2025 in Review: A Year of Growth for Stowe

2025 changed everything for Daniel Stowe Conservancy. In the last 365 days, we not only changed our name and shared our rebrand, but took action to reflect our new brand promise “Help all discover their path to nature” in many different ways. We hosted thousands of visitors, made memories with our cherished members, opened exciting new spaces, launched innovative exhibits and workshops. The shift in energy was undeniable… and we’re not slowing down in 2026. Here are some of our favorite highlights from 2025, plus some sneak peeks on what you can expect in the new year.

The Rebrand 

In April 2025, we officially announced our rebrand from Daniel Stowe Botanical Garden to Daniel Stowe Conservancy. This marked a shift in our organization to reflect our promise to help all discover their path to nature. We know that everyone’s path is a little bit different, so we wanted to provide new ways to connect our community to the outdoors. Throughout the year, we did just that through expanded trail systems, new educational programming, exciting public events, new opportunities to eat and drink on the property, a sustainability team focused on protecting our 380-acres and thrilling new adventures for kids. And this is just the beginning! We will continue growing and expanding as Daniel Stowe Conservancy to provide even more ways to connect with nature.

A New Way to Explore: The Prairie Castle Playground + Adventure Trail Opened 

Our most anticipated addition by far was the Prairie Castle Playground, which opened in August 2025. This three-story playground is unlike anything else in the region. Inspired by the grand, medieval playscapes in Europe, the towering structure blends whimsical castle design with opportunities for active exploration. Since its grand opening, kids have delighted over climbing nets, fun slides, elevated walkways and hidden nooks designed to spark creativity and encourage outdoor play. The first two stories of the Prairie Castle are completely wheelchair accessible, so all children can explore and bring their imagination to life. The Prairie Castle serves as a dynamic centerpiece for our mission to help all find their path to nature through family-friendly spaces.

You can’t forget about the amazing Adventure Trail that leads up to the Prairie Castle Playground! This half-mile trail starts in the Lost Hollow Children’s Garden and winds through the woods as kids and their families journey to the castle. Five spectacular outdoor rooms provide plenty of spaces for kids to play on the way, from climbing on massive boulders and jumping into sand pits in the Ramble Rocks Room to splashing around in the ever-popular Creekside Room to finding the Secret Room (and the dragon that sleeps within it!). Both the Prairie Castle Playground and the Adventure Trail have added immense family value to Stowe’s 90-acres of botanical gardens and visitors have come from near and far to explore the new space. Thank you to the Duke Kimbrell Foundation and our other major donors who contributed to this project.

Building The Village + Opening Farmhouse 

In May 2025, we opened The Farmhouse Garden Center, your one-stop-shop for garden supplies, gifts and all the delightful, vintage-inspired home decor you can dream of! Farmhouse was first built as the interim Visitor Center when Stowe first opened in the 90s and has evolved from staff offices and storage to a cozy, whimsical store that makes shopping fun. From plants to kitchen supplies to merch, Farmhouse offers one-of-a-kind finds. Farmhouse also hosted several events since opening, including Vino in the Village wine nights, our beloved Spookeasy pop-up bar, local content creator meet ups, the backdrop for photoshoots and more.

The Grand Opening of Farmhouse also established when is now known as The Village at Stowe, the free community hang-out space at the front of our property that serves as the gateway to our trails and provides a spot to relax with plenty of outdoor seating. The Trailhead Store, Farmhouse Garden Center, Dog Park and Pond Loop Trails make up The Village, and it’s the perfect place to chill out after a long day. The Village has boomed in popularity over the past year, thanks in large part to our Pickin’ on the Porch free music series hosted every Saturday in the spring, summer and fall at The Trailhead Store. Expanded food options also give families a chance to make a whole day of it at Stowe by fueling up at The Trailhead Store before hitting the trails or The Gardens.

Overall, The Village is just what Stowe needed to further connect our community to nature… at no charge.

The Garden Pavilion Got a Makeover

If you visited Stowe before last spring, you know that the inside of the Garden Pavilion went through some major changes!

Our number one upgrade was renovating The Garden Store and transforming it into Big Leaf Café + Shop, a re-imagined space to eat, shop and socialize. We enhanced our outdoor patio so folks have a shaded place to cool off after walking The Gardens and we added more grab-and-go meal options (perfect for when the kids start complaining about being hungry).

Another cool feature of Big Leaf is our “living wall” made up of plants designed in our brand colors that display our logo. Big Leaf also speaks to our sustainability mission, as the tables and chairs in the space are all made out of recycled chopsticks!

