This rare plant garden in Raleigh is only open to the public a few times a year
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Juniper Level Botanic Garden features 27,000+ plant types and large living collections.
- Garden opens to the public on several weekends (spring, summer, fall) this year.
- Tony Avent and team collect, trial, propagate and share rare plant genetics.
It’s home to one of the rarest collections of plants in the world. And, for a few weekends out of the year, this Raleigh garden is open to the public.
This 28-acre property includes the Juniper Level Botanic Garden and Plant Delights Nursery in southern Wake County.
The garden features more than 27,000 types of plants, including some that have yet to be named, and is home to some of the world’s largest living collections of ferns, yucca, sedge, false indigo and spider lily, among other species, according to the garden’s website.
“I created this craziness,” said Tony Avent, founder of the garden, in a previous interview with The News & Observer. “We’ve done 100 trips, collecting plant material. We bring it back. We propagated it. We trial it. We research it. We photograph it. And then if it’s really awesome, we propagate it and share it with other people.”
The gardens feature two waterfalls, rare woodland perennials, a grotto garden, a large rock bog with carnivorous plants and picnic area.
“The Juniper Level Botanic Garden has got one of the best plant collections anywhere in the world,” said Mark Weathington, director of the JC Raulston Arboretum at North Carolina State University. “And they have one of the best native plant collections, exotic plant collections and they really work on helping conserve the genetics of rare plants.”
When can you visit?
Visitors can schedule an appointment to visit the park or wait until a handful of “open house” weekends. There were two “winter” weekends with the last set for Friday, March 6, through Sunday, March 8.
There are three weekends planned for spring and two each for summer and fall this year.
- Friday, May 1 - Sunday, May 3
- Friday, May 8 - Sunday, May 10
- Friday, May 15 - Sunday, May 17
- Friday, July 10 - Sunday, July 12
- Friday, July 17 - Sunday, July 19
- Friday, Sept. 18 - Sunday, Sept. 20
- Friday, Sept. 25 - Sunday, Sept. 27
The botanical garden is open from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. during the open house days.
Admission is free, but there is a $5 fee to park that’s redeemable as $5 off the purchase of a plant.
