Enjoy Easter & Spring at Duke Gardens

Enjoy tulips and more during your spring visit
to Duke Gardens. Photo by Karen Webbink.

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 our visiting dogs to be safe, too. (In related news, please note that dogs are only permitted at Duke Gardens before 10 a.m. or after 5 p.m. More info here.)

What to do instead? We'd love to hear your ideas. Here are some of ours:

* 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.

* Explore the Discovery Garden to see blueberries, kale, chard, peas, mustard and other yummy foods being grown. For children who've only ever seen these foods on a plate or in a grocery store, seeing where the plants are "born" can be fun. Families can also visit the chickens in the Discovery Garden, so children may see where real eggs come from. The produce from this garden benefits local families through partnerships with Healthy Families Durham and the Food Bank of Central and Eastern North Carolina.  Please do not pick any part of these plants. We ask that you leave them for others to enjoy and learn from, and for the benefit of our community partners.

* Fun activities to print out in advance: Plan your family visit ahead of time with our self-guided family resources.

* Bird watch: From a great blue heron to a red-tailed hawk 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, on Instagram (@sarahpdukegardens or tag #dukegardens) or email them to dukegardensphotos@yahoo.com.

*Easter Sunday Service: Join Duke Chapel Sunday for a 6:30 a.m. Easter Sunrise Service on the South Lawn of Duke Gardens. If you're coming for the sunrise service, 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.

Spring Plant Sale Preview: Bluestar

Amsonia 'Blue Ice'

By Annie Yang T'20

Amsonia 'Blue Ice'

Spring is finally here, but just in case you miss the cooler colors of winter, bluestar (Amsonia) ‘Blue Ice’ may be the plant for you! Even in a genus known for its showy, ornamental plants, ‘Blue Ice,’ with its large clusters of dark lavender blue flowers, stands out even among other bluestars.

Amsonia ‘Blue Ice’ grows well in moist, well-drained, and loamy soil and in full sun to partial shade. Especially in hotter climates, ‘Blue Ice’ will appreciate the reprieve of some afternoon shade to help its flowers last longer. However, even ‘Blue Ice’ needs some sun, as its stems may topple over in too much shade. This perennial is relatively easy to maintain and does not need to be cut back after flowering, and it generally does not need staking or support either.

Amsonia 'Hubrechtii'

‘Blue Ice’ works well when massed along borders, in cottage gardens, and in open woodland areas. As temperatures warm up, the spring blooms of this plant will keep a little piece of winter alive in your gardens.

Look for ‘Blue Ice’ at our Spring Plant Sale on Saturday, along with the equally beautiful ‘Illustris,’ ‘Elliptica’ and ‘Hubrichtii’.

Photos courtesy of Walters Gardens.

SPRING PLANT SALE DETAILS:
Date: Saturday, March 30, 2019
Time: 8 a.m.-noon
Members-only preview sale:  4-6 p.m. Friday, March 29

Member benefits: Duke Gardens members get 10% off all purchases, plus access to the members-only preview sale and a full list of plants in advance! Join online or on site.
Parking: Free during the sale.
Pets not permitted. Please see Duke Gardens' pets policy here.
Wagons + boxes: Our supply is limited; please bring your own if possible, and you'll have more time to spend gathering beautiful plants.
Your support helps Duke Gardens to provide summer internships to aspiring horticulturists from across the nation. Thank you!
Please see our event page for more information, and we'd love for you to spread the word by sharing our Facebook event page and inviting your Facebook friends.

Spring Plant Sale Preview: Coral Bells

Heuchera 'Apple Twist'

By Annie Yang T’20

Coral bells (Heuchera) 'Apple Twist’
As the seasons change, the colors of Heuchera ‘Apple Twist’ capture the whole spectrum of reds, yellows, and greens of crisp, fresh apples. In the spring, ‘Apple Twist’ leaves emerge with a red hue like Honeycrisp or Fuji apples. Over time, the leaves of these coral bells lighten to yellow green and then a full Granny Smith green in the summer.

A relatively easy plant to care for, ‘Apple Twist’ grows best in partial to full shade and acidic, well-drained soil. Much like apples, Heuchera ‘Apple Twist’ attracts pollinators such as butterflies, hummingbirds and bees, while also being resistant to deer. This plant works well as a border plant or in containers, but its changing colors also make it suitable as a focal point in any garden.

Heuchera 'Black Pearl'

'Black Pearl’
The combination of its glossy, jet-black foliage, purple undersides, and pink flowers makes this Heuchera cultivar a stunning show-stopper. While some Heucheras will bleach and lighten in color with too much exposure to the sun, ‘Black Pearl’ retains its striking color even in full sun. However, especially in warmer climates, this plant benefits from partial to full shade.

