Tryon Palace Gardens

Encompassing more than 16 acres of gardens and landscapes, the Tryon Palace Gardens were designed by noted landscape architect Morley Jeffers Williams in the 1950s and represent the formal garden style of 18th-century Britain. Clipped hedges, flowers and paths combine to form the patterns that define a “parterre” garden. The hedges here are of dwarf yaupon holly, a Carolina native, rather than the boxwood that was used in English gardens of the period. Statues of the four seasons survey the seasonal displays of spring bulbs, summer annuals and fall chrysanthemums. Royal Governor William Tryon and his family brought architect John Hawks from London to design and build their Georgian-style home. Completed in 1770, Tryon Palace served as the first permanent capitol of North Carolina and home to the Tryon family.

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