One of the grandest (and oldest) riad spectacles can be found at the Place des Ferblantiers, a small and lively square south of the medina, where the ancient Bab Berrima archway frames a ceremonial courtyard decorated with pools and sunken gardens from a 16th-century palace that once belonged to the Sultan Ahmad al-Mansur.

The sprawling walled gardens of La Mamounia, perhaps Marrakech’s finest old hotel, are also designed to stop you in your tracks. Throughout its dramatic outdoor estate, bright red outdoor art installations in the shape of cacti are blended in with Moroccan tile-laden pathways, keyhole arches, burbling fountains, Barbary fig trees, centuries-old olive orchards, geraniums, and jacaranda — all against a backdrop of the snowcapped Atlas Mountains.

The most famous garden in Marrakech, Jardin Majorelle is named for the French painter and his signature shade of blue, which designer Yves Saint Laurent and his partner Pierre Bergé purchased in 1980. The fashion designer not only restored the garden’s dozens of cacti species and towering bamboo, he lived on its grounds until his death in 2008. A memorial to the designer, a simple plinth surrounded by potted spider plants, lies near the garden’s entrance.

From Jemaa el-Fna, a main square and marketplace in the medina quarter, dusty twists and turns down alleyways populated by speeding cyclists and alley cats eventually leads you to an empty dead end, save for an innocuous wooden door. Inside lies the Riad Mena, a restored seven-room gem situated around a central courtyard teeming with citrus-hybrid trees, jasmine vines, a pool guarded by banana leaves, and scattered fountains with rose heads floating in their turquoise tiled basins.

A plant paradise is found at the Royal Mansour Marrakech, a hotel owned by the king of Morocco. The property recently expanded its outdoor grounds by nearly 130,000 square feet with pomegranate trees, nursery beds, and greens for the hotel’s garden-to-table outdoor restaurant, Le Jardin. Follow the endless rows of hedgings and blossoming orange trees deep into the garden and discover Atelier d’Artiste, an artists studio in a sculptural glass greenhouse that hosts resident painters and artisans.