Heuchera ‘Black Pearl’ is a villosa hybrid, which is a late-blooming species with increased heat and humidity tolerance. ‘Black Pearl’ will grow best with average amounts of moisture, and drier soils will prevent rotting and also deter slugs. Cut back the previous year’s foliage in early spring to allow room for new growth of this intensely colored perennial.

‘Black Pearl’ is quite versatile and can fill a number of different roles in a garden. It works well in larger containers that can accommodate its dense leaves, or as a landscape plant. ‘Black Pearl’ can be paired up with brightly colored plants that bring out the full intensity of its dark leaves, or it can be accompanied by purples and violets for a more monochromatic but no less vibrant look.

‘Autumn Bride’

Heuchera 'Autumn Bride'

With its tall clouds of white flowers that bloom from August through September, this Heuchera cultivar certainly does seem reminiscent of a bride all dressed in white. Its flowering is one of the largest in the genus—this plant pulls out all the stops. What’s more, the foliage of Heuchera ‘Autumn Bride’ is velvety to the touch, much like the fine quality of a bride’s gown.

Especially in southern climates, ‘Autumn Bride’ thrives in the shade and in well-drained soils that are moderately moist. This easy-care cultivar fares better than most Heucheras in hot and humid summers, and it has good drought tolerance and is deer resistant.

Its 2-foot stalks with white blooms really stand out when planted in groups or massed, and they make lovely cut flowers. ‘Autumn Bride’ can also be wedded to other plants to create exciting foliage contrast and combinations.

Photos courtesy of Walters Gardens & Lurie Garden.

SPRING PLANT SALE DETAILS:
Date: Saturday, March 30, 2019
Time: 8 a.m.-noon
Members-only preview sale:  4-6 p.m. Friday, March 29
Member benefits: Duke Gardens members get 10% off all purchases, plus access to the members-only preview sale and a full list of plants in advance! Join online or on site.
Parking: Free during the sale.
Pets not permitted. Please see Duke Gardens' pets policy here.
Wagons + boxes: Our supply is limited; please bring your own if possible, and you'll have more time to spend gathering beautiful plants.
Your support helps Duke Gardens to provide summer internships to aspiring horticulturists from across the nation. Thank you!
Please see our event page for more information, and we'd love for you to spread the word by sharing our Facebook event page and inviting your Facebook friends.

Spring Plant Sale Preview: Peonies

'Felix Crouse' peony

By Katherine Hale

It wouldn’t be a Spring Plant Sale here at Duke Gardens without a wide variety of peonies available for your gardening pleasure. Depending on the weather and cultivar in question, these showy standouts bloom anytime between Mother’s Day and Memorial Day, offering an excellent way to honor those special people in your life.

Beloved by Chinese scholars and French Impressionists alike, peonies have a pedigree that spans over a thousand years of cultivation and appreciation, and they add character and class to every garden. In addition to old favorites like 'Sarah Bernhardt’, this year we’ll be offering another classic selection, ‘Felix Crouse’.

Known in the trade as a bomb-type double, ‘Felix Crouse’ blooms are a massive explosion of raspberry red petals with a silky texture and pleasant fragrance. First exhibited in France in 1881, ‘Felix Crouse’ is a top of the line selection that can live for up to 50 years, and it only improves with age. A bouquet of these beauties can last over a week if flowers are cut in the bud, or you can leave them on the plant to dazzle humans and butterflies alike, while pesky rabbits and deer keep their distance.

Like all peonies, ‘Felix Crouse’ will never need dividing, and it responds poorly to transplanting, so proper siting is critical for its longevity and success. Rich, well-drained soils in full sun or light afternoon shade are best, and keep it away from trees and shrubs that will compete with it for water and nutrients. Large, heavy blooms may require staking to remain upright, particularly in heavy rains. Aside from these details, ‘Felix Crouse’ is trouble-free, and equally at home in an informal hedge, the back of a perennial border, or as a beloved specimen plant.

Our peony lineup also includes ‘Bartzella’, ‘Bowl of Beauty’, ‘Festiva Maxima’ and ‘Red Magic’, and possibly a few additional surprises.  Come out and see for yourself which ones strike your fancy—with thousands of alluring cultivars commercially available, you never know what might turn up!

Photo courtesy of thesitegardener.com.


