How far are you willing to travel? My personal favorite is in Mobile Alabama about 2 1/2 hrs from Baton Rouge. There are interesting gardens in Avery Island and Jefferson Island south of Lafayette Louisiana about 1 1/2 hrs from Baton Rouge.

I am sure that residents of Baton Rouge have their hidden gems that they may be willing to share with you.

Good luck and enjoy your trip.

Longue Vue Gardens in New Orleans is open to the public (for admission) and the Audubon Zoo is landscaped nicely in New Orleans, which are only a little over an hour from Baton Rouge. If you check out East and West Feliciana Parishes on the Internet, they have several beautiful plantations including the Myrtles, which might also have gardens. These parishes are about 40 minutes north of Baton Rouge.

Thanks you for the helpful information

The Botanic Garden on Independence Blvd. in Baton Rouge is free and open to the public.

LSU's Burden Research center and Windrush Gardens are on Essen Lane in Baton Rouge. Here's their websites (the 1st one has the best info, and the 2nd one has the map):
http://www.lsuagcenter.com/inst/research/stations/burden/index.asp
http://www.lsuagcenter.com/nav/locations/research/research.asp?id=2

Also, you might want to check out this link. Some of the plantation homes have nice gardens:
http://www.crt.state.la.us/crt/tourism/maps/getmap.htm

Zemurray Gardens is supposed to be really nice and is not too far from Baton Rouge (lived here all my life, but I've never been). Here's their website:
h ttp://www.cr.nps.gov/nr/travel/louisiana/zem.htm

Hope this helps!

The Burden Research station/rural life museum is a good choice as its right next to the interstate. Its not a public garden per se, but there is a large rose garden (or testing plot?), a ginger garden right across from that (though there won't be too much in bloom in may), furthur down i think they put in a huge camelia collection and then there is the rural life museum part as well. The property is 300 acres I think, parts are the museum's area with the old slave cabins etc, parts are the research station's stuff, and then the different collections/gardens are run by different groups I believe.

Hilltop arboretum is in B.R. as well with mostly natives in a natural setting.

The Baton Rouge botanic garden has a rose garden, herb garden, louisiana iris collection (may still have some in bloom in may) and a few other things.

I think all of those above are free and easy to get to etc if you have limited time to travel and you could do all three in a day easily.

Tim Chapman