The North Carolina Arboretum — Attraction in Fletcher

More recent update: Review edited due to internal compassion. However, I still stand by the fact that some of the employees are dismissive or plain rude.

Update: A few months ago, we got on a path and my husband told a dogged* man to the side of the path that another man with a dog was approaching. My husband did so because the sidelined man was not facing the path. The man rudely informed us that the approaching man was with him and to move it along because his dog was dangerous. Aggressive mammals: heed them.

A couple weeks ago, we hustled into the main building. The woman at the front desk informed us that the building was closing in five minutes. I told her that I had to pee. She gave no reply. I should have said, “I hope that you never have a fire in the lobby or a visitor having a stroke in which seconds count in both events. Get your Amazing Grace perfume in your Vineyard Vines bag and let me be. I know how time works.”

Right after that, a gift shop employee said the same thing. She learned her lesson after my husband put an expensive stuffed animal on the counter. You know what? The gift shop gate was not down. Maybe because it was not officially five o’clock yet…

The guy that cleans the porta–potties listens to Pink Floyd. I call it “Latrine Floyd”. Love it! Hope the main building can hear “Time” and not lose it.

*adjective, 2. Being accompanied by hopefully a domestic canine.

Prior review: fall of 2023 (?):The monthly exhibits are great. The main building has two bathrooms- upstairs and downstairs. There is an elevator. The gift shop is well-stocked. The Education Center has a cafe. I always quietly say in my Snoopy narrator voice: "No Cash Allowed" when passing it. Only debit cards, deb. The vegan cookies are delicious. You can eat inside or outside the cafe. The AC is superb. Rocking chairs are on the porch surrounding part of the building. The dogs are out of control. My last fifteen visits, I had to move out of the way for a dog. Read: I am a human moving for a dog. Service dog, no problem. Non-service: etiquette calls for the dog owners and dogs to yield. Oh, and the people who let their leashed dogs trail off instead of reining then in- please. The leash serves the purpose of control. I should not have to pre-guess an arc to stay away from a dog, only to have my best guess foiled by a nosy dog with an indolent owner. Buildings close at five pm. Photos of special events, yeah, I respect that, but you cannot hold hostage a gazebo for your not-yet-arrived-not-yet bride. This place restores my soul and my...

What can I say? It's a huge garden that's really pretty. They've done a great job with this place and have decent programs for children... This was our first time visiting the Arboretum although we live in the area...

We first entered the Baker Exhibit Center to borrow some backpacks with nature "discovery" tools in them and get a map of the gardens. We were warned we'd have to return the backpack in an hour (by 4:30) because the buildings closed at 5... We were unaware of that but proceeded anyway because our kids wanted them so bad. They each had binoculars, a butterfly net, and a plastic container with magnifying glass for bugs. There may have been other things but that's all that the 3 of them took out. We first came to a gift shop with things for sale and an area with beautiful nature inspired artwork for sale... Outside this building was a greenhouse with plants for sale. All of this being our first stop made us a little concerned about whether this would actually be a beautiful garden to enjoy or just a marketing and sales effort.

PROS: It ended up being a lot of beautiful gardens after all and some nice hiking trails.

Our kids LOVED the "Play Garden" which was an open area in the woods with lots of sticks, bamboo, cool stumps, a 'balance beam', TP's, wooden benches, and what our kids called a par core course. They liked this area, the trails, and the fountains the best.

CONS: The map was a bit confusing so we went back and forth from the standard map to the child's "hotspot" map to find our way around. Otherwise we would have missed a lot.

The little train set with Thomas the Train was cute... Not nearly as big of a setup as I had imagined but cute...

Our kids enjoyed the woods more than the gardens but we didn't stay on the trails long so they were upset. We LIVE in the mountains so we can play in the woods and hike trails in our backyard all day long... That wasn't what we came for. If you aren't from the area you might enjoy this with your kids though!

Our kids were so excited to see and catch some butterflies with their nets. Somehow we only saw 1 the whole time though. We saw a few lizards near the Bonsai Garden but the only other things we saw were bees.

The timing on our end was horrible... It was way too hot out there and the buildings were closing so we could only cool off once (while returning...

GORGEOUS arboretum!!! Absolutely lovely!

We arrived later than we had hoped to (4pm) and only had an hour before they closed the greenhouse and bonsai exhibit (5pm).

Their shop closes at 4pm so we couldn't check out the plants they have for sale in the gift shop, but I like that they sell plants that you can take home to your own green house or garden.

The remaining open areas were open until 9pm when we were visiting, and we stayed until about 8pm (dusk).

The bonsai exhibit is absolutely adorable, and had great educational material explaining how the art of bonsai is done and ways it could be applied to native Appalachian plants and not just Japanese plants.

I also really love that they had examples of plants used in other art forms like dying, basket weaving, book arts, and other media. They had lots of information signs posted throughout the garden, just enough that you'd learn something new and have time to digest it while wandering the garden until you ran into the next sign.

We went while there were still some flowering plants on the fall equinox, and I'm sure in the spring and summer the garden is also full of life! It looks like they have some lights set up for holiday lights in the winter already, so expect that the gardens are still beautiful even if they die back some for the winter.

Landscaping is wonderful as well, and there was a good number of benches throughout to sit if you need to rest. I have a hard time walking for long periods so this was particularly helpful and much appreciated.

They have easy to follow maps showing the different areas in the garden and it is small enough you can experience...