The cool, curved metal sides of the greenhouse at Reynolda Gardens rise from the ground just as Google Maps coos, “You’ve arrived.” Ferns sprout around the rock base of the conservatory, and frills of tropical greenery flash behind glass walls. Storybook elegant, it’s a living reminder of the innovative construction, curiosity for travel, and immense wealth that sprang from Winston-Salem, North Carolina, soil in the early twentieth century.
Reynolda, an oasis that Katharine Reynolds, the wife of tobacco magnate R. J. Reynolds, dreamed up and built at the beginning of the 1900s, makes a worthy first stop on a tour of this onetime booming tobacco town’s sprawling public gardens. The tucked-away city has done a remarkable job of protecting its treasured green spaces while also nurturing the next generation of growers. I’ve come to revisit gardens I first learned about
