The Free Garden on Airport Road Is Getting a Night Shift

Starting this Sunday, Nov. 1, Sandhills Horticultural Gardens switches to winter hours and closes at 5 p.m. Less than four weeks later, on Nov. 27, the same gardens open again at 5 p.m. for the first Sandhills Garden of Lights, and they stay open until 10. It's the same 3245 Airport Road address and the same paths, but the evening garden runs on a different set of rules from the one that closed an hour earlier.

The daytime garden is a free teaching garden, run by Sandhills Community College for its students and open to anyone who walks in. The evening garden is ticketed, cashless and one-way, and it began as a tourism project. Running the two garden days side by side shows how much changes after 5 p.m.

The lights started as a tourism pitch

The Garden of Lights was proposed by Visit Pinehurst, Southern Pines, Aberdeen, Moore County's tourism agency. When the project was announced in June, its president and CEO Phil Werz said in a Sandhills Community College release, "We approached the college with the idea and they loved it."

The tourism agency is paying for more than the idea. When tickets went on sale Oct. 20, Germaine Elkins, the college's vice president for engagement, thanked Visit Pinehurst, Southern Pines, Aberdeen in the college's announcement for "funding support to secure the lighting units" and for supporting "marketing efforts to pull visitors from the surrounding counties to come visit the lights and Pinehurst." That fits the agency's job. The same June release says Moore County was the tenth-largest tourism economy in North Carolina in 2024, with $860 million in visitor spending that year.

The lights are being installed by Mosca Design of Youngsville, N.C., a holiday decorating company with more than four decades in the business. Its earlier displays include the Greensboro Science Center, the Cape Fear Botanical Gardens in Fayetteville and the Illuminights celebration in Roanoke, Va. Those are regional holiday draws, and the Pinehurst show is being built and marketed to work the same way.

Local businesses are backing it too. Penick Village is a Sapling Circle sponsor, MIX 101.5 WRAL-FM and Beasley Media Group are sponsoring, and Agri-Waste Technology is a Seedling Friend sponsor. Visit Pinehurst, Southern Pines, Aberdeen and the SCC Foundation are the presenting partners.

What the evening route covers

The display takes up about half of the Gardens' 34 acres. In daytime you can wander anywhere. At night the event runs one way, starting at the Ball Visitor Center and ending near Steed Hall, a walk of about 0.4 miles.

Along the way are more than one million lights, interactive glowing orbs in the middle of the Gardens, and a finale with a giant walk-through mushroom, oversized flowers and a rainbow caterpillar. The college says each display is timed to music.

A few logistics differ from a normal daytime visit:

• Parking moves to campus. Parking is free in the Sandhills Community College lots, and shuttles run between the lots and the event. At night, the lot next to the Ball Visitor Center is reserved for guests with disabilities and mobility needs.
• No golf carts. Wheelchairs and personal mobility scooters are fine on the route, but golf carts aren't allowed, and mobility devices aren't available to rent or borrow.
• No cash. The event is cashless, including hot chocolate and adult drinks.
• Time slots can fill. The college suggests buying tickets early through the official Garden of Lights page. Groups of 10 or more can call 910-695-3884.
• Rain doesn't cancel it. The event runs rain or shine. If the college closes for freezing rain, high winds or lightning, tickets are honored on another date and the primary ticket holder gets an email.

Some earlier listings show the run ending Jan. 10. The college's current event page says Jan. 9.

Santa nights

Santa is scheduled for these nights only. Weekend visits run 5:30 to 8:30 p.m., and most weeknight visits run 6:30 to 9:30 p.m.

1. Opening weekend, Nov. 27 to 29
2. Dec. 2, 4, 5, 6, 9, 10, 12, 13, 18 and 19
3. Dec. 26, 27 and 30
4. Jan. 2, 3, 6, 7, 8 and 9

The garden under the lights

The garden under the lights is older than the event and has a different job. Sandhills Horticultural Gardens was founded in 1978. The college's Landscape Gardening program is a decade older and started in 1968, five years after the college opened. The program calls the Gardens a living laboratory, and its students are required to complete field work on site.

The grounds hold 16 gardens. The first was the Ebersole Holly Garden, which at one point had 28 holly species and about 350 cultivars. The college's garden directory also lists the Sir Walter Raleigh Garden, the Atkins Hillside Garden and the Desmond Native Wetland Trail Garden. The Gardens are supported by volunteers and a Garden Society, and the college says more than 30 public events are held there each year.

The daytime rules stay the same through the light show season. Admission is free, pets aren't allowed, and smoking and alcohol aren't permitted. A December morning visit, with the Ebersole hollies in season, is the same free walk it has always been. It just ends at 5, when the ticketed garden opens.

Local groups can also help run the evening event. The college is recruiting volunteer groups for welcoming, parking, ticketing and hospitality on event nights. A group that sends 20 or more volunteers for its assigned night earns a $1,000 contribution, and 40 or more earns $2,500.

Today's dedication at the visitor center

The Gardens get a permanent addition before the lights go on. Today, Thursday, Oct. 29, at 10:30 a.m., the Moore County Tourism Development Authority dedicates a public artwork spelling out "home." It's mounted on the back wall of the visitor center, and the dedication is open to the public, according to the Sandhills Sentinel.

The artist is Luke Huling, a ceramic figure sculptor and associate professor at Sandhills Community College. He made the piece from North Carolina clay, and each letter carries sculpted plants and animals native to the Sandhills, including longleaf pine logs and cones, anoles and red-cockaded woodpeckers. In the Sentinel's report, Huling said the piece showcases "the animals native to the Sandhills where we share our home."

It's the second of five "HOME" installations tied to the tourism agency's advertising campaign. The first, by Starworks metal sculptor Mac Metz, was unveiled in downtown Robbins on Oct. 22. Dan Dreyer's mural for Aberdeen is scheduled for November. Grace Cathey is planning a steel piece near the Pik n Pig at Gilliam McConnell Airfield in Carthage, and Patrick Dougherty, known for woven-sapling sculptures, will build one at Reservoir Park in Southern Pines. Two of the five dedications are set for 2027.

So the same tourism agency is behind both of this fall's new additions at the Gardens. The clay sculpture is mounted on the visitor center itself. The light show is planned as an annual run, after the daytime garden closes, from late November into January.

If friends or family are coming to town for the holidays and you're working out how the Garden of Lights fits around Pinehurst's other December plans, I'm glad to share what I know about the Sandhills calendar. Reach out to Bill Sahadi at Fore Properties. Let's Connect.