The Great Hall also looks like a completely different place thanks to new flooring! Wood floors replaced green carpets to enhance the experience for couples using Stowe as a wedding venue as well as create a more sleek, modern feel.

Opening New Doors (Literally!) Through Sidewalks 

For those living in the neighborhoods across and down the street from Stowe, Christmas came early when we opened new sidewalks that run down New Hope Road through the front of our property. Crosswalks make for easy access for our neighbors to walk across the street and expand their backyard by 380 acres.

If you’re one of our neighbors, we encourage you to check out membership and take advantage of all the amazing deals and opportunities it presents!

Incredible Growth for Our Education Programs 

This year, we doubled down on learning opportunities at Stowe. Fall and Spring saw hundreds of kids on our property every single week for immersive, science-based field trips in topics like pond ecology, animal life cycles, insect investigation and more. Our Summer Camps thrived, with kids of all ages discovering the ultimate outdoor adventure at Stowe this summer through paddling, hiking, art and building survival skills. Due to the popularity of our Summer Camps, we’re actually offering Spring Break Camp for 2026 – and registration is open! 

For the toddlers and preschoolers, we rolled out Learning for Littles, a fun, free story time in The Village led by our educators. Learning for Littles will be back when the weather warms up, but we’re hosting a similar series, Sprouts at Stowe, for winter 2026.

Adults didn’t miss out, though! Through brand new workshops and classes like our Rooted in Knowledge Learning Series, Moonlight Series and Leaves of Literature Book Club, we made sure that learning about nature and the wonderful world around us didn’t have age limits.

A Landmark Year for Love

Love was certainly in bloom in 2025! We hosted a record number of weddings this year…not to mention engagements and photoshoots. It’s not difficult to see why; The Gardens provide a spectacular backdrop for any occasion with multiple options for scenery. From the tropical Williamson Conservatory to the elegance of the White Garden, there’s no better spot to showcase your love than Stowe.

New Events + Old Favorites

Nearly every month in 2025 offered exciting events open to the public. Here are some of the stand-outs:

February 2025: Trip to the Tropics 

Last February introduced a new event celebrating and supporting our Williamson Conservatory. Trip to the Tropics was two weekends filled with lush tropical plants, restorative Forest Bathing and mindfulness practices, live music, orchid and tropical plant workshops, tours of the Williamson Conservatory hosted by our knowledgable Horticulture team and intimate Sip and Stroll evenings featuring delicious tropical cocktails. Trip to the Tropics is returning in 2026; stay tuned for more details!

May 2025: Butterfly Festival 

Each summer, the Butterfly Bungalow opens at Stowe, giving visitors the opportunity to view and feed butterflies up close and learn about the importance of pollinators. This year, we kicked off the opening of the Bungalow with a weekend dedicated to all things butterflies, complete with workshops, book readings and enhanced educational opportunities.

July 2025: Red, White + Blooms 

We celebrated the Fourth of July Americana-style with lawn games, kids’ activities and a lively afternoon of music.

October 2025: Bootanical 

Bootanical is an annual Halloween tradition at Stowe that’s more delightful than frightful.This year, the new Prairie Castle Playground inspired a fairy tale-themed day of exploration in nature, so we were joined by  fairies, princesses and kings around The Gardens! Families enjoyed seasonal fun activity stations, strolling our fan-favorite Scarecrow Hollow exhibit, browsing the scary-sweet Boo Bites Sweets Market inside our Great Hall and taking in the beauty of The Gardens in fall.

December 2025: Holidays at the Garden 

We can’t mention events at Stowe without Holidays at the Garden, our landmark exhibit of all things festive. This year, our Horticulture team outdid themselves, bringing The Gardens to life with over a million lights. From colorful paths and arches to the magnificent Four Seasons Lawn show to classic Christmas trees on the Prairie, it’s no wonder that we keep hearing the same feedback over and over: “This was your best lights exhibit yet!”.

Add live music every night, visits from Santa, rides on our trackless train, food trucks, hot cocoa, cozy fire pits and our Peacock Parlor Speakeasy, this season shined bright as we welcomed over 30,000 visitors to Stowe in just one month.

We also continued one of our favorite annual series for 2025: our quarterly Race Series. The Race Series consists of races for each season:

• Zoom + Bloom, a 5k and kids’ sprint on our trails (the perfect way to celebrate spring)
• Summer Nights, a 5k and one-miler on our trails and in The Gardens (the best way to beat the heat in the summer)
• Jeepers Creepers, a 5k and 10k on our trails (costumes encouraged!)
• Bright Lights, a 5k and one-miler on our trails and in The Gardens (also includes a sneak preview of our Holidays at the Garden display)

The Race Series brought runners from all over the country to Stowe to enjoy the most scenic races around.

