Duke Gardens greeting cards are here!

Duke Gardens' 2010 greeting cards are in, and they're available for sale at the Terrace Shop -- a fantastic gift for your nature-loving friends and family.

The first four images below come in a 12-pack of 4x6 cards for $10. The final image is our winter scene, which you can buy as individual 5x7 cards for $2.

If you're a Duke student or employee, you can get 20 percent off those prices during the holiday sale through Dec. 23. (That applies to our 2011 wall calendar, too. See a PDF preview.) Be sure to bring your i.d.

Ayamebashi (Iris Bridge) in the W.L. Culberson Asiatic Arboretum. Photo by Lee Capps.

Wisteria-covered Pergola in the Terrace Gardens.
Photo by Alice Le Duc.

Great blue heron in the Virtue Peace Pond in the Doris Duke Center Gardens.
Photo by Tamara Kilbane.

Bird-Watching Shelter in the H.L. Blomquist Garden of Native Plants.
Photo by Ed Albrecht.

Blomquist Gate House. Photo by Rick Fisher.

Doris Duke Center Holiday Decorations

If you're looking for some holiday cheer, the Doris Duke Center has an array of festive and unusual trees for you to see.

Each year, five local organizations are assigned to one tree each, with an overarching theme and sub-themes. The main theme this year is A Potager Garden Holiday.

The first photos below from decorating day are of the tree made by the Durham Woman's Club, with a fruit theme. This tree is in the center's lobby, so if there's an event in the Kirby Horton Hall that prevents you from seeing the other trees up close, you'll definitely get to see this one.

Below is the fruit tree topper.

The Heritage Garden Club worked on an herbal theme, with rosemary mini-wreaths and even beads made from herbs, all seen below.

And here's their topper.

The local chapter of Ikebana International worked on a flower theme.

They even made little origami cranes.

And here's their topper.

The Treyburn Garden Club's theme was pollinators. They had lots of fun with it.

Here's their hive topper.

The Duke Campus Club worked on our fifth tree, with a vegetable theme. Check out the beets, turnips and carrots and -- what do you expect with carrots nearby? -- a rabbit!

And their topper.

You can see these trees anytime during visitor center hours, as long as there's not an event going on in the Kirby Horton Hall. (The center is closed on Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, New Year's Eve and New Year's Day.) Call 684-3698 if you want to check the event schedule in advance. We'll take them down on Jan. 5.

A big thanks from Duke Gardens to all the artistic minds who put together such an imaginative selection of themed trees. And we also thank the many generous and devoted Duke Gardens volunteers who helped put up the trees and decorate the center. This festive scene is spreading lots of joy to visitors and staff alike.

(For more holiday cheer, please check out our new greeting cards. They include a 12-pack of 4 garden shots, and a 5x7 card sold singly with a Blomquist Garden snow scene.)

Duke Gardens: holiday decorations class photos

Our holiday decorations class was great fun, especially with the winter wonderland developing outside the cozy & pine-scented classroom.

If you couldn't make it but still want to make your own winter centerpiece, here are a few tips. And below is some visual inspiration, photos of students working on their decorations, as well as some beautiful examples that instructors Michelle Rawlins and Harry Jenkins created.

(Above are two a student-made decorations.
And below are those by our instructors,
showing the huge variety in what you can create.)