According to Pacific Horticulture, spending time in green spaces can lower blood pressure, heart rates, and improve concentration. For those dealing with chronic anxiety, depression, or low self-esteem, a garden can be a great source of solace. For both gardeners and non-green-thumbers, “public gardens—such as botanic gardens, arboreta, and conservatories—provide a window into the beauty, complexity, and profundity of the plant world.”

Named for Duke Professor and former Duke Gardens Director William Louis Culberson, the Asiatic Arboretum consists of an 18-acre collection of plants “representing the wealth of floral diversity in Southeast Asia.” As visitors explore the Arboretum trails, they’ll find many garden favorites: Japanese maples, irises, peonies, ginger lilies, and cherries. They also have attractions like Pine Clouds Mountain Stream, a Japanese Garden featuring waterfalls, and the Meyer Bridge, a Japanese style arched bridge surrounded by bamboo.

Raleigh Rose Garden

According to Raleigh Little Theatre, the Raleigh Rose Garden, created in 1951 and located on the WPA landmark, Raleigh Little Theatre campus remains open to the public from dawn to dusk daily. One of three accredited rose gardens in North Carolina, the grounds include sixty rose beds with varieties of roses surrounded by an arboretum of evergreen and deciduous trees, typically blooming in between Mother’s Day and the first hard freeze of the season in November.

Biltmore Gardens

During a visit to Biltmore, Smoky Mountains suggests enjoying a serene day in its gardens. Located next to the Biltmore House in Asheville, North Carolina, Frederick Law Olmstead, one of the most famous landscape architects in the U.S., designed these nearly a century ago. Visitors will see breathtaking trees, flowers, shrubbery, and more throughout the 30 acres of formal and informal gardens. Similar to Duke Gardens, the Biltmore Gardens consist of multiple smaller, themed areas. In the Italian Garden, three pools, filled with goldfish and koi, along with water lilies, papyrus, and elephant ears maintain a tranquil spot for visitors to sit and think in peace while admiring a collection of statues. 

The centerpiece of Biltmore Gardens, Walled Garden, boasts a seasonal rotation of stunning, colorful flowers. During the springtime, more than 75,000 tulips cover this section of the garden, while other seasonal blooms include mums in the fall and annuals in the summer. Throughout the center of the garden, a grape vine-covered arbor provides a shady spot to relax. Other highlights of the Walled Garden include Victorian, white, and scented borders, along with a butterfly garden.