North Carolina Botanical Garden’s Display Garden, 100 Old Mason Farm Rd, Chapel Hill, is free to visit. Read on to learn about some upcoming (free or inexpensive) events, as well as about visiting the Display Gardens, Coker Arboretum and Battle Park.
You might also be interested in this list of botanical gardens around the Triangle.
Upcoming Events at North Carolina Botanical Garden
Please make sure to follow each link below to register (when required.) Also, please take note of which location the event is at (the Display Gardens or Coker Arboretum.)
Nature Tales: Monarch Mania
Friday, September 12, 2025
10 to 11 a.m.
Display Garden
Free (registration required)
Ages 3-7, with accompanying adult
Flit, flutter, fly! It’s monarch time! We will learn about the amazing journey these butterflies make each year while we read stories and sing songs. Then we will search the Garden for caterpillars and butterflies. This family-friendly program has been designed especially for children ages 3–7.
Nature Tales: Itsy Bitsy Spider
Friday, October 10, 2025
10 to 11 a.m.
Display Garden
Free, but registration is required
Ages 3-7, with accompanying adult
Get ready to spin a web of fun! We will read fun spider stories, sing silly songs, and explore the Garden to peek at real spiders and their amazing webs. This family-friendly program has been designed especially for children ages 3–7.
Nature Tales: Thank You Trees!
Friday, November 7, 2025
10 to 11 a.m.
Display Garden
Free, but registration is required
Ages 3-7, with accompanying adult
Celebrate the season of gratitude with a story time dedicated to trees! After stories, we will explore the Garden to discover the colors, shapes and secrets of trees as they prepare for winter. This family-friendly program has been designed especially for children ages 3–7.
Nature Tales: Whoo’s There?
Friday, December 12, 2025
10 to 11 a.m.
Display Garden
Free, but registration is required
Ages 3-7, with accompanying adult
Whoo’s ready for a hoot of a story time? After enjoying stories about owls, we will wander the Garden to uncover the mysteries of these nocturnal hunters. This family-friendly program has been designed especially for children ages 3–7.
Display Garden at North Carolina Botanical Garden
The display gardens at North Carolina Botanical Garden, at 100 Old Mason Farm Rd, Chapel Hill, are free to visit, and open during normal hours: Tuesday through Sunday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. It is closed Mondays. No reservations are required.
Please note that the Garden is is closed for the holidays through January 2, 2025, and reopens January 3.
It’s free to visit, but a $5 donation is suggested. The gardens feature an excellent gift shop.
Coker Arboretum
Coker Arboretum is at the corner of Cameron Avenue and Raleigh Street in Chapel Hill. In all, it’s 5 acres. Stroll the flat, easy walking paths and enjoy wildflowers, trees, shrubs, perennials, vines and more.
You’ll find several benches and open lawns throughout. as well as creeks.
This area was first developed in 1903 by Dr. William Chambers Coker, Professor of Botany at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, with many East Asian trees and shrubs added in the 1920s through 1940s.
You can find a map of Coker Arboretum here.
Battle Park
Battle Park, at Country Club Drive and South Boundary Street, is an old-growth forest on the edge of campus. The trails wind through the 93-acre forest.
A highlight, which is right at the entrance at the southwestern corner of Battle Park, is Koch Memorial Forest Theatre, a one-of-a-kind stone amphitheater built into the hillside. It was built in 1940 with Work Projects Administration funds and improved in 1948.
Even before the construction of the amphitheater, this was a site for outdoor drama, with a performance in 1916 to mark the 300th anniversary of William Shakespeare’s death.
Today, Forest Theatre is a unique and special setting for performances, but when there aren’t performances taking place, you can make yourself at home here!
NorthCarolina Botanical Garden has managed Battle Park and Forest Theatre since 2004. The trails are varied and some are steep, uneven and rocky. You can see a trail map here.
Battle Park is open dawn to dusk every day, and Forest Theatre is as well, as long as there is no event or performance taking place.
North Carolina Botanical Garden, Chapel Hill
100 Old Mason Farm Road
Chapel Hill, NC
Sally Sockwell Smith says
These photographs are fabulous. One of the nicest finds is how cool the temperatures are on these shady trails. There is so much tree cover that the areas are never in the direct sun – so they stay cooler. We love strolling in these places!
Jody Mace says
Thank you, Sally! They really are an oasis in the summer!