Daniel Boone Native Gardens entrance sign

Daniel Boone Native Gardens, located in

Boone, North Carolina Boone is a town in and the county seat of Watauga County, North Carolina, United States. Located in the Blue Ridge Mountains of western North Carolina, Boone is the home of Appalachian State University and the headquarters of the disaster and me ...

, United States, has a collection of North Carolina native plants in an informal landscaped design. The gardens are open daily from May to October.

History

The gardens were planned as a laboratory so that clubs, schools and botanists could study plants within a small area. The Garden Club of North Carolina broke ground in May 1961 on land adjacent to the outdoor theater where Horn in the West is performed. The

Asheville Asheville ( ) is a city in Buncombe County, North Carolina, United States. Located at the confluence of the French Broad and Swannanoa rivers, it is the county seat of Buncombe County. It is the most populous city in Western North Carolina a ...

landscape architect Doan Ogden designed the layout of the gardens. The gardens officially opened to the public in 1966.

Features

The wrought iron gates at the entrance were given by Daniel Boone VI, a descendant of famed American frontiersman

Daniel Boone Daniel Boone (, 1734September 26, 1820) was an American pioneer and frontiersman whose exploits made him one of the first folk heroes of the United States. He became famous for his exploration and settlement of Kentucky, which was then beyo ...

. Its main features include a

bog A bog or bogland is a wetland that accumulates peat as a deposit of dead plant materials often mosses, typically sphagnum moss. It is one of the four main types of wetlands. Other names for bogs include mire, mosses, quagmire, and musk ...

garden, stone gatehouse,

rockery A rock garden, also known as a rockery and formerly as a rockwork, is a garden, or more often a part of a garden, with a landscaping framework of rocks, stones, and gravel, with planting appropriate to this setting. Usually these are small ...

, grassed ''

allée In landscaping, an avenue (from the French), alameda (from the Portuguese and Spanish), or allée (from the French), is a straight path or road with a line of trees or large shrubs running along each side, which is used, as its Latin source ' ...

'', wishing well, reflection pool, prayer shrine, rustic bridge and Squire Boone Cabin. Squire Boone Cabin is typical of the cabin in which Daniel Boone lived. The logs are from the cabin of Jesse Boone, Daniel's brother, where Daniel spent much time. The newest addition to the garden, the bog, was dedicated in June 1992.

Plants on display

Large trees

* '' Acer spicatum'' (mountain maple) * ''

Acer saccharum ''Acer saccharum'', the sugar maple, is a species of flowering plant in the soapberry and lychee family Sapindaceae. It is native to the hardwood forests of eastern Canada and the eastern United States. Sugar maple is best known for being the p ...

'' (sugar maple) * ''

Acer rubrum ''Acer rubrum'', the red maple, also known as swamp maple, water maple, or soft maple, is one of the most common and widespread deciduous trees of eastern and central North America. The U.S. Forest Service recognizes it as the most abundant nati ...

'' (red maple) * '' Acer pensylvanicum'' (striped maple) * ''

Fagus grandifolia Beech (genus ''Fagus'') is a genus of deciduous trees in the family Fagaceae, native to subtropical (accessory forest element) and temperate (as dominant element of mesophytic forests) Eurasia and North America. There are 14 accepted species i ...

'' (beech) *

Sassafras ''Sassafras'' is a genus of three extant and one extinct species of deciduous trees in the family Lauraceae, native to eastern North America and eastern Asia.Wolfe, Jack A. & Wehr, Wesley C. 1987. The sassafras is an ornamental tree. "Middle Eo ...

Sycamore Sycamore is a name which has been applied to several types of trees, but with somewhat similar leaf forms. The name derives from the Ancient Greek () meaning . Species of otherwise unrelated trees known as sycamore: * ''Acer pseudoplatanus'', a ...

* ''

Fraxinus pennsylvanica ''Fraxinus'' (), commonly called ash, is a genus of plants in the olive and lilac family, Oleaceae, and comprises 45–65 species of usually medium-to-large trees, most of which are deciduous trees, although some subtropical species are ever ...

'' (green ash) *

Persimmon The persimmon () is the edible fruit of a number of species of trees in the genus '' Diospyros''. The most widely cultivated of these is the Chinese and Japanese kaki persimmon, ''Diospyros kaki''. In 2022, China produced 77% of the world's p ...

