Creating Landscapes that Last
By Marilyn Thomas
Mid-Carolina Crepe Myrtle & Shade Tree, a locally owned tree installation and landscape design
company, aspires to “plant a legacy” for their customers. Because of their staff’s experience and talent
in selecting, cultivating, and transplanting indigenous plant life, they are highly qualified to enhance
or transform any outdoor property with their own home-grown plant materials. Their ultimate
motivation, however, is to beautify the community’s overall landscape, while achieving the goals of their valued clientele, who are treated as trusted partners in the process.
A Columbia native with family in Lexington County, John Estill, the founder and owner of Mid-Carolina Crepe Myrtle & Shade Tree, spent his childhood summers with his grandparents on Lake Murray. After college, he landed a job at a plant nursery near his family’s property in Hopkins, and this is when he
began to seriously cultivate a passion for his current profession.
“I’ve always enjoyed working outdoors, and I’ve always loved big trees,” Estill recalls. “The work was fun and rewarding, and after learning everything I could from that experience, I knew I wanted to start a nursery of my own.”
Estill’s growing ambition led him to establish his own nursery business in 2003, beginning with six acres of property on the family’s homestead. Originally dubbed as “Circle S Nursery,” the business was renamed Mid-Carolina Crepe Myrtle & Shade Tree in 2008 “to better reflect who we were, what we were growing, and the region we call home,” Estill explains.
“Since then,” Estill continues, “we’ve blossomed into a full-scale wholesale/ retail nursery and landscaping operation with approximately 120 acres of tree and plant material currently in production.”
With more than two decades of experience in the field, Estill has developed an intimate knowledge about the soil and plant ecology of the region.
Thus, recommendations for the types of plant materials that will thrive in this area are always carefully considered, selected, and offered to customers. In fact, at Mid-Carolina, all of their plants, which are mid-sized to fully mature, are locally grown and transplanted directly from the nursery to the desired home or business site. “This gives us a unique advantage,” Estill asserts. “Because we own the nursery, we don’t have to rely on a middleman to source the plant material for our projects.”
Although the company was rooted in growing and wholesaling a variety of trees, about 15 years ago, the nursery’s services expanded by offering landscaping installation to its clientele. “We saw a real gap in the market for customers looking for mature plant material, knowledgeable installation, and a company capable of taking on larger, more complete outdoor projects,” he states. “We’re still growers at heart—we’re just taking what we grow and building more around it.”
To expand this arm of the business, the company’s team of capable staff members has welcomed the addition of talented hires like Chris Bagwell, who was recently appointed lead project manager.
From planting a privacy screen to creating a full-scale landscape design with hardscaping, retaining walls, irrigation and drainage, a patio, and/or lighting, “Our goal is to take a project from the initial vision and plant selection all the way through installation,” Estill explains.
“Because we grow our own plant material,” he adds, “our customers get the benefit of nursery-direct pricing without sacrificing expertise or service. That allows their landscape investment to go further, whether that means larger, more mature trees, more substantial privacy screening, or accomplishing more of their overall vision.”
At Mid-Carolina Crepe Myrtle & Shade Tree, the client’s needs, expectations, and experience are a
valued priority throughout the entire communications and installation process, beginning with scheduling an appointment for the customer to visit the nursery grounds and hand-pick the plants.
These interactions also may involve offering advice, options, and ideas, based on the nursery staff’s extensive expertise.
For example, Estill advises that, contrary to what some believe, late fall and winter are optimal times to reconstruct or install fresh landscaping. Because some plants lie dormant during cooler weather, transplanting them during this season can be less stressful for them. This also allows relocated trees and shrubs the chance to become established in their new surroundings before the South Carolina sun heats up. “You may not see the full results until everything comes alive in the spring,” Estill shares, “but a little planning ahead can really pay off.”
“We want to be intuitive and creative rather than simply showing up and installing your plant material,” Estill continues. “Our job is to listen to the customer’s vision and then use our experience to bring that vision to life in the best possible way. Ultimately, we want customers to feel like we’re walking alongside them through the entire process—not simply working for them. The finished landscape matters, but so
does the experience of getting there.”
Even though the customer base of Mid-Carolina Crepe Myrtle & Shade Tree is primarily comprised of private homeowners and businesses in the greater Midlands region, they are able to ship their wholesale plant materials anywhere in the country. Moreover, their stellar reputation has garnered the attention of renowned patrons near and far, including locations such as the South Carolina Governor’s Mansion, Carowinds, the Augusta National Golf Club, New York’s Rockefeller Center, Florida’s Disney World, Atlanta’s Mercedes-Benz Stadium, and the Pentagon in Washington, D.C.
Even with notable connections such as these, Estill maintains, “My motivation has always been to help beautify Columbia and the Midlands area through quality and thoughtfully designed landscapes. A
beautiful landscape adds aesthetic value not only to an individual property, but to the community around it.”
“The most rewarding part for us is seeing a homeowner’s reaction when their vision is transformed into reality,” Estill concludes. “There’s a real sense of pride in knowing that the work we do can improve a property’s appearance and value while creating something that the homeowner and their family can enjoy for years to come.”
www.CarolinaCrepeMyrtle.com
