ST. GEORGE -- Anyone for a spot of tea?

If so, there's a little pink cottage full of Victorian delights that's awaiting genteel visitors in the unlikeliest of locales.

Located two miles down a seldom-traveled dirt road off of U.S. Highway 15, in the Indian Field community of upper Dorchester County, Jewel's Pink House in the Orchard is nestled smack dab in the midst of an 1,800-acre pecan farm.

By anyone's standards, it's "off the beaten path."

There, among the dried flowers and dainty Victorian gifts that are the shop's specialities, Jewel Pearcy invites her visitors to a complimentary respite of tea, featuring an assortment of 20 or so exotic blends and a variety of cookies she bakes daily.

"The tea is the drawing card," Pearcy said. "If I can get people to sit down and have a cup of tea, they'll look around and spot something they want to buy."

Pearcy opened her little pink gift shop in 2002 in a re-done tenant house on the pecan orchard property she and her husband, English, call home. A retired minister and teacher, Eng Pearcy tends the 600 pecan trees an uncle planted on family land some 75 years ago.

"My husband couldn't understand why I wanted this for my shop. But, I needed something with character," she said. "We call it 'Victorian' gifts, but this house made out of cinder blocks is as far from Victorian as you can get."

The endeavor is the realization of a long time dream. More than 20 years ago, Pearcy said, she and her sister, along with two St. George friends, first toyed with the idea of opening a gift shop.

"One friend wanted to sell china and gifts. My sister wanted the tea room, and I wanted dried flowers. The other friend wanted to do it all," she said.

Although that fantasy gift shop in St. George never materialized, Pearcy has parleyed her love of dried flowers into a nice little retirement career.

It was back in the 1980s, when her son was at Harvard University, that Pearcy first noticed a small dried flower wreath in the Boston Children's Museum.

"I came home and tried my hand at that. Then, all of a sudden I noticed other dried flowers," she said. "I began to teach myself, and when it didn't work out to open the shop with my sister and friends, I went to work at Sparkleberry Fair in Columbia. I apprenticed under them."

Her five years at Sparkleberry Fair were when Pearcy honed her own artistic talents and mastered the techniques she willingly shares with others.

"I'm glad to share what knowledge I know," she said. "I don't keep any secrets. I'm glad to let other people know."

The busiest flower-drying time occurs in spring and summer, when the larkspur, yarrow and hydrangeas she grows at the farm are in bloom. In the fall, the only flowers Pearcy dries are roses, which she culls from a friend's 300 rose bushes. The red and dark pink ones dry best, said Pearcy, who's still experimenting.

"I make and grow a lot of the flowers. I make them into wreaths, and swags and Christmas trees," said Pearcy, who works from a floral studio in a back corner room of the pink house.

And, her favorite tool of the trade is a microwave flower press she ordered from Australia.

While dried flowers are her primary love, Pearcy acknowledges that it's the complimentary tea service that allows her to indulge those interests.

In fact, she said, the very first purchase she made for her new shop was a large glass top table suitable for the tea parties she envisioned.

By providing birthday teas for "girls" of all ages, as well as an annual Valentine tea party, Pearcy has filled a bulletin board with festive photographs, a clear testament to the joy of those who find their way to the pink house in the orchard.

"My daughter joked that the bus doesn't come by here very often," she said. "But, we have actually had a bus from a nursing home come from Columbia. And, they had a good time."

So does Pearcy.

"The shop allows me to have people come in who wouldn't just visit me," she said. "I enjoy the tea table talk. We've had tiny little children and elderly ladies."

Jewel's Pink House in the Orchard is open Fridays and Saturdays, from 10 a.m. until 6 p.m. There's an open house planned the first Thursday night in November, and the shop is open every day during Indian Field Camp Meeting, located just across the main highway.

T&D Government Writer Tucker Lyon can be reached by e-mail at tlyon@timesanddemocrat.com or by telephone at 803-533-5545. Discuss this and other stories online at TheTandD.com.

You must be logged in to comment.