Afton Villa Gardens
St. Francisville, Louisiana
Allées of live oaks dripping with Spanish moss greet visitors to this old plantation that today encompasses two acres of gardens, 25 acres of parkland, and the remains of a Gothic mansion. Begun in 1849, this terraced garden represents the best of antebellum landscape architecture. Evocative garden features include a maze outlined with boxwoods, and tall cedars cloaked in wisteria.
Dow Gardens
Midland, Michigan
More than 1,700 hardy varieties of plants blanket the 110 acres of this vast garden created by Herbert Dow, founder of Dow Chemical, in 1899. His company may be better known for Styrofoam, but Dow's horticultural oeuvre today helps educate plant lovers on natural miracles. Trees, shrubs, herbaceous perennials, and flowers were landscaped to accord with Dow's wish to "never reveal the gardens' whole beauty at first glance."
Lyndale Park Gardens
Minneapolis, Minnesota
When Minneapolis isn't freezing, it's blooming. At this gem tucked into a city full of greenery, it's blooming roses—more than 60 beds of them, covering almost two acres. America's second-oldest municipal rose garden (after Elizabeth Park, in Hartford, CT) is one of four gardens in Lyndale Park, on the shore of Lake Harriet. Also here: a Peace Garden of alpine plants and dwarf conifers landscaped with rocks; an Annual Display Garden; and a Perennial Trail Garden.
Betty Ford Alpine Gardens
Vail, Colorado
Alpine plants are the stars at this spectacular park—at 8,200 feet, the world’s highest botanic garden. More than 2,000 species of flowers and shrubs make up a living collection of high-elevation plants from around the world. Set in the Rockies, this alpine oasis was founded in 1985 and named after former First Lady Betty Ford. Paths lead to streams, pools, and benches, with Colorado blue spruces, penstemons, and dianthuses providing inspiring backdrops. The garden offers mountain hikes, docent-led tours, and classes.
Peckerwood Garden
Hempstead, Texas
Spiky yucca punctuates this conservation garden visitable by appointment. More than 3,000 rare and unusual plants display the botanical wealth of the borderland between Texas and Mexico. Plant preservation highlights include cycads—primitive plants that flourished when dinosaurs walked the Earth—and magnolia hybrids.
Tohono Chul Park
Tucson, Arizona
This garden's name means "desert corner" in the native Tohono O'odham language, and the 500 species of plants from the Southwest and Mexico attest to the regional specialty of this 37-acre park. Loop trails lead visitors past towering saguaro cacti to demonstration and hummingbird gardens that display water-conserving (xeriscape) plantings, and an ethnobotanical garden of Native American crops. A children's garden invites playful exploration.
Lotusland
Santa Barbara, California
In 1941, flamboyant Polish opera singer Ganna Walska and husband number six, an American, created this 37-acre wonderland from a former nursery. A lover of exotic and dramatic plants, Walska collected ferns, bromeliads, succulents, and other tropical treasures, which she planted in idiosyncratic plots. The centerpiece is a world-class collection of 400 cycads, joined by fern, aloe, Japanese, butterfly, cactus, and water gardens, and entertaining topiaries of animals. Tour reservations required.