Sustainability Committee Keeps Stowe Green 

2025 marked the formation of a Sustainability Committee at Stowe. Led by leaders on our Conservation team, the Sustainability Committee focuses their efforts on protecting and preserving our 380 acres. Here are some of the initiatives they worked on in 2025:

• Championing native plants to enrich our garden spaces by attracting more pollinators. The team also began selling native plants in our retail spaces and continued building and maintaining a regional seed bank for native plants. You can learn more about the team’s efforts with growing and promoting native plants here. 
• Implementing sustainable landscaping practices through our partnership with Husqvarna with new, battery-operated equipment that minimizes our gas usage and reduces sound pollution across the property. They’ve also implemented a new mowing plan to reduce mowing acreage and restore natural spaces for native plants and animals.
• Continuing to promote our Phenology programs – Stowe is proud to host two citizen-science programs led by dedicated teams of volunteers: Trail Plant Phenology and Bluebird Phenology.  The Trail Plant Phenology group monitors around 31 different species weekly to track phenological changes. These observations are submitted to the National Phenology Network, contributing critical data to national climate change research. The Bluebird Phenology group tracks the nesting and hatching activity of Easter Bluebirds across approximately 50 nestboxes across the property, recording key data and contributing to broader efforts supporting this native species.
• Building the Butterfly Highway Program at Stowe – In 2025, our conservation team partnered with the North Carolina Wildlife Federation’s Butterfly Highway Project to enhance our new sidewalk with native plants and flowers that attract butterflies. Keep an eye on our sidewalks in spring 2026… that’s when their efforts will really bloom!
• Invasive species removal – 2025 activated a core volunteer group targeting invasive plants such as Autumn Olive, Chinese Privet and more.
• In November 2025, the team completed a prescribed burn to benefit the ecosystems of our Piedmont Prairie as part of the Prairie restoration project. You can learn more about why we burn our prairie here. 

And this just scratches the surface of the hard work our Sustainability Committee has put in throughout 2025 to ensure we take care of our beautiful land the best we possibly can. Click the button below to learn about even more of their efforts!

Outstanding Events for Amazing Causes 

Stowe hosted two large-scale fundraisers to benefit the Conservancy this year: Hats in the Garden in May and Roots + Rhythm in October.

Hats in the Garden: This fabulously chic annual luncheon isn’t just an event – it’s a dazzling showcase of community spirit, bringing together over 300 local philanthropists and leaders who share our passion for nurturing nature’s wonders and preserving our botanical paradise. This year’s Hats in the Garden event was particularly dazzling with performances from aerialists and a live fashion show from our friends at ArtPop.

Roots + Rhythm: Roots + Rhythm was a new event for 2025, with tickets open to the public to benefit our new Edible and Textile Garden and Outdoor Kitchen. Guests enjoyed a delicious, farm-to-table dinner courtesy of Carolina Farm Trust  and a lively performance by Americana band Wagon Load A Trouble.

So…What Does 2026 Have in Store? 

The future is bright and the energy is high in the wake of our first year as Daniel Stowe Conservancy. We’re going to keep bringing the hard work, excitement and growth into 2026 and beyond. Here are some items to look forward to in the new year:

• We’re kicking off the year with a brand new Ice Sculptures exhibit on January 16 + 17. Two dozen sculptures will fill The Gardens mingled with the sparkle of lights. If you missed Holidays at the Garden (or loved it so much that you want to go again), Ice Sculptures is your last chance to bring the family out to witness the magic. Get Ice Sculptures tickets. 
• Favorite events like Trip to the Tropics, the Butterfly Festival, Bootanical and Holidays at the Garden return for 2026.
• We’ll continue working on our Trail Masterplan to enhance and grow our trail system on the property. Love hiking and want to support the project? Click here and select “Stowe Trail Fund”. 
• Remember how we said there’s a dragon living in the Secret Room of the Lost Hollow Adventure Trail? That dragon’s story is coming to life in a big way… keep your eyes peeled on social media and email for the big reveal. 
• If your favorite way to enjoy the outdoors is with a glass of wine in hand on a porch, we’ll be rolling out new ways to socialize and relax in The Village through wine walks, beer tastings and exciting, revamped spaces.
• Stay tuned for a major announcement about a massive summer exhibit that’s sure to spark excitement.

None of this would be possible without the support of our incredible members, volunteers, community partners, sponsors and donors over the past year. Thank you for your unwavering support!

We have a feeling it will be the best year yet for Daniel Stowe Conservancy and we want you to be part of it. Plan your visit, become a member or donate to support our growth. We paved our path in 2025…now let’s explore the possibilities together.