Asheville | Boone | Burnsville | Cherokee | Chapel Hill | Charlotte | Concord | Clyde | Davidson | Durham Edenton | Fayetteville | Greensboro | Greenville | Manteo | New Bern | Pinehurst | Raleigh | Red Springs Reidsville | Salisbury | Wilkesboro | Wilmington | Wilson | Winston-Salem

Gardens (75 acres) designed by Frederick Law Olmsted for America’s largest private home - George Vanderbilt’s chateau. Includes: Italian garden, shrub garden, walled English garden, azaleas, roses, conservatory, arbors, flowering bulbs, rhododendrons, annuals

Features native trees, shrubs, and flowers on a 10 acre site next to University of North Carolina at Asheville. Includes: woodland trails, garden for blind, azaleas, botany center, wildflowers, native trees and shrubs

Period gardens surrounding a Victorian mansion

A network of trails (600 acres) on the Blue Ridge Parkway featuring an abundance of wildflowers, rhododendrons, and azaleas in a natural setting.

A 426 acre garden under construction. Currently includes: plants with promise, quilt garden, stream garden, heritage garden, garden trails, native azaleas, terrace garden, water garden, educational center

Roan Mountain
Tocane Ranger District
PO Box 128
Burnsville, NC 28714
704-682-6146The Roan is famous for its natural gardens filled with a potpourri of wildflowers and rare plants, but the plant most acclaimed for beauty is the Catawba rhododendron. Part of the North Carolina National Forest. On old US 19-E in Burnsville.

A 10 acre collection of native trees, shrubs, and wildflowers. Features include: bog garden, fern garden, meditation garden, and a log cabin

Features herbs and vegetables gardens of the Cherokee Indians and a nature trail.

Outdoor classroom (5 acres) for study of native trees, shrubs, and vines

A small rose garden (1/2 acre) with 600 bushes. A learning garden adjoins it that features annuals and perennials.

Garden (600 acres) focused on North Carolina native plants. Features include: habit gardens for coastal plain, piedmont, and mountain regions; nature trails, ferns, rare plants, herbs, and poisonous plants

Formal perennial garden, herb and kitchen garden, cutting garden, white garden

A relatively new (400 acres) botanical garden under construction. Current features include: perennials, woodland trail, canal garden, cottage garden, kitchen garden, and visitors center

Features include: nature trail, large rhododendron collection, winter garden, greenhouse with orchid collection

Three acres of formal gardens and controlled natural areas with focus on attracting birds; roses, wildflowers, herbs, ferns, woodland garden

Features include: formal garden, white garden, secret garden, Anglo-Chinese garden, historic plantation home

Memorial Garden
Three acres of gardens entwined through the 200 year old cemetery of the First Presbyterian Church

Display gardens located through out the campus including: rhododendron garden (1 acre), dahlia garden, rose garden, nature trail, conifers, perennials

Collection of trees and shrubs on a campus setting.

Exotic butterflies and their tropical habitats

A native area (84 acres) featuring trails with trees and wildflowers along the Eno River.

55 acres of woodland and formal gardens featuring native plants, seasonal color, camellias, roses, Asiatic trees and shrubs

Witherspoon Rose Garden
near 15-501 and I-40
Durham, NC
800-643-0315

A demonstration rose garden adjoining Witherspoon Rose culture(nursery).

A relatively young botanical garden located on the Cape Fear and Cross Creek Rivers. Features include: camellia collection, daylily garden, nature trail, perennials, sundial garden, heritage garden.

A city garden (7 1/2 acres) featuring azaleas, bulbs, camellias, perennials, annuals, roses, and a fragrance and herb garden.

The garden and lake is a haven for native and migratory waterfowl. Plant features include: wildflowers, ferns, trees, wild roses.

The arboretum (17 acres) features include: small tree collection, ground cover garden, butterfly garden, winter garden, hydrophilic garden, shade garden, as well as annuals and perennials

Legacy/Demonstration Garden
Cooperative Extension Center
3309 Burlington Road
Greensboro, NC
336-375-5876

A one acre demonstration site was started in 1990 by reclaiming a vacant overgrown field. Master Gardeners with the N.C. Cooperative Extension Service, using donated materials from corporations and individuals have created a variety of garden demonstrations that offer the general public a hands-on learning classroom.

