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GARDENS & LANDSCAPES
THE KITCHEN GARDEN
THE KELLENBERGER GARDEN
THE WILDERNESS GARDEN
THE PLEACHED ALLÉE
THE HAWKS ALLÉE
LATHAM MEMORIAL GARDEN
GREEN GARDEN
COMMISSION HOUSE GARDEN
STANLY HOUSE GARDEN
CARRAWAY GARDEN
STONEY FLOWER GARDEN
DOT TYLER GARDEN
HAY HOUSE GARDEN
ETTEINNE MITCHELL GARDEN
HISTORY NAVIGATOR
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Gardens & Landscapes
Stroll down our garden paths and step back into a bygone era. This historic site features 16 acres of gardens and is the reconstructed colonial capitol of North Carolina. The Palace gardens were designed by noted landscape architect Morley Jeffers Williams in the 1950s and represent the formal garden style of 18th-century Britain.
This fall, the formal parterres of the Maude Moore Latham Garden and the Gertrude Carraway Garden will each have elaborate displays of mums. Our spring display includes daffodils, tulips and many other spring flowers. The Kellenberger Garden reflects the Colonial era with an arrangement of marigolds and celosia, which were popular in the 18th century, and cool-season vegetables will be ready for winter in the Kitchen Garden.
Also included in our site are gardens surrounding three historic houses – one with a formal lawn and camellia collection, town garden and swept yard/working garden. Three additional gardens reveal the splendor of Victoria era. The Etteinne Mitchell Riverside Garden includes a diversity of native plants, which are both beautiful and play an important role in the ecosystem. The plants selected survive both periods of flooding and of dry soil, and provide food and shelter for numerous animals.
What were the Palace Gardens really like?
We can only make intelligent guesses about what kind of gardens there might have been surrounding the 18th-century Palace. Governor Tryon seems to have had little interest in horticulture. Two maps of New Bern drawn in 1769, when the Palace was still under construction, reveal two different garden plans.
More than two centuries later, in 1991, Palace researchers discovered yet another plan. In the collections of the Academia Nacional de la Historia in Venezuela they found a garden plan that came from Palace architect, John Hawks. Hawks gave the plan to Venezuelan traveler Francisco de Miranda, who admired the Palace greatly when he visited New Bern in 1783. The Miranda plan suggests a strong French influence instead of the more-to-be-expected English garden style. Most likely Claude Sauthier drew up the plan given to Miranda. Sauthier was born in France in 1736, and trained as a draftsman. In 1763, he wrote a Treatis on Public Architecture and Garden Planning that reflects a strong influence of two 18th-century French master gardeners, one of whom trained with the designer of Versailles. Sauthier came to America before the Revolution to work as a mapmaker. In 1768, Governor Tryon employed him to draw a series of North Carolina town maps, including one of New Bern. Similarities of style between the town maps and the garden plan discovered in Venezuela suggest that Sauthier created them all.
None of the historic garden plans has ever been implemented at the Palace. Morley Williams designed the current gardens at the time of the Palace restoration. Before undertaking the Palace project, Williams had served on the faculties of Harvard and North Carolina State Universities and assisted in the restoration of the gardens at Mount Vernon and Stratford Hall. His designs are in the colonial revival style that was widely employed in the mid-20th century.
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March 1 - May 31
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Gardens open until 6 p.m.
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June 1 - Sept. 5
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Gardens open until 7 p.m
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Sept 6 - Oct 31
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Gardens open until 6 p.m
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Nov 1 - Feb 28
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Gardens open until 5 p.m
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