Daniel Stowe Botanical Garden

Daniel Stowe Botanical Garden

Executive summary about Daniel Stowe Botanical Garden by David L. Morgan

The Daniel Stowe Botanical Garden is a remarkable place that all garden and arboreta lovers should put on their agendas. For visitors to North Carolina, access is easy: The garden is located less than an hour’s drive west of Charlotte – and it’s well-worth the visit.

First-time guests will marvel at the maturity of the Stowe Garden’s plant material, given that it was only in 1989 when the garden was conceptualized by Daniel J. Stowe, a retired textile executive from Belmont, NC. A lifelong nature lover and gardening enthusiast, Stowe and his wife, Alene, envisioned designing a complex evolving over many generations to rival other internationally renowned gardens.

Today, the garden appears as if it’s been there for decades, like an old East Coast private garden. Stowe and his master designer, Geoffrey Rausch, envisioned introducing the Stowe Gardens through a “Garden for All Seasons” concept. The first garden created was the Cottage Garden of old and new plant species in a home-use setting, followed by the Canal Garden, featuring a 300-foot-long canal that appears to flow through flowering perennials and annuals (at one end of which is a sparkling fountain). Next came the Perennial Garden, consisting of four separate plantings of great length. Finally, the White Garden was created, featuring white-blooming plants of all sizes, where wedding celebrations have become popular.

Opened in Jan., 2008, the Orchid Conservatory is the Carolina's only glasshouse dedicated to the display of orchids and tropical plants. Highlights include a water wall with hanging orchids and epiphytes, living arches covered with bromeliads and other plants, reflecting pools with aquatics, tropical fruiting trees and many species of orchids from around the world. With any garden, words are meaningless without pictures.