Places to Find Flowers on the Outer Banks

By Cheryl Rodewig
Oct. 01, 2024

When nature on the Outer Banks comes to mind, it is easy to picture the ocean, sand, and sound first. You might also think of the wide maritime forest at Nags Head Woods Preserve or the dunes at Jockey's Ridge State Park.

Flowers are part of the landscape here as well. Some grow wild, while many others are cultivated in tidy garden beds, bringing seasonal color across the islands. If you are looking for standout blooms on the OBX, these are the places to visit.

The Elizabethan Gardens

For flowers on the Outer Banks, the standout destination is the beautiful 10-acre Elizabethan Gardens in Manteo. Designed as a recreation of a 16th-century English pleasure garden, it delivers an especially scenic garden experience.

The most abundant display arrives in spring and early summer, with nearly 50 cultivars of rhododendrons, close to 100 cultivars of hydrangeas, and many varieties of roses. Visitors wondering what is blooming can consult the bloom calendar, which ranges from Japanese cherry trees in February to wisteria in April, magnolias in June, and chrysanthemums in November. Poppies, daisies, foxglove, canna lilies, camellias, and many other flowers keep the Elizabethan Gardens colorful throughout the year.

In classic English garden fashion, the plantings are paired with artistic and architectural details, including urns, arches, fountains, brick walls, and shaped hedges that lend the grounds a sculptural quality.

Visitors can take in the large bronze statue of Queen Elizabeth I, the elegant marble figure of Virginia Dare beneath an old live oak, and stone lions that support a bench for resting. These kinds of formal elements bring a cultivated grace to the garden, much as English landscape designers understood 500 years ago.

The Sunken Garden brings this union of art and nature together: a square arrangement of 32 symmetrical parterres planted with seasonal flowers such as pansies, ageratum, and begonias. At its center, an aged Aphrodite stands in an Italian fountain, looking east.

Look in the same direction and you will arrive at the Overlook Terrace, where the Roanoke Sound comes into view. It is one of many scenic viewpoints throughout the gardens. Anyone drawn to photography, flowers, history, sculpture, or beauty in general is likely to enjoy the visit.

Dare County Arboretum and Teaching Garden

Open daily from sunup to sundown and free to visit, the Dare County Arboretum and Teaching Garden fits easily into an Outer Banks itinerary. Set aside a relaxed half hour to wander this Kill Devil Hills garden, or longer if you want to study the labels identifying the many plants. The paths and planting beds are maintained by the Dare County Extension Master Gardener Volunteers and local garden clubs, and leashed dogs are welcome. Picnic tables are available for anyone who wants to eat outdoors.

The individual mini gardens each have their own character. In the Dune Garden, spring brings daffodils, irises, columbines, and snapdragons. Summer adds black-eyed Susans and other perennials, while fall highlights the soft mauve plumes of purple muhly grasses and pale goldenrods. Across the street, the Central Garden is at its most colorful in summer, with hydrangeas, gardenias, jasmine, and viburnum.

The Butterfly Garden may be the most eye-catching area. Beyond the flowers, including camellias, azaleas, zinnias, and others, the lively butterflies and photo-ready butterfly bench bring a playful note.

Elsewhere, visitors can experience the textures of the Sensory Garden, the fragrances of the Herb Garden with lemon balm, pineapple sage, and Mexican mint marigold, and the distinctive design of the Rain Garden. There is also a brief wetlands walk, along with several benches placed throughout the grounds where you can sit in the shade of many native trees and shrubs, fitting for an arboretum.

Tip: Master Gardeners are in the garden on Wednesday mornings and are glad to answer questions.

Beach Blooms

Have you spotted the little red-orange flowers growing close to the ocean, emerging from the sand where the grass gives way to beach? That plant is Gaillardia pulchella, a member of the aster family commonly called beach blanket flower.

It grows throughout the Outer Banks, especially on the northern beaches of Kill Devil Hills, Kitty Hawk, and Southern Shores. These resilient plants do well in sandy soil and flower from spring through winter.

Another drought-resistant plant with attractive blooms is the Eastern Prickly Pear Cactus. In June and July, look for canary yellow flowers in sunny beachside spots, surrounded by barbed green pads. The prickly pear earns its name, so admire it without touching.

From September through winter, the cactus adds color again when purple-red berries take the place of the flowers.

Sea oats, or Uniola paniculata, deserve mention too. They may not be flowers, but their appeal is hard to miss as they frame the ocean and sway in the wind. Sea oats can be seen year-round along the beaches, and the Outer Banks National Scenic Byway offers some of the best stretches for uncrowded views.

Island Farm

A visit to Island Farm brings you roughly 170 years into the past, back to the mid-1800s. This Roanoke Island farmstead includes a two-story farmhouse, dairy, woodshed, barn, smokehouse, and other outbuildings, as well as chickens, cows, sheep, banker ponies, and a mule.

Photo courtesy of Outer Banks Conservationists

The Kitchen Garden is functional, producing carrots, onions, turnips, herbs, and medicinal plants. As early as May, visitors may also see soft magenta coneflowers and vivid French marigolds growing beside the food crops, but they are not only decorative. Marigolds can serve as a dye and a natural pest deterrent, while coneflowers were thought to help purify the blood.

In September and October, sunchokes appear around the property. This native plant, referred to as Jerusalem Artichokes in several 1850s recipes, produces edible tubers with a texture like watercress.

Photo courtesy of Outer Banks Conservationists

Since Island Farm is a living history farm, visitors may see these flowers used in historic ways. At the annual sheep shearing in spring, interpreters color some wool marigold yellow. In the cookhouse, something appropriate to the period is often steeping, frying, baking, or boiling, and visitors may be offered a taste if it is ready. Possibilities include yaupon holly tea made from the bush near the live oak, lacy corn cakes, or samples from a recent harvest.

Photo courtesy of Outer Banks Conservationists

At the end of the self-guided tour, cross the street for a close look at the replica 19th-century windmill. When the crape myrtle trees planted along Highway 64 are in bloom, the scene makes an excellent photo opportunity.

Author

Cheryl Rodewig is an award-winning journalist specializing in travel. When she is not mapping out her next journey, ideally to a waterfall or garden, she uses her MBA to create marketing stories for brands. Her writing has appeared in Thrillist, AARP, Insider, The Guardian, and throughout cherylrodewig.com.