A formal garden memorializing the settlers of "The Lost Colony". Features a sunken garden, rose garden, woodland and wildlife garden, camellias and rhododendrons, overlook terrace, with statuary through the garden.

Formal gardens on the grounds (14 acres) of the restored palace of the first royal governor of North Carolina.

Includes demonstration vegetable garden, display garden for the Eastern North Carolina Rose Society, and a bird and butterfly garden. Cooperator with the North Carolina Urban Tree Evaluation Program. Tree and shrub collection includes 24 species/cultivars of Viburnum.

A campus teaching garden (27 acres) with formal and informal areas featuring: large holly and conifer collection, fruit and vegetable garden, wetland trail, woodland garden, camellias, azaleas, succulents, streams

Gardens at Weymouth Center for the Arts and Humanities
555 East Connecticut Avenue
Southern Pines, NC 28387
910-692-6261

Three acres of gardens surround the Boyd home with formal and informal areas featuring water gardens, rose garden, formal garden, perennial beds, camellias, butterfly gardens, woodland gardens.

JC Raulston Arboretum
NC State University
4415 Beryl Road (off Hillsborough Street and I-440 near State Fair grounds)
Raleigh, NC 27606-1446
919-515-3132

Mail address: JC Raulston Arboretum, NC State University, Box 7522, Raleigh, NC 27695-7522
Research garden (8 acres) for testing new plants. Features include: white garden, bedding plant trails, perennial border, Japanese garden, rose garden, world class collection of redbuds, magnolias, styrax, junipers, and select trees, vines, and shrubs.

Massive collection of daylily cultivars

Small antebellum kitchen garden featuring herbs

Juniper Level Botanical Garden
9241 Sauls Road
Raleigh, NC 27603
919- 772-4794 or e-mail

The gardens currently contain over 6,000 different plant species and cultivars, of which 1,500 are woody and the rest perennials. Include a man made grotto garden, a southwestern garden, a rock garden, a bog garden, an aquatic garden, and much more. Tours should be scheduled in advance.

Collection of hybrid teas, florabundas, grandifloras, English, and tree roses

The garden behind the station includes over 2,000 mature azaleas with companion trees and flowers.

A naturally occurring stand (400 year old) of Canadian hemlocks and wildflowers that normally occur in western North Carolina. Includes: nature center, trails, wildflower garden

An informal garden along the Little Raft Swamp featuring a collection of azaleas, camellias, roses, and native plants.

A 22 acre country estate featuring: 1922 restored home, herb garden, goldfish pools, Chinese pagoda garden, perennials, bulbs, annuals, rose garden, and native plants.

Includes a biblical garden, Shakespeare garden, international garden

A haven (15 acres) for wildlife featuring wildflowers, magnolias, azaleas, woodlands, streams, and pathways.

Theme gardens through out the campus including: Japanese garden, conifer garden, native garden, garden for the senses, rose garden, vegetable garden, wildflower meadow, and a log cabin.

Historic waterfront plantation estate (67 acres) that features camellias and azaleas.

Over 4,000 species of native and introduced trees, shrubs, and flowers in 32 theme gardens (6 1/2 acres) including: daylily, vegetables, rose garden, children’s garden, aquatic and bog garden, camellias, and a shade garden.

Plantation garden (20 acres) on the Cape Fear River, includes formal and informal areas. Features: large live oaks and native trees, azaleas, radial garden, white garden, scroll garden, sun garden, view of old rice fields

An excellent collection of old garden roses and new hybrid roses

Wilson Botanical Garden

A colonial Moravian community vegetable garden, nature trails, and restored buildings.

An early 20th century formal garden (4 acres) featuring: new and old roses, vegetables, herbs, perennials, conservatory and nature

A county park that includes an arboretum, fragrance garden, and a rose garden. Tanglewood arboretum is maintained by Cooperative Extension Service, Forsyth County Center.

This list of public gardens in North Carolina was compiled by

Erv Evans, Retired Consumer Horticulturist, NC State University

Last Updated: Summer, 2008