A walk through the North Carolina Botanical Garden

By Johnny Andrews, University Communications

With blooming dogwoods in the spring, azaleas in the summer and yellowing Ginkgo trees in the fall, Carolina’s campus is known for its beauty year-round. But just a quick trip off of the main academic campus, Tar Heels can find another spot where nature is on full display.

The North Carolina Botanical Garden is home to display gardens and conservation areas that share and safeguard the plants of the southeastern United States. From a carnivorous plant collection to water gardens, the space aims to inspire understanding, appreciation and conservation of plants and to advance a sustainable relationship between people and nature.

No matter the season, the North Carolina Botanical Garden provides a serene spot to explore and learn.

With the garden in full bloom for the summer, University Photographer Johnny Andrews took a stroll through the various habitats and collections to explore all they have to offer the Carolina community.

An American white water lily (Nymphaea odorata) in the Water Gardens

Consisting of plants native to the southeastern United States, the Water Gardens feature American white water lilies, American lotus-lilies and emergent plants like heartleaf pickerelweed and powdery alligator-flag.

Hybrid pitcher plants (Sarracenia) in the Carnivorous Plant Collection

The Southeast is home to the world’s most diverse collection of insect-eating plants. Inside the raised beds of the North Carolina Botanical Garden’s Carnivorous Plant Collection, you will find insectivorous plants like sundews and pitcher plants.

A Virginia spiraea (Spiraea virginiana) in the Courtyard Gardens

The Courtyard Garden of the Allen Education Center showcases southeastern native species and their cultivars in tiered garden beds. The Virginia spiraea is a rare species, with the existing populations found only in the southern Appalachian Mountains.

A Venus flytrap (Dionaea muscipula) in the Carnivorous Plant Collection area.

You’ll find Venus flytraps in the Garden’s Carnivorous Plant Collection. The Venus flytrap is internationally known but can be found naturally only in a 90-mile radius around Wilmington, North Carolina.

A Stoke’s aster (Stokesia laevis)

In the Perennial Circle, each month provides a different display of the garden’s wildflowers, shrubs and trees native to the southeastern United States. In summer, this garden space is full of changing color. In the winter, interest shifts to discovering the architecture of stems and seeds left for their habitat and beauty.

Lamb’s-ear (Stachys byzantina) in the Plant Family Garden

A feature of some of the oldest botanical gardens, a plant family garden groups closely related plants. The similarities in floral structures and other shared features are what organize plants into groups called families. The North Carolina Botanical Garden’s Plant Family Garden explores the taxonomic relationships between many native and other familiar horticultural plants.

A Smooth Purple Coneflower (Echinacea laevigata)

The rare smooth purple coneflower can be found in the Courtyard Gardens and Piedmont Habitat. The Piedmont Habitat features wildflower and grass species native to the southeastern Piedmont. The collection displays plants in assemblages found in natural plant communities.

The North Carolina Botanical Garden has been a key partner in the conservation and recovery of this species, which was recently reclassified from endangered to threatened under the Endangered Species Act.

A green frog (Lithobates clamitans) rests on an American white water lily (Nymphaea odorata) in the Water Gardens

The North Carolina Botanical Garden doesn’t just attract human visitors. The Water Gardens draws all sorts of wildlife, including frogs and dragonflies. The plants and the wildlife remain in the water gardens year-round.

A Plymouth rose-gentian (Sabatia kennedyana)

Alongside the Venus flytraps and pitcher plants in the Garden’s Carnivorous Plant Collection, guests can find the Plymouth rose-gentian, a rare, lakeshore-dwelling species.