North Carolina Gardens

 Airlie Gardens: 300 Airlie Road, Wilmington, NC 28403 (910)798-7700.

These classical post-Victorian European style gardens were designed by the Kaiser's Landscape Designer in the early 1900s. Situated on 67 acres on Bradley Creek, the gardens' special highlights include azaleas (over 250,000 plants) in the spring, magnolias and live oaks (including the Airlie Oak) in summer, and camellias in fall and winter. Statuary, pergolas, and fountains ornament the grounds.  Gardens include the Spring Garden, the Camellia Garden, and the Rain Garden.

 Bicentennial Gardens and the David Caldwell Property: 1105 Hobbs Road (North of Friendly Avenue), Greensboro, NC (336)373-2574.

This public park offers flowering and deciduous trees, shrubs and annual beds.

 Biltmore Estate: One N. Pack Square, Asheville, NC 28801 (828)225-1333 or (800)411-3812.

The grounds of this 8,000 acre estate, designed by Frederick Law Olmsted, include a Walled Garden (a 4 acre garden with a 236 foot long grape arbor, fruit trees, bulbs, annuals and perennials), an Italian Garden (with lawns, pools and statuary), a Spring Garden, an Azalea Garden, a Shrub Garden, a Winter Garden, a Conservatory (brick and glass Palm House, Hot House, Cool House, Exhibition Room and Propagation House), a Bass Pond and Wildflower Meadow, and Woodland Trails.

 Biltmore Village Historic Museum: 7 Angle Street, Asheville, NC 28803 (828)274-9707.

Biltmore Village is a local historic district.

 The Bog Garden: Hobbs Road and Starmount Farms Road, Greensboro , NC (336)373-2574.

More than 8,000 individually labeled trees, shrubs, ferns, bamboo and wildflowers can be seen from an elevated wooden walkway.

 Cape Fear Botanical Garden: 536 N. Eastern Boulevard, P.O. Box 53485, Fayetteville, NC 28305 (910)486-0221.

Situated on 85 acres of land, the Garden offers a large urban forest, a natural amphitheater, formal gardens, and a gazebo on a Great Lawn bordered by gardens. Individual gardens include a daylily garden, a terrace garden, a water wise garden, a camellia garden, and a secret garden.

 Carolina Beach State Park: PO Box 475, Carolina Beach, NC 28428, Park office (910) 458-8206; Marina (910)458-7770.

Trails give access to trails more than 30 species of coastal trees, shrubs and flowering plants including Venus flytraps.

 Chatwood Garden: 1900 Faucette Mill Road, Hillsborough , NC 27278 (919)643-2514.

This English inspired garden features heritage roses, perennial borders, woodland and kitchen/herb gardens.

 Cherokee Botanical Garden: Oconaluftee Indian Village, US 441, Cherokee, NC (828)497-2111.

The Indian Village includes an extensive and authentic herb garden.

 Chinqua-Penn Plantation: 2138 Wentworth Street, Reidsville, NC 27320 (336)349-4576.

The 22 acre grounds of this stone "castle" include an Oriental pagoda with garden, aswimming pool, fountains, the 1928 Lutton greenhouses, and a four-story clock tower. Currently being restored, the formal garden behind the mansion is surrounded by large English boxwoods and includes beds planted with bulbs, annuals and perennials, a shrub border, a formal rose garden and a cut flower garden,

 Coker Arboretum: University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC 27514 (919)962-2211.

This 5 acre site offers trees, shrubs, and vines native to North Carolina as well as some East Asian specimens. The Arboretum is also enhanced by conifers and extensive displays of daffodils and daylilies.

 Craggy Gardens: Milepost 364.6 on the Blue Ridge Parkway (NE of Asheville), Asheville, NC (828)298-0398.

Three trails take visitors to displays of Catawba rhododendron and late-blooming wildflowers.

 Cupola House and Gardens: Edenton, NC (919)482-3400.

This historic Jacobean house offers a restored formal garden in the front and a restored vegetable garden in the back.

 Daniel Boone Native Gardens: 651 Horn in the West Drive, Boone, NC 28607 (828)264-6390.

