Reynolda Gardens are located in

Reynolda Village Reynolda Village is a shopping and business complex in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, created from the servant and agricultural buildings of Reynolda, the former R. J. Reynolds estate. The village, which covers around , was planned as a working mod ...

, adjacent to the Reynolda campus of

Wake Forest University Wake Forest University (WFU) is a private research university in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, United States. Founded in 1834, the university received its name from its original location in Wake Forest, north of Raleigh, North Carolina. The R ...

and the Reynolda House, in

Winston-Salem Winston-Salem is a city in Forsyth County, North Carolina, United States, and its county seat. At the 2020 census, the population was 249,545, making it the fifth-most populous city in North Carolina and the 91st-most populous city in the Uni ...

North Carolina North Carolina ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It is bordered by Virginia to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the east, South Carolina to the south, Georgia (U.S. stat ...

. The gardens are open daily with free admission. The gardens were originally part of a large country estate and farm (1067 acres) created by tobacco magnate

R. J. Reynolds Richard Joshua Reynolds (July 20, 1850 – July 29, 1918) was an American businessman and founder of the R. J. Reynolds Tobacco Company. The son of a tobacco farmer and major slaveowner, he worked for his father and attended Emory & Henry Col ...

and his wife

Katharine Smith Reynolds Katharine Smith Reynolds (November 17, 1880 – May 23, 1924), later Katharine Smith Johnston, was the wife of tobacco Business magnate, tycoon R. J. Reynolds and a philanthropist who designed the Reynolda House estate. Early life Katharine Smi ...

between 1906 and 1923. In 1913 the

Lord & Burnham Lord & Burnham was a noted American boiler and greenhouse manufacturer, and builders of major public conservatories in the United States. History The company began in 1849 when Frederick A. Lord, a carpenter, started building wood and glass green ...

greenhouse was built to serve the family and farm, and to produce flowers commercially. Landscape architect

Thomas W. Sears Thomas Warren Sears (December 15, 1880 – June 1966) was a noted American landscape architect. Sears was born in Brookline, Massachusetts, to Alexander Pomeroy Sears and Elizabeth Prescott (Jones). He received his A.B. in 1903 from Harvard C ...

(1880–1966) designed the formal garden for Mrs. Reynolds, starting in 1915. After the death of Mrs. Reynolds (then remarried as Mrs. Johnston) in 1924, most of the property was gradually sold or given away, including a gift of to

Wake Forest College Wake Forest University (WFU) is a private university, private research university in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, United States. Founded in 1834, the university received its name from its original location in Wake Forest, North Carolina, Wake ...

in the late 1940s for its Winston-Salem campus. In a series of gifts from 1958 to 1962, their daughter

Mary Reynolds Babcock Mary Reynolds Babcock (August 8, 1908 – July 17, 1953) was an American philanthropist. As the daughter of R.J Reynolds and Katharine Smith Reynolds, she therefore inherited considerable wealth from her father's company, the nationally promine ...

established Reynolda Gardens by donating its property to the college. In 1995 the college and the

National Park Service The National Park Service (NPS) is an List of federal agencies in the United States, agency of the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government, within the US Department of the Interior. The service manages all List ...

performed extensive historic reconstruction to return the garden to its original design. Reynolda Village 4

Today the gardens include of woodlands, fields, wetlands, and a formal garden with greenhouse. Two acres of the formal gardens comprise the Greenhouse Gardens (designed 1917, 1920, 1931) which centers around a sunken garden divided into four quadrants, with grass lawns, border plantings,

rose A rose is either a woody perennial plant, perennial flowering plant of the genus ''Rosa'' (), in the family Rosaceae (), or the flower it bears. There are over three hundred Rose species, species and Garden roses, tens of thousands of cultivar ...

gardens, theme gardens, specimen trees, and boxwood hedges, as well as tea-houses, fountains, and pergolas. The other half contains the Fruit, Cut Flower, and Nicer Vegetable Garden (1921), which grows

vine A vine is any plant with a growth habit of trailing or scandent (that is, climbing) stems, lianas, or runners. The word ''vine'' can also refer to such stems or runners themselves, for instance, when used in wicker work.Jackson; Benjamin; Da ...

vegetable Vegetables are edible parts of plants that are consumed by humans or other animals as food. This original meaning is still commonly used, and is applied to plants collectively to refer to all edible plant matter, including edible flower, flo ...

s, climbing

s, and espaliered

fruit In botany, a fruit is the seed-bearing structure in flowering plants (angiosperms) that is formed from the ovary after flowering. Fruits are the means by which angiosperms disseminate their seeds. Edible fruits in particular have long propaga ...

trees. The entire property also includes a 3/4-mile woodland trail, as well as a slightly longer perimeter trail (1.5 miles).

See also