Now, if you wanna step back in time as you welcome spring, Winston-Salem has three gardens that are rooted in history.

[gentle music] - The unique thing about Winston-Salem and its gardens is you can actually walk through the timeline of the history of this community just through its gardens, starting at Bethabara.

[gentle music] - If anyone's looking to explore the roots and the establishment phases of Winston-Salem, Bethabara is a really good place to start.

Without Bethabara, Winston-Salem might not exist as we know it today.

[gentle music] The Moravians soon realized that they were gonna need to develop an economy and a money system for the church.

They purchased about 100,000 acres of land known as the Wachovia Tract.

The preservation of natural history is just as important as the preservation of architectural history.

My favorite part of this garden would probably be the grape arbor.

Although some of the plants are similar, the grape arbor stands in the exact same place as the first.

[gentle music] We also have our medicinal garden, which is one of the first European medicinal gardens in the United States for the colonial period.

Dr. Hans Martin Kalberlahn was one of the original 11 settlers here.

His trade and specialty was medicine.

Once he got his garden planted, lots of people came seeking his medical practice and his medicinal herbs.

Bethabara actually translates from Hebrew to house of passage.

In 1766, they were reminded of their plans to establish Salem, which would've been the central city for the tract of land that they purchased.

[air whooshes] [upbeat music] - Bethabara really illustrates subsistence.

We're here in Salem.

It's a trades town.

They wanted to interface with the outer world a little bit.

Everything that we plant is historically accurate, well-researched plant material.

Seeds are humanity's inheritance.

We need to steward that inheritance and not waste it and save it for future generations.

- Even though we're so used to food and we're so used to plants being all around us, we don't really think about how much those plants have made us and shaped us, and still continue to make us and shape us.

This is where those connections are made.

We have over 200 varieties of heirloom plants.

We're really only trying to grow things that the Moravians were growing from 1766 to 1850, or that would've been grown around Salem from 1766 to 1850.

It really tells the story of everyone.

This town really started to shift after 1850 because Salem and Winston were joining together.

That starts to be kind of in the works before officially in 1913.

[gentle music] - At one point in time, Winston-Salem was the largest city in North Carolina.

RJ was the richest person in North Carolina.

And, you know, the community kind of fed off of that.

It fed off the success of RJ Reynolds.

Katharine was RJ Reynolds' wife.

She was the driving force behind Reynolda Gardens, behind Reynolda as a whole.

She made the decision.

She, you know, crafted the vision and executed it.

Typically, when you visit most estates, the garden sits tucked behind the house.

And here, it's very distinct, that it's off to the side, it's right next to Reynolda Road.

And, you know, the community has long enjoyed this garden.

I think one of the beautiful things about Reynolda Gardens is that it's more than the four acres that people typically associate it with.

Within that four acres, we have a historic Lord and Burnham greenhouse.

We have formal gardens that have historic roses, color-themed gardens, the blue and yellow and pink and white gardens, but that's the four acres.

And then when you get beyond that, there's two miles of walking trails that take you all throughout the estate.

We've got the historic house.

We have the Museum of American Art.

And then go grab a fantastic donut or a great meal in the village.

[gentle music] With the gardens, it's not just the plants.

It's about appreciating moments in time, because they might be fleeting.

You know, sometimes you have a daylily.

Well, that's just one day.

That's a great thing with a historic garden.

It's not just going to be frozen in time, that it will constantly look to its visitors of what we should be doing.

[gentle music] - The best way to find out about the historic gardens in Winston-Salem is to go to their website at visitwinstonsalem.com/thingstod.