From the stark, sculpted beauty of the winter forest to the exuberant masses of summer flowers, the Cape Fear Botanical Garden delights the eye --and the heart-- year round.  The 79 acre urban forest provides nature trails, a natural amphitheater, steep ravines sheltering unusual plants, and a varied riparian terrain which steps from open pine forest down hardwood slopes to lush riverbank.  Ponds, pools and waterways, lodged like jewels in a broach, attract birds and other fauna and provide habitat for aquatic plants.

In this stunning natural setting, the garden’s botanists, designers and gardeners have added structures and plantings to enhance the visitor’s enjoyment.  A gazebo and Great Lawn, bordered by beds of perennial flowers, host casual visitors as well as wedding parties and group festivities.  The many specialty gardens offer inspiration to adventurers who seek fresh ideas for their own gardens, provide a lovely backdrop for a weekend stroll, and serve as living classrooms for botany and horticulture students.  The pavilion may shelter a quiet family picnic or host a kindergarten class during story time.

Here where one trail echoes the laughter of children and another the quiet talk of sauntering adults, one may explore heritage farm life through an authentic 1886 farmhouse replete with period tools, gardens, outbuildings and heritage workshops, or seriously study the complexities of camellia culture with a regional specialist in an adult workshop.