Step Back in Time at the Elizabethan Gardens

Next time you are on the Outer Banks, take a beach break and head to the 10.5-acre Elizabethan Gardens on Roanoke Island in Manteo, N.C. Or, hop in the car and make it a day trip. It is only a two-hour drive from Norfolk during the low-traffic off season. I hope these images taken during a late October visit will inspire you to visit.

Elizabethan Gardens along the Roanoke Sound have something blooming all year -- from early spring crocuses to winter camellias. There are 500 varieties of plants, including native water and live oaks, hydrangeas, and historic herbs described in Shakespeare’s plays.

On the day I meandered down garden pathways, Cloudless Sulphur butterflies fluttered around red penta flowers. Beautyberry bushes were in their full purple glory. Spanish moss dangled over wooded pathways carpeted with moss. Lace cap hydrangeas and Encore azaleas held onto their last blossoms while camellia buds started to open.

The peaceful gardens would make Queen Elizabeth I, who ruled England from 1588 to 1603, feel welcome. Dwarf hedges enclose specialized areas filled with herbs or colorful flowers. Sixteenth-century-style buildings, including one with a thatch roof, and numerous marble statues and fountains hark back to the Elizabethan Era.

In 1951, the Garden Club of Norfolk hired New York landscape architects to design an Elizabethan pleasure garden on wooded land owned by the Fort Raleigh National Historic Site. This is where Queen Elizabeth I sent British explorers to colonize the New World in 1585. By 1590, all 110+ colonists had disappeared leaving only the word “Croatan” carved on a tree. Their settlement is forever known as the Lost Colony.

Garden construction began on June 2, 1953, the day Queen Elizabeth II was crowned Queen of England. Opening in 1960, the gardens’ dedication came on the 373rd birthday of Virginia Dare, the first child born in our country to English parents.

Today, Elizabethan Gardens is an official North Carolina Birding Trail site. A visitor’s map marks 23 special areas to visit. An audio guide accessed through your cell phone is available. Permanent signs give tidbits about plants, birds and insects and explain herbs’ connections to Shakespeare’s plays. Whimsical donor signs make you smile.

A fun feature for kids of all ages is the Enchanted Garden Trail that includes plaques and audio recordings celebrating the dozen fairies highlighted on a special map. Garden lore says the fairies settled in the garden after escaping from a treasure chest on a sunken pirate ship. Children who find all 12 fairies can pluck a free treasure from the gift shop’s pirate chest.

Elizabethan Gardens highlights include:

• 15-foot tall iron entry gates that once hung at the French Embassy in Washington, D.C.
• An ancient live oak believed to have been on site in 1585 when the first settlers lived here and disappeared.
• A nine-foot bronze statue of Queen Elizabeth I -– the world’s largest work honoring the queen.
• The Great Lawn encircled by many of the garden’s 125 camellia varieties.
• The Sunken Garden with its crape myrtles and geometric gardens of seasonal flowers.
• The Virginia Dare marble statue carved in 1859 by a female artist. It endured two years on the ocean floor after a shipwreck before being nestled underneath a huge live oak.
• Overlook Terrace where soothing Roanoke Sound waves make you wonder if settlers once admired the same view.
• The Colony Walk lined with plants adapted to thrive in hot, dry and salty conditions.
• The Queen’s Rose Garden planted in 1976 to honor Queen Elizabeth II, who sent a Grandiflora rose from her Windsor Castle garden to be planted there.
• A greenhouse and plant sale area with a variety of plants you can buy in addition to gift shop items.

Bonus: The adjacent Fort Raleigh National Historic Site is free for you to tour. And, it is only a seven-minute drive to Manteo’s charming downtown with free parking and restaurants to enjoy.

If you go: Elizabethan Gardens are at the north end of Roanoke Island at 1411 National Park Drive, Manteo, N.C. The garden is open daily except for Thanksgiving Day, December 24 and 25, and all of January.

Tickets can be purchased on site and cost $12 for adults, $8 for ages 6 to 17, and $4 for children ages 3 to 5. Admission is free for children 2 and under. Dogs can enter for $3 with no charge for service dogs.

Hours are 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. from February through November and in December from 9 am. to 4 p.m. and from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m.

WinterLights garden tour tickets are available in mid-November through December and have special prices and evening hours for the lighted garden walk.

For more information, visit elizabethangardens.org or call 252-473-3234.