Unique native plantings are maintained by the Garden Club of North Carolina on 3 acres.  The gardens include a bog garden, fern garden, rhododendron grove, rock garden, rock wishing well, vine-covered arbor, pond alongside the historic Squire Boone Cabin, and several grand vistas.

 Daniel Stowe Botanical Garden: 6500 S. New Hope Road, Belmont, NC 28012 (704)825-4490.

This ambitious garden project, begun in 1991, will eventually encompass 450 acres as development continues over the next 40 years. Phase One, now complete, includes a Visitor Pavilion, 2 ponds ornamented with more than 60,000 spring-flowering bulbs, woodland nature trails and wildflower meadows, and a variety of theme gardens including a Four Seasons Garden, a Cottage Garden, a Canal Garden, an East Lawn, and a Perennial Garden.

 Davidson College Arboretum: Davidson College, Davidson, NC 28036 (704)892-2000.

This lovely campus includes more than 3,000 labeled trees and shrubs on campus, including trees that were once extinct on the continent.  Arboretum Map.

 Elizabeth Holmes Hurley Park: Annandale Avenue, Salisbury, NC 28145 (704)638-4459.

Hurley is a city park of gardens, begin in the late 1980s, including the Collier Garden, the Wallace Garden, the Reitz-McKinley Garden, the Craige Street South Entry Garden, the Gascoigne Fern Glade, the Stricker Garden, Priscilla's Fragrance Garden, and with seven more underway.

 Elizabethan Gardens: Next to Fort Raleigh National Historic Site, 1411 U.S. Highway 64, Manteo, Roanoke Island, NC 27954 (252)473-3234.

Located on the shores of Roanoke Sound, site of the first American colony, these lovely formal gardens on 10 1/2 acres features a Gate House (patterned after a 16th century orangerie and plantings, including Shakespeare's Herb Garden), Sunken Garden (with colorful parterres and statuary), an Antique Fountain (Aphrodite), a status of Virginia Dare, the Queen's Rose Garden and the Woodland and Wildlife garden.

 Fayetteville Rose Garden: Fayetteville Technical Community College, 2201 Hull Road, Fayetteville, NC (910)678-8400 (Switchboard).

Established by the Fayetteville Rose Society, this lovely campus garden features thirty-year-old rose beds displaying more than 35 types of roses and more than 1,000 individual rose bushes.  The garden participates in the All American Rose selection.

 Fearrington Village Gardens:  2000 Fearrington Village, Pittsboro, NC 27312 (919) 542-2121.

 Gene Strowd Community Rose Garden: 120 S. Estes Drive, Chapel Hill, NC (919)968-2784.

Renovated in 2000, this public park showcases 130 different varieties of our national flower - the rose - with 350 rose bushes surrounding a copper water fountain.

 Greenfield Park and Gardens: South 3rd Street (US 421 South), Wilmington, NC 28405 (910)341-7855.

This Park with a pond offers a 5 mile drive for viewing azaleas, camellias and other spring blooms, as well as noted cypress trees. In the summer, roses are featured.  Park Map.

 The Greensboro Arboretum: Lindley Park, Market Street and Starmount Drive, Greensboro, NC (336)373-2574.

This 17 acre Arboretum located within a public park displays 12 labeled plant collections and special display gardens.

 Haywood Community College Arboretum: 185 Freedlander Drive, Clyde, NC 28721 (828)627-2821.

The areas surrounding the instructional buildings comprise the campus arboretum and feature several collections including the impressive Rhododendron Garden, the Freedlander Dahlia Garden, the Class of ‘74 Rose Garden, plantings of spring bulbs and summer flowers, a woodland area with nature trails, the Nix Horticulture Complex (displaying a dwarf conifer collection, vegetable gardens, a perennial garden, a fruit orchard, a conservatory, and a plant nursery. The campus woodlands include over 1,000 mature trees (200 white oaks, 200 dogwoods, 75 native sourwoods, and more).

 Historic Bath State Historic Site: P.O. Box 148, Bath, NC 27808 (252)923-3971.

The Van der Veer historic home features a vegetable garden.

 Historic Bethabara Park: 2147 Bethabara Road, Winston-Salem , NC 27106 (336)924-8191.

