Visit Edisto Memorial Gardens In South Carolina To View 4,800 Rose Plants In 120 Varieties

If the pandemic has redirected your wanderlust toward places a little closer to home than usual, then pop in the car and head to Orangeburg, South Carolina, to discover a hidden garden that boasts 4,800 rose plants - in 120 varieties. The 175-acre Edisto Memorial Gardens are the namesake of Orangeburg's nickname, The Garden City, and this spot is definitely worthy of a road trip.

Even if you're not an avid lover of roses, you'll still enjoy perusing the many different beds of roses (79 of them!) that feature all of the varieties at Edisto Memorial Gardens.

Plus, the gardens themselves are especially gorgeous to wander in wonder.

Boardwalks, paved paths, and natural paths through the grass make up the walking surfaces through the gardens, where the terrain is mostly flat.

Water features serve to enhance the landscape, and sculpture plays a significant role, too.

But those roses have an amazing affect on your senses. In the right season, the smell is incredible.

The roses at Edisto Memorial Gardens are usually honored on the first weekend of May every year during the annual Festival of Roses, which was cancelled in 2020 due to the pandemic. The event is widely known to be one of the top 20 events in the Southeast, as named by the Southeastern Tourism Society.

The City of Orangeburg has yet to release a statement as to whether the Festival of Roses will take place in 2021.

Have you visited Edisto Memorial Gardens before? What did you think? The gardens are open seven days a week from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Learn more about Edisto Memorial Gardens at this link.