Edgar Allan Poe-inspired Enchanted Garden

2009 marks the bicentennial of the birth of Edgar Allan Poe, dubbed America’s Shakespeare and a master of the short story, detective fiction, science fiction, lyric poetry and the horror story. The Poe Museum boasts the world’s finest collection of the author’s manuscripts, letters, first editions, memorabilia and personal belongings. Located close to the site of Poe’s first Richmond home and place of work, the museum provides visitors with a retreat into Poe’s early 19th century Richmond.

Landscaped in 1921, as a memorial to Poe, the museum’s Enchanted Garden was designed to recreate the garden described in Poe’s poem To One in Paradise. Some 72 years after his death, a group of the author’s admirers gathered on the site to celebrate the opening of a shrine dedicated to America’s first internationally influential author.

The bricks and granite used to create the shrine, and most of the bricks throughout the rest of the garden, were salvaged from the offices of the Southern Literary Messenger, the magazine where Poe began his career in journalism. The lock on the green gate near the shrine came from Richmond’s infamous Libby Prison, a Civil War jail, and many species of flowers planted in the garden were mentioned in Poe’s works. Even the broken glass on top of the garden wall is a security measure borrowed from Poe’s tale William Wilson.

The museum and garden are open from10am to 5pm, Tuesday to Saturday, and 11am to 5pm on Sunday. Admission is $6 for adults and $5 for senior citizens as well as students.

Luray Caverns and Maze

Prepare to be truly amazed and discover something decidedly different at the Luray Caverns, the largest and most visited cave system in eastern America. Whilst the caverns, with their huge cathedral sized chambers, towering columns, stalactites and underground pools, are undoubtedly the big attractions, there is also something equally unusual for garden enthusiasts.

Visitors need to leave plenty of time to unravel the mystery of the maze inside the ornamental garden at Luray Caverns. Rooted in myth, mazes have existed for centuries in countless forms, across many cultures around the world where they have been designed for entertainment, recreation, art, magic and meditation. At Luray Caverns over 1,500 dark American arborvitae trees, 8ft tall and 4ft wide, have been used to create an atmospheric half-mile maze enhanced with a swirling fog. The twisting pathways lead past fountains and into a cave. At 40 different points visitors have to choose which way to go in order to solve the riddle of how to find their way out of the maze. An elevated platform provides a helping hand for those who are hopelessly lost!

Another attraction outside the caves is the Luray Singing Tower built in 1937. The 117ft tall tower contains a carillon of 47 bells, including one weighting 7,640lbs and 6ft in diameter. The tower is recognised as one of the country's major carillons and 45-minute recitals are held regularly throughout the spring, summer and autumn.

The Luray Caverns and maze are open daily. Entrance fees for the maze are $6 for adults and $5 for children.

Maymont Gardens

Once the 100-acre Victorian estate of the prosperous Irish immigrant Dooley family, Maymont was bequeathed to the city of Richmond in 1925 as a public park and museum. Maymont mansion is a well-preserved document of the so-called Gilded Age design and the glorious gardens and landscapes are still very much as the Dooleys left them.

The Maymont story began in 1886, when Major James Dooley acquired the former dairy farm. His wife, an avid student of horticulture, began tranforming the grounds with the help of an estate manager and an army of 20 groundsmen. In the words of her husband, she “covered it with the work of her own hands” and “put out six hundred rose bushes and thousands of other flowers, and purchased the most costly evergreens from all parts of the world”.

The resulting grounds are certainly diverse, with rocky outcrops, streams, ravines and open lawns interspersed by gazebos, statues, meandering paths and garden ornaments. The spectacular Italian Garden, Japanese Garden and arboretum all date to the Dooleys’ era and the grotto, created around 1911, is a very rare example of its kind in the US. Grottoes such as the one at Maymont were incorporated into picturesque landscapes to reflect the hidden and dark aspect of nature in contrast to bright flower gardens. More recent additions to the garden include the fragrant Butterfly Garden and prickly Cactus Garden, one of Richmond's first public cactus gardens.

The gardens are open daily from 10am to 5pm and admission is free.

University of Virginia Gardens

“No occupation is so delightful to me as the culture of the earth, and no culture comparable to that of the garden”, wrote Thomas Jefferson.

A place in which to study and be the subject of study, the Pavilion Gardens at the University of Virginia can now be enjoyed by everyone. Jefferson originally designed them with the intention that the pavilion residents, or professors, would plant and maintain their own gardens. The Garden Club of Virginia restored them and in 1987 the university grounds received the accolade of being named a UNESCO World Heritage site.

The ten gardens, on each side of the expansive lawn with its elegant Rotunda, include many of the flowers and shrubs that Jefferson grew in his gardens at Monticello as well as those recommended by 18th century gardeners and writers. In the lower garden visitors will come across one of Oxford’s dreaming spires, carved for Merton College Chapel in 1451 and given to the University of Virginia in 1928 to honour Jefferson’s educational ideals.

Jefferson’s love of trees also extended to the university. He envisioned the landscape of his so-called academical village as an expanse of lawn and trees. Native and exotic trees beautify the restored gardens throughout the seasons, from the spring dogwood and redbud blossoms, green shades of summer, autumn maples and winter hollies and hemlocks, while the fruit trees were first planted to supply the university dining halls.

The gardens are open at all times and there is no admission charge.

Yorktown Victory Center & Jamestown Settlement

Now dig this, you can - quite literally - unearth America’s past and get your hands on history at the Yorktown Victory Center and Jamestown Settlement.

The Victory Center traces America’s evolution from colonial status to nationhood through an enthralling range of attractions and exhibits, including an outdoor living history museum. The Tidewater Virginia farm offers visitors a unique opportunity to witness a typical rural lifestyle after independence was won and the new nation was taking shape.

The farm recreates life as it was in the 1780s, with a house, herb and vegetable garden, kitchen, tobacco barn and fenced crop fields. Historical interpreters are on hand to demonstrate the seasonal cycle of work that characterised farm life in southeastern Virginia. To really get a feel for the farming life visitors can help weed or water the garden, comb cotton or break cotton flax into fibre. They can also turn the clock back and find out how different herbs were used for cooking and medicinal purposes in the decade following the war.

The Jamestown Settlement, 30 minutes away, tells the story of the people who founded Jamestown and the Virginia Indians they encountered when they arrived. At the recreated Indian village visitors can discover how the Powhatans grew and prepared food and also try their hand at grinding corn and gardening.

The Yorktown Victory Center and Jamestown Settlement are open from 9am to 5pm daily, and until 6pm from mid-June to mid-August, and closed on Christmas and New Year’s Day. A combination ticket to both attractions cost $19.25.