Site of the first Moravian settlement in North Carolina, this historic 170 park includes a church, reconstructed 1754 village and French and Indian War Fort, as well as reconstructed colonial community, medical gardens and archaeological ruins.

 Historic Rosedale Plantation: 3427 N. Tryon Street, Charlotte, NC (704)335-0325.

This restored plantation includes an 1815 manor hose and 8 acres of landscaped grounds and gardens.

 J. C. Raulston Arboretum: 4301 Beryl Road, Dept. of Horticultural Science, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC 27695 (919)515-3132.

This 8 acre arboretum features over 5,000 taxa displayed in numerous gardens and collections including the Klein-Pringle White Garden, the Nandina Collection, the Garden of Winter Delight, the Blue Garden, the Magnolia Collection, the Mixed Border, the Annual Trials, the Perennial Borders, the Water Gardens, the Townhouse Gardens, the Rose Garden, the Wisteria Collection, the Butterfly Garden, the Paradise Gardens, the Japanese Gardens, the Deciduous Holly Collections, Contorted Plants, the Southwest Garden and the Redbud Collection.

Jaycee Daylily Garden: Jaycee Community Center, 2405 Wade Ave., Raleigh, NC 27607 (919)831-6833.

The daylilies, with companion plantings, are labeled and maintained by the Raleigh Hemerocallis Club.

 Juniper Level Botanic Gardens: Plants Delight Nursery, 9241 Sauls Road, Raleigh, NC 27603 (919)772-4794.

The gardens of this commercial nursery originally consisted of 2.25 acres and included a man-made grotto garden, a southwestern garden, a rock garden, a scree garden, a bog garden, an aquatic garden, with over 6000 different plants, of which 1,500 are woody and the rest perennials. Now expanding to include another 5.25 acres, the new area will include a waterfall, an expanded southwestern garden, a tropical garden, and more.

 McGill Rose Garden: 940 N. Davidson Street (1 block north of I-277), Charlotte, NC 28206 (704)333-6497.

Begun in the early 1950s as a private garden, this public garden today showcases over 200 varieties of roses along with annuals, perennials and herbs, fountains and statuary.

 New Hanover County Extension Service Arboretum: Oleander Drive near Greenville Loop Road, Wilmington, NC 28403 (910)452-6393.

The special collections include Crepe Myrtles, Fruits And Berries, a Vegetable Garden, Variety Trails, a Cutting Garden, the Certified Plant Professional Garden, a Deck Container/Planter Garden, a Daylily Garden (150 varieties), Native Plants, a Rose Garden, an Aquatic/Water Lily Garden, The Bog, Perennial Borders, a Japanese Garden, a Magnolia Garden, Patio Gardens, an Iris Garden, the Specimen Tree Collection, the Conifer Grouping, a Salt Spray Garden, a Children’s Garden (with a maze), an Ornamental Grass Collection, a Turf on the Grow area, a Groundcover Collection, an Herb Garden, the Dr. C.E. Lewis Conservatory, the George Ross Memorial Greenhouse, the Natural Area, an Azalea Collection, a Hosta Grouping, a Camellia Garden (100 varieties), and a Shade-loving Plant Garden.

 North Carolina Arboretum: 100 Frederick Law Olmsted Way (Off Wesley Branch Road), P.O. Box 6617, Asheville, NC 28816-6617 (828)665-2492.

Established in 1986, this 434 acre arboretum within the Bent Creek Experimental Forest of the Pisgah National Forest offers public display gardens constructed around themes from the Appalachian Mountains, state-of-the-art greenhouses and woodland trails.

 North Carolina Botanical Garden: University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, CB 3375, Totten Center, Chapel Hill, NC 27599-3375 (919)962-0522.

This Botanical Garden displays approximately 4,700 species of plants native and naturalized in North and South Carolina plus herbs and horticultural plants from all over the world. The collections are divided into various areas: the Mountain Habitat (southern Appalachians), the Fern Collection, the Shade Garden (ferns and woodland wildflowers), the Mercer Reeves Hubbard Herb Garden (including the Poison Path), the William Lanier Hunt Arboretum (103 acres of Morgan Creek gorge with rhododendron bluffs and a collection of southeastern woody plants) the Mason Farm Biological Reserve (367 acres of diverse natural plant communities and protected habitats), and the Coker Arboretum (5 acres native North Carolina varieties and some East Asian specimens plus conifers and extensive displays of daffodils and daylilies).

