Tryon Palace – Stoney Garden - The Sociable Adventurer

For one of the most quietly charming gardens on the Tryon Palace grounds, the Stoney Garden is a real treasure. Set on Pollock Street just beyond the Carraway Garden in downtown New Bern, NC in Craven County, this delightful walled garden offers a charming glimpse into 19th-century New Bern horticulture — with old-fashioned perennials, antique roses, and a classic white picket fence that frames the entire experience. Be sure to check out the YouTube video and pictures below to get a feel for the garden before you go — or to relive the visit after.

Named for Mary Kistler Stoney

The Stoney Garden was established in the late 1990s as a tribute to Mary Kistler Stoney, an original member of the Tryon Palace Commission — the founding governing body that planned and oversaw the reconstruction of Tryon Palace beginning in 1945. The garden was funded by Stoney’s family, making it both a living tribute to her preservation legacy and a recent addition to the Tryon Palace garden complex.

For visitors, knowing the story behind the garden adds a meaningful layer to a visit. The Stoney Garden joins the Latham Garden, the Kellenberger Garden, and the Carraway Garden as one of the four key tribute gardens that honor the women whose vision and dedication helped bring Tryon Palace back to life.

A 19th-Century New Bern Garden

The Stoney Garden is designed to evoke the 19th-century New Bern home garden — a more relaxed, romantic style than the formal 18th-century gardens elsewhere on the Tryon Palace grounds. The garden is enclosed by a classic white picket fence, which gives it the unmistakable feel of a Southern townhome garden of the 1800s.

Inside the picket-fenced enclosure, old-fashioned perennials and antique roses fill the beds with seasonal color and texture. The combination creates a deeply atmospheric space that feels both familiar and historically rooted — exactly the kind of garden a prosperous New Bern household might have maintained in the mid-19th century.

Plantings from Lavinia Cole Roberts’ Garden Inventory

One of the most fascinating aspects of the Stoney Garden is how its plantings were chosen. Rather than relying on guesswork or generalized period varieties, Tryon Palace gardeners turned to a 19th-century garden inventory kept by Lavinia Cole Roberts — a remarkable historical document that records the specific plants she grew in her own New Bern garden during the 1800s.

The result is a garden filled with plant varieties that actually grew in 19th-century New Bern — old-fashioned perennials and antique roses that connect today’s visitors directly to the gardens their predecessors would have known. It’s the kind of historically grounded, research-driven approach that defines the Tryon Palace garden program at its best.

The 2020 Coppicing Revival

In 2020, the Tryon Palace gardeners made a thoughtful intervention to revitalize the Stoney Garden. The hollies that surrounded the garden were “coppiced” — a centuries-old woodland management technique in which trees are cut back close to the ground to encourage fresh, vigorous regrowth from the stump.

Coppicing was once widely practiced in European forestry and gardening, and it remains a sustainable way to manage light levels, encourage new growth, and rejuvenate established plantings. In the case of the Stoney Garden, the coppicing was designed to enhance sunlight reaching the garden beds and foster greater perennial diversity — ensuring that the garden continues to thrive and bloom vibrantly through future seasons.

Good to Know

Established: Late 1990s
Named for: Mary Kistler Stoney, an original member of the Tryon Palace Commission
Funded by: The Stoney family
Style: 19th-century New Bern home garden
Defining feature: Classic white picket fence enclosure
Featured plants: Old-fashioned perennials and antique roses
Historical inspiration: Lavinia Cole Roberts’ 19th-century garden inventory
2020 intervention: Surrounding hollies coppiced to enhance sunlight and perennial diversity
Location on the grounds: On Pollock Street, just beyond the Carraway Garden
Best for: Garden enthusiasts, history lovers, photographers, and visitors who appreciate the layered stories behind a great historic landscape
Pair with: Our magnificent gardens guide and the list of gardens for a fuller look at the broader Tryon Palace garden complex
Located on the Tryon Palace grounds in downtown New Bern, NC

A Tryon Palace Highlight

The Stoney Garden is the kind of stop that rewards visitors who appreciate the layered stories behind a great historic landscape. The meaningful tribute to Mary Kistler Stoney’s preservation legacy, the romantic 19th-century New Bern garden style, the period-accurate plant selections grounded in Lavinia Cole Roberts’ own garden inventory, the classic white picket fence framing, and the thoughtful 2020 coppicing that revitalized the surrounding hollies all add up to one of the most quietly meaningful gardens you can visit on the Tryon Palace grounds. Whether you’re a serious garden enthusiast, a history-lover with an eye for restoration stories, or just looking for a peaceful moment between Palace tours, this is one of the most rewarding stops you can make in Craven County.