Cypress Gardens, Botanical garden and park in Berkeley County, South Carolina.

Cypress Gardens is a botanical garden and park in South Carolina featuring a network of pathways through blackwater swamps where cypress trees and native plants grow in still, dark waters. The grounds combine wooden boardwalks with waterways that allow visitors to move through different landscape zones while observing the dense vegetation and natural water systems.

The land was part of the 1750 Dean Hall rice plantation, which drew fresh water from the Cooper River; the future swamp was dug out and fitted with water gates as a reservoir. Benjamin Kittredge bought the disused property in 1909 as a duck hunting reserve. During the Great Depression more than 200 workers laid 4.5 miles of trails, and the gardens opened to the public in 1931. Kittredge's son donated the property to the City of Charleston on June 1, 1963.

The swamp is explored by flat-bottom boat or on foot, and plantings around it include a camellia garden, a daylily island, a small rice field and a rose garden. The Swamparium, opened in 1998, holds about 24,000 US gallons of water with native and exotic fish, reptiles and amphibians, among them local venomous snakes and large aquatic salamanders called sirens. An aviary keeps African grey parrots and a sulfur-crested cockatoo that were former pets, and the Butterfly House of 1997 covers 2,500 square feet with butterflies, birds, koi, goldfish and turtles.

The swamp is explored either by flat-bottom boat or on foot; the trail network runs 4.5 miles (7.2 km) around the water. Boat and foot routes are separate, so plan which one you want before setting out. The paths pass plantings such as azaleas, camellias, daffodils and a small rice field, and picnic tables are available on the grounds.

More than 16 major films and television series have been shot here, among them The Patriot, Cold Mountain, The Notebook, North and South and Swamp Thing. The flat-bottom boats and flooded cypress stands gave crews swamp settings without built sets.