The Oldest Public Gardens in America: A Definitive Guide

Azaleas and Arguments

Every spring when the azaleas start to bloom in Charleston and those classic Swan Boats go back on the water in Boston, the same argument flares up over which of America’s public gardens is truly the oldest.

At least four public gardens claim the title, each one right by its own definition of age. The answer depends entirely on whether you count the year a plot was first planted, when it opened to visitors, or its record of continuous operation.

The Contenders

Magnolia Plantation and Gardens in Charleston, South Carolina, takes the top spot by measuring the year a garden was first planted on the ground it still occupies. The Drayton family has owned the property since 1676, completing its first small formal garden, known as Flowerdale, in 1680.

Most grounds visitors walk today were planted in the 1840s by the Reverend John Grimké Drayton. Planting both camellias and azaleas outdoors, he did so during an era when northern greenhouses typically sheltered them.

Further up the coast, Bartram’s Garden in Philadelphia was laid out in 1728 by John Bartram. The 50-acre site is the oldest botanic garden still growing on its original ground and the first area in the country designated a National Historic Landmark.

Jardin de la fontaine the oldest public gardens in europe built in nimes capital of the gard department france europe

Middleton Place, situated a few miles upriver from Magnolia, features the nation’s oldest extant landscaped gardens according to the National Park Service. Henry Middleton began them in 1741, working from a French garden manual with an English gardener and a crew of enslaved laborers.

George Washington’s Mount Vernon in Virginia represents the sole presidential estate on the list. Rectangular, walled spaces designated for vegetables, nuts, and fruit were established by Washington in the Upper Garden and the Lower Garden during the 1760s.

Mount Auburn Cemetery, split between Cambridge and Watertown, Massachusetts, was established in 1831 as the first large-scale designed landscape in the United States open to the public. The Boston Public Garden was the first botanical garden in America laid out for the public from the start.

The Missouri Botanical Garden in St. Louis opened its grounds in June 1859 under the guidance of Henry Shaw. Meanwhile, the United States Botanic Garden in Washington, DC, has operated continuously since 1850, following a bill President James Monroe signed in May 1820.

What Comes Next

Seasonality shapes what visitors experience, even though the exact location of America’s oldest public gardens remains widely debated. Camellias at Magnolia and Middleton Place flower from October through March, and azaleas peak in late March and April.