* ''

Magnolia acuminata ''Magnolia acuminata'', commonly called the cucumber tree (often spelled as a single word "cucumbertree"), cucumber magnolia or blue magnolia, is one of the largest magnolias, and one of the cold-hardiest. It is a large forest tree of the Easte ...

'' * '' Magnolia fraseri'' * '' Magnolia tripetala'' * '' Magnolia macrophylla'' *

Mulberry ''Morus'', a genus of flowering plants in the family Moraceae, consists of 19 species of deciduous trees commonly known as mulberries, growing wild and under cultivation in many temperate world regions. Generally, the genus has 64 subordinat ...

* ''

Liriodendron tulipifera ''Liriodendron tulipifera''—known as the tulip tree, American tulip tree, tulipwood, tuliptree, tulip poplar, whitewood, fiddletree, lynn-tree, hickory-poplar, and yellow-poplar—is the North American representative of the two-species genus ...

'' (yellow poplar) * Golden weeping willow * ''

Juglans cinerea ''Juglans cinerea'', commonly known as butternut or white walnut,Snow, Charles Henry ''The Principal Species of Wood: Their Characteristic Properties'' 2nd ed. New York: John Wiley & Sons, 1908. p. 56. is a species of walnut native to the e ...

'' (butternut) *

Hickory Hickory is a common name for trees composing the genus ''Carya'', which includes 19 species accepted by ''Plants of the World Online''. Seven species are native to southeast Asia in China, Indochina, and northeastern India (Assam), and twelve ...

Slippery elm ''Ulmus rubra'', the slippery elm, is a species of elm native to eastern North America. Other common names include red elm, gray elm, soft elm, moose elm, and Indian elm. Description ''Ulmus rubra'' is a medium-sized deciduous tree with a spr ...

* ''

Nyssa sylvatica ''Nyssa sylvatica'', commonly known as tupelo, black tupelo, black gum or sour gum, is a medium-sized deciduous tree native to eastern North America from the coastal Northeastern United States and southern Ontario south to central Florida and ea ...

'' (black gum) *

Black walnut ''Juglans nigra'', the eastern American black walnut, is a species of deciduous tree in the walnut family, Juglandaceae, native to central and eastern North America, growing mostly in riparian zones. Black walnut is susceptible to thousand can ...

* White paper birch * ''

Betula nigra ''Betula nigra'', the black birch, river birch or water birch, is a species of birch native to the Eastern United States from New Hampshire west to southern Minnesota, and south to northern Florida and west to Texas. It is one of the few heat-tol ...

'' (river birch) * ''

Betula lutea ''Betula alleghaniensis'', the yellow birch, golden birch, or swamp birch, is a large tree and an important lumber species of birch native to northeastern North America. Its vernacular names refer to the golden color of the tree's bark. In the pa ...

'' (yellow birch) * ''

Betula lenta ''Betula lenta'' (sweet birch, also known as black birch, cherry birch, mahogany birch, or spice birch) is a species of birch native to eastern North America. Description ''Betula lenta'' is a medium-sized deciduous tree reaching tall, except ...

'' (cherry birch) *

Dogwood ''Cornus'' is a genus of about 30–60 species of woody plants in the family Cornaceae, commonly known as dogwoods or cornels, which can generally be distinguished by their blossoms, berries, and distinctive bark. Most are deciduous ...

Redbud ''Cercis'' is a genus of about 10 species in the subfamily Cercidoideae of the pea family Fabaceae. It contains small deciduous trees or large shrubs commonly known as redbuds in the USA. They are characterised by simple, rounded to heart-sha ...

* ''

Chionanthus ''Chionanthus'' (), common name: fringetrees, is a genus of about 140 species of flowering plants in the family Oleaceae. The genus has a wide distribution primarily in the tropics and subtropics, but with three species extending north into t ...

'' (fringe tree) * Sweet crab * Sourwoods *

Pussy willow Pussy willow is a name given to many of the smaller species of the genus '' Salix'' (willows and sallows) when their furry catkins are young in early spring. These species include (among many others): * Goat willow or goat sallow ('' Salix cap ...

* ''

Amelanchier ''Amelanchier'' ( ), also known as shadbush, shadwood or shadblow, serviceberry or sarvisberry (or just sarvis), juneberry, saskatoon, sugarplum, wild-plum or chuckley pear,A Digital Flora of Newfoundland and Labrador Vascular Plants/ref> is a ...

