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| Families love to explore Duke Gardens together. Photo by Bill Snead. |
Easter egg hunts are great fun in your home, but they can create problems in Duke Gardens. We want to remind visitors that Easter egg hunts are not permitted in Duke Gardens, and to offer some fun ways for visitors—particularly youngsters—to celebrate Easter and enjoy all springtime visits together.
Why no Easter egg hunts at Duke Gardens? We ask visitors to refrain from egg hunts so that we can keep the fragile plants in this botanic garden safe from excited little hands and feet searching high and low for eggs and candies. We also ask visitors to help protect wildlife, so animals and birds won't try to eat the large number of forgotten eggs and candies later. Many people are unaware that chocolate can be especially harmful to dogs, and we want visiting dogs to be safe, too.
What to do instead? We'd love to hear your ideas. Here are some of ours:
* Explore the Discovery Garden, a sustainable, organic food garden, to see fruits, vegetables and herbs getting their start for the season. You can also learn a lot about Earth science, chickens, and bees! We have lots of bee houses in the garden, and also a new bee observation hive where you can safely peer at the bees at work.
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| New bee observation hive at the Burpee Learning Center. Photos by Nick Schwab. |
* Play a game of Search with Your Eyes (not hands, please): Kids can have lots of fun looking all over the Gardens for signs of spring, from new buds to colorful blossoms. How many times can they find their favorite color? How about familiar shapes that appear in leaves and flowers? How many circles, triangles or squares can you find? If you visit our information desk before heading out into the Gardens, we'll give you a free Scavenger Hunt for young visitors to follow.
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| From beehouses to flowers, there are many cool shapes to observe throughout the Gardens. Photos by Nick Schwab and Cathi Bodine. |
* Fun activities to print out in advance: Plan your family visit ahead of time with the activities on our Self-Guided Garden Resources webpage.
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| Great blue heron and ducks. Photo by Jordan Montgomery. |
* Bird watch: From a great blue heron to a red-tailed hawk, ducks and many other species, lots of birds will be enjoying the spring weather in the Gardens this weekend. How many different birds can you spot? Any you've never seen before? Check out the informational signs at the Asiatic Arboretum Pond or the Bird Viewing Shelter in the Blomquist Garden of Native Plants, and you can write down species names to learn more about when you get home.
* Shutterbug Madness: We'd love to see your favorite photos that celebrate spring in Duke Gardens. Please share them on our Facebook page or on Instagram (tag us at #dukegardens).
*Easter Sunday Service: Join Duke Chapel Sunday for a 6:30 a.m. Easter Sunrise Service on the South Lawn of Duke Gardens. Please don't forget to bring a flashlight to help find your way to the lawn in the morning darkness, and a towel to wipe the dew from your chairs. If it rains, the services will be in Duke Chapel.
Thank you for joining us in celebrating spring and protecting the plants and animals that we all love.
Sarah P. Duke Gardens creates and nurtures an environment in the heart of Duke University for learning, inspiration and enjoyment through excellence in horticulture and community engagement. Duke Gardens is at 420 Anderson St.