 North Carolina Zoological Park: 4401 Zoo Parkway, Asheboro, NC 27203 (800)488-0444.

At 1,448 acres, this zoo is the nation's largest. The walk-through natural-habitat site is home to more than 1,000 animals and 1,500 plant species.

 Old Salem: 900 Old Salem Road, Winston-Salem, NC 27101 (888)653-7253.

This living history town, a Moravian community founded in 1766, contains many historically accurate gardens (the settlers kept excellent records). The Single Brothers Garden is undergoing an extensive restoration.

 Orton Plantation: NC 133, 9149 Orton Road SE, Winnabow, NC 28479 (910)371-6851.

This lovely antebellum plantation house on the Cape Fear River includes 20 acres of gardens, both formal and natural. The gardens feature impressive oaks, evergreen hedges, lawns, lagoons, statuary and cypress trees. Visitors strolling the pathways will find an elegant Scroll Garden and thousands of azaleas, camellias, annuals and rare flowering plants.

 Poet's and Dreamer's Garden: Livingstone College, 701 W. Monroe Street, Salisbury, NC 28144 (704)638-5500.

 Raleigh Little Theatre Complex Rose Garden: 301 Pogue Street, Raleigh, NC 27607 (919)821-4579.

This complex includes a theatre, an outdoor amphitheatre and a sunken All America Rose Selections rose garden with 1200 bushes representing 60 varieties and a pool and fountain.

 Reynolda Gardens of Wake Forest University: Reynolda House, 2250 Reynolda Road, P.O. Box 11765, Winston-Salem, NC 27106 (336)758-5593.

4 acres of restored formal gardens, a greenhouse, and 125 acres of fields and woodlands surround a museum of American Art, housed in a former 1,000 acre country estate. The gardens, blending Japanese, English, and Italian influences, include a 2 acre sunken garden (Japanese-style shelters, columned pergolas, boxwood hedges, themed parterre gardens, perennial and shrub borders, and an open lawn) and the 2 acre the "Nicer Fruit and Vegetable Garden" (modern cultivars of vegetables, flowers, and fruits, plus an All-America Rose Garden).

 RibbonWalk, Charlotte's Botanical Forest: 4601Nevin Road, Charlotte, NC 28211 (704)598-8857.

RibbonWalk has more than three miles of well-marked trails through its 192 acres, filled with mature pines, native hardwoods, streams, ponds, meadows and a ravine filled with American beech trees.

 Sandhills Horticultural Gardens: Heutte Hall (park in the Gauguin Parking Lot), Sandhills Community College, 3395 Airport Road, Pinehurst, NC 28374 (910)695-3882.

The lovely and impressive 27 acres of gardens include the Ebersole Holly Garden (an arboretum with 28 holly species and 350 different cultivars), the Rose Garden, the Annual Garden (with a different theme each year), the Conifer Garden, the Sir Walter Raleigh Garden (a formal English garden including including the Holly Maze, the Fountain Courtyard, the Sunken Garden, the Ceremonial Courtyard, and the Herb Garden), the Atkins Hillside Garden (with a stream, gazebo, bridges, waterfalls, pools), the Hackley Woodland Garden (woodland and shade loving plants including flowering plants), the Fruit and Vegetable Garden (dwarf fruit trees, vegetables, and a vineyard), the Succulent Garden, and the Desmond Native Wetland Trail Garden (a nature conservancy and bird sanctuary with boardwalk).

 Sarah P. Duke Gardens: 426 Anderson Street, Duke University, Box 90341, Durham, NC 27708 (919)684-3698.

These lovely gardens are divided into three sections. The Asiatic Arboretum is a 20 acre site with closely related flora of East Asia (550 cultivars displayed) and the eastern U.S., with special collections of magnolias and Japanese maples. The H. L. Blomquist Garden of Native Plants is a collection of southeastern wildflowers in a woodland setting (900 species and varieties). The Italianate Terraces feature a wisteria-covered entrance Pergola, changing floral displays, a fishpond, a rock garden, and a lawn with reflecting pool.

