's presence at Orton has been greatly missed, but his positive attitude, relentless humor and zest for life will always be remembered. Orton has declared August to be "Clarence Jones Appreciation Month."
Laurence Sprunt Owner
Laurence grew up with his family at Orton at the end of the commercial rice production and during the design and installation of the gardens. His primary focus has always been Forest Management on the land surrounding the gardens. Since the 1980’s he has been converting the loblolly and slash pine tree stands to native longleaf pine tree stands. He also started the thriving pine straw business in the 1980’s.
