“dedicated to preserving beauty and tranquility”
Fanciful and elaborate gardens were kept to entertain Queen Elizabeth I during her reign. Our garden was created for your enjoyment, and as a living memorial to the time when Sir Walter Raleigh’s lost colonists lived in this very place over 400 years ago. The Gardens include a collection of Renaissance statues, a sound-front Elizabethan-gazebo, a sunken Elizabethan knot garden – all adorned by an ever-changing palette of year-round color color from hydrangeas to native plants, perennials and camellias on ten sound-side acres. Year-long highlights include beautiful winter-time Camellias, spring bulbs, colorful summer landscapes from hydrangeas to crepe myrtles, autumn hues of ornamental grasses and salvia, as well as seasonal events like an Easter Eggstravaganza, Harvest Hayday and WinterLights. The Gardens are founded and supported by The Garden Club of North Carolina.
Reviews of gardens are always tough to write. After all, getting a good picture on what a garden is like depends on so much. Time of the year. What’s in bloom. How busy it is on tha the day you visit. And so on.
That said, the Elizabethan Gardens were great when we visited. Really cool entrance. Very pretty gardens. Price is a little steep (and I’m from the land of expensive gardens—you don’t know how pricey a garden visit can be until you’ve visited the Huntington Library). That about sums this place up.
So we arrive, walk around the park a little, and see the variety of pretty trees and man-made installations. Very calm and very serene, especially near the water. I’ll definitely be back next time we make our way to the Outer Banks.
Small gardens, but beautiful flowers. Lots of hydrangeas. It has an audio tour that you can listen to while walking the gardens. It's mostly covered in canopy so it's a nice escape from the sun. Cheap and peaceful... something you can do on a slow day.
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Elizabethan Gardens
Hours
- Sun - Sat: 9:00 am - 5:00 pm
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Parking
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Pets Allowed
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Wifi
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Wheelchair Accessible
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Credit Cards Accepted
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