 Tanglewood Park Arboretum and Rose Garden: 4201 Clemmons Road, Clemmons, NC 27012 (336)778-6300.

This public park showcases plant varieties from around the world in an All America Rose Selections accredited rose garden (800 bushes), a Fragrance Garden, the Little Walden Nature Trail (with 3 self-guided walks) and an Arboretum (with audio stations for the sight-impaired).

 Tryon Palace House and Gardens: 610 Pollock Street, New Bern, NC 28562-5614 (919)514-4900 or (800)767-1560.

The 14 acre reconstructed landscape showcases Colonial plants and features the Maude Moore Latham Memorial Gardens (a formal garden with scrollwork hedges), the Green Garden (a knot garden), the Pleached Allee (with views of the River), the Kitchen Garden, and Hawks Allee (with holly hedges and statuary), Colonial interpreters offer information to visitors.

 University of North Carolina at Asheville Botanical Gardens: 151 W.T. Weaver Blvd., Asheville, NC 28804 (828)252-5190.

This 10 acre site displays 750 kinds of plants from all parts of North Carolina. The Gardens include the Sunshine Garden, the Bog Garden, the Azalea Garden, the Founder's Award Rock Garden, the Garden for the Blind, the Health Cove and the Sycamore Area, with trails, three streams and natural rock outcroppings. The institution also acts as a testing ground for new plants considered for introduction into the area.

 University of North Carolina at Charlotte Botanical Gardens and Bird Sanctuary:   9201 University City Boulevard, Charlotte , NC 28223 (704)687-2364.

This lovely garden includes the Van Landingham Glen (displaying a major rhododendron collection (3500 plants) plus many native Carolina plants (1000 species)), the Susie Harwood Garden (a 3 acre formal garden with a semi-Oriental motif, a winter garden and special collections of dwarf conifers, Japanese maples, viburnum, and azaleas), and the McMillan Greenhouse (4000 square feet of tropical rain forest with an extensive collection of North American Sarracenia Pitcher plants and orchids).

 University of North Carolina at Wilmington Arboretum: 601 S. College Road, Wilmington, NC 28403-3297 (910)962-3107.

This arboretum campus of 650 acres includes conservation areas with collections of longleaf pines, oaks, dogwoods and native magnolias, The Herbert Bluethenthal Memorial Wildflower Preserve, numerous perennial beds, and an allee of live oaks. The web site contains detailed and thoughtful plans for organizing and improving the campus landscape.

 Waterworks Visual Art Center Hamlin Sensory Garden: One Water Street, Salisbury, NC 28144 (704)636-1882.

This garden of the senses features plants for all four seasons labeled in Braille and English and providing scent and texture in addition to color and shape.

 Western North Carolina Nature Center: 75 Gashes Creek Road, Asheville, NC 28805 (828)298-5600.

A new kind of "zoo", this nature center provides habitats for wild animals that cannot be returned to the wild because of injury or contact with man. A 4 acre Predator Habitat is home to red and grey wolves, cougars and bobcats. Other native animals such as foxes, river otters, and bears, as well as birds are represented. A shrub garden graces the visitor area and a nature trail can be found near the picnic grounds.

 Wing Haven Gardens and Bird Sanctuary: 248 Ridgewood Avenue, Charlotte, NC 28209 (704)331-0664

This 4 acre garden and bird sanctuary combines formal gardens with woodlands and features pools, birdbaths, fountains and statuary. An antique rose garden displays more than 100 old roses.

 Witherspoon Rose Culture Display Gardens: 3312 Watkins Road, Durham, NC 27707 (919)489-4446, (800)643-0315.

This commercial nursery and horticulture maintenance organization offers lovely display gardens with over 1200 rose bushes. A formal Anniversary Garden features 600 roses along with pathways, a colonnade, and fountain.

 WRAL Azalea Gardens: 2619 Western Boulevard, Raleigh, NC 27605 (919)821-8555.

WRAL is not a mysterious acronym--it's a television station. The 5 acre garden displays over 70 varieties of flowering and non-flowering plant materials common to North Carolina, including 10 hybrid azalea groups. The garden contains a propagation greenhouse and each year generously gives away 10,000 azaleas to non-profit organizations for city beautification.