SFA Gardens

SFA Gardens began in 1985 as a one-quarter-acre living laboratory beside the Agriculture Building, a place for horticulture students to learn. The university now counts six themed gardens on 138 acres, with nearly seven miles of trails, and says the collections have earned Nacogdoches the title Garden Capital of Texas. The gardens are free and open daily from dawn to dusk.

The Mast Arboretum covers 10 acres along Lanana Creek and holds more than 7,500 different plants, which the university calls the oldest university arboretum in Texas. Daffodil Hill blooms February through May, and the Japanese maples color from October to December. The Ruby M. Mize Azalea Garden was cut out of an overgrown loblolly pine forest beginning in the winter of 1997 and dedicated in April 2000; its peak bloom runs March to May. The Pineywoods Native Plant Center is a 40-acre living laboratory with a Lady Bird Johnson wildflower demonstration garden, a Blueberry Hill with more than 60 varieties and a muscadine vineyard whose fruit peaks in September.

The university's map lists the gardens at 2900 Raguet Street and 936-468-4404. Much of the system sits among campus lots; the Baldcypress Collection, for one, runs along Lanana Creek behind the Hall 20 parking lot, so park on campus and walk.