'' (shadblow) * ''

Sorbus aucuparia ''Sorbus aucuparia'', commonly called rowan (, also ) and mountain-ash, is a species of deciduous tree or shrub in the rose family. The tree has a slender trunk with smooth bark, a loose and roundish crown, and its leaves are pinnate in pairs o ...

'' (mountain ash, rowan) * ''

Franklinia ''Franklinia'' is a monotypic genus in the tea family, Theaceae. The sole species in this genus is a flowering tree, ''Franklinia alatamaha'', commonly called Franklinias or the Franklin tree, and native to the Altamaha River valley in Georgia i ...

'' * '' Halesia carolina'' (silver bell)

Conifers

* ''

Thuja occidentalis ''Thuja occidentalis'', also known as northern white-cedar, eastern white-cedar, or arborvitae, is an evergreen coniferous tree, in the cypress family Cupressaceae, which is native to eastern Canada and much of the north-central and northeastern ...

'' * ''

Juniperus virginiana ''Juniperus virginiana'', also known as eastern redcedar, red cedar, Virginian juniper, eastern juniper, red juniper, and other local names, is a species of juniper native to eastern North America from southeastern Canada to the Gulf of Mexico an ...

'' * Carolina hemlocks * Canadian hemlocks *

Red spruce ''Picea rubens'', commonly known as red spruce, is a species of spruce native to eastern North America, ranging from eastern Quebec and Nova Scotia, west to the Adirondack Mountains and south through New England along the Appalachians to wester ...

Fraser fir The Fraser fir (''Abies fraseri''), sometimes spelled Frasier fir, is an endangered species of fir native to the Appalachian Mountains of the southeastern United States. They are endemic to only seven montane regions in the Appalachian Mountains ...

Balsam fir ''Abies balsamea'' or balsam fir is a North American fir, native to most of eastern and central Canada (Newfoundland west to central Alberta) and the northeastern United States (Minnesota east to Maine, and south in the Appalachian Mountains to ...

white pine ''Pinus'', the pines, is a genus of approximately 111 extant tree and shrub species. The genus is currently split into two subgenera: subgenus ''Pinus'' (hard pines), and subgenus ''Strobus'' (soft pines). Each of the subgenera have been further ...

Shortleaf pine The shortleaf pine or ''Pinus echinata'' is a species of coniferous tree endemic to the United States. The shortleaf pine is sometimes referred to as the "old field", "spruce", "rosemary", "yellow", "two-leaf" and "heart" pine. The common name " ...

* Scrub pine

Shrubs

* ''

Rhododendron maximum ''Rhododendron maximum'' is a species of ''Rhododendron'' native to the Appalachians of eastern North America, from Alabama north to coastal Nova Scotia. Its common names include great laurel, great rhododendron, rosebay rhododendron, American rh ...

'' * '' Rhododendron catawbiense'' * '' Rhododendron carolinianum'' * '' Rhododendron minus'' * ''

Kalmia latifolia ''Kalmia latifolia'', the mountain laurel, calico-bush, or spoonwood, is a flowering plant and one of the 10 species in the genus of Kalmia belonging to the heath(er) family Ericaceae. It is native to the eastern United States. Its range stretch ...

'' (mountain laurel) * ''

Pieris floribunda ''Pieris floribunda'' is a North American species of broadleaf evergreen shrub, a member of the fetterbush genus in the blueberry family (Ericaceae). It is commonly known in North America as mountain fetterbush or mountain andromeda. All parts ...

'' * '' Leucothoe catesbeii'' * ''

Azalea Azaleas ( ) are flowering shrubs in the genus ''Rhododendron'', particularly the former sections ''Rhododendron sect. Tsutsusi, Tsutsusi'' (evergreen) and ''Pentanthera'' (deciduous). Azaleas bloom in the spring (April and May in the temperate ...

Rosea'' * ''Azalea Vaseyi'' * ''Azalea Viscosa'' * ''Azalea Arborescens'' * ''Azalea Calendulacea'' (flame)

Flowers and vines

* 12 types of native vines * Shade, evergreen, rock garden and bog wildflowers * Ferns and mosses

History

Features

Plants on display

Large trees

Conifers

Shrubs

Flowers and vines

See also