SPRING PLANT SALE DETAILS:
Date: Saturday, March 30, 2019
Time: 8 a.m.-noon
Members-only preview sale:  4-6 p.m. Friday, March 29
Member benefits: Duke Gardens members get 10% off all purchases, plus access to the members-only preview sale and a full list of plants in advance! Join online or on site.
Parking: Free during the sale.
Pets not permitted. Please see Duke Gardens' pets policy here.
Wagons + boxes: Our supply is limited; please bring your own if possible, and you'll have more time to spend gathering beautiful plants.
Your support helps Duke Gardens to provide summer internships to aspiring horticulturists from across the nation. Thank you!
Please see our event page for more information, and we'd love for you to spread the word by sharing our Facebook event page and inviting your Facebook friends.

Plant Sale Preview: Why Plant in Fall?

By Sheon Wilson

Publications coordinator

Fall is the best time to plant a garden, whether you have a vegetable garden, perennial garden, shrubs or trees. It’s prime time to improve your landscape, and Duke Gardens Fall Plant Sale this Saturday will help you meet that goal.

From herbs to shrubs, we'll have a wide variety of plants
that are ideal for this region. Photo by Cecilia Xie

The sale will include plants propagated by Duke Gardens staff and volunteers, along with bulbs, trees, vegetables, shrubs and other delights from local suppliers. Our well-received “Herb Garden in a Box” discount deal is back by popular demand, as well as dorm-friendly succulents and other plants perfect for students. Duke Gardens members will receive 10 percent off every purchase.

Getting your plants into the ground now will give them a strong head start to a healthy spring and summer.

“We are getting into the cooler season, when plants go dormant and put more energy into their root systems,” says Jason Holmes, curator of the Doris Duke Center Gardens. “The root systems are easier to establish during the fall and winter months.”

A complex underground network, roots go into resting mode in the winter, minimizing the basic processes that sustain a plant. The falling temperatures and reduced daylight cause the upper part of a plant to stop growing and enter a state of suspended animation. Without leaves to photosynthesize and make food, the plant’s roots live off of stored sugars.

Plant your tulip bulbs in fall for a spring spectacle.
Photo by Bobby Mottern.

The roots’ ability to sustain life year-round benefits the entire plant. In fall, the soil is warm from summer sun, so the roots can expand with ease until the soil freezes, and thereafter grow more slowly.  In springtime, the plant is prepared to send energy back out to the extremities so blooming can begin. And the roots will have more strength to withstand  often harsh summer soil conditions.

In the Terrace Gardens, horticulturists usually maintain the summer beds through mid-October, and then pull weaker plants and fill the beds with fall color, said Mike Owens, curator of the Historic Gardens.

Use that tip to improve your garden. Remove annuals that have been ravaged by the summer sun and replace them with a splash of color, perhaps some showy and resilient chrysanthemums.

Plant in fall to get a healthy start on a strong
root  system, like that our dawn redwood.

We’ll have gorgeous plants for a variety of garden styles and conditions, and our expert horticulturists and volunteers will be happy to advise you on the best fit for your garden conditions and for the time and energy you have (or don’t have!) to spend caring for your plants. We look forward to seeing you at the sale, and to giving your plants the healthy head start they need. 

Fall Plant Sale details:

Date: Saturday, Sept. 30, 2017
Time: 8 a.m.-noon
Membership benefit: Duke Gardens members get 10% off! Join now or on site.
Parking: Free.
Pets not permitted
Wagons + boxes: Our supply is limited; please bring your own if possible, and you'll have more time to spend gathering beautiful plants.
Please see our event page for more information, and we'd love for you to spread the word on Facebook. Thank you!

Fall Plant Sale: Dorm Plants + Student Giveaway

By Annie Yang
Duke T'20

Air plants are a perfect
low-maintenance plant for
students. Photo by Beth Hall.

Duke Gardens can be a wonderful respite from the rigors of Duke student life, with its beautiful landscapes to stroll through and lovely plants to admire and learn about. But students are increasingly recognizing the benefits of plants even in the confines of their tiny dorm rooms and apartments.

Duke Gardens’ Fall Plant Sale on Saturday will celebrate this healthy trend by featuring succulents and other plants that thrive indoors with low maintenance. And if you’re one of the first 75 students at the sale, which runs from 8 a.m. to noon, you’ll receive a free air plant. 

A dramatic air plant display
at Duke Gardens.

Taking care of air plants is somewhat different from other plants you may be used to growing, but once you get the hang of it, they shouldn’t be too much of a hassle. Air plants are the common name for plants of the Tillandsia genus and they get their name because they don’t require soil to grow. Their roots are not for soaking up water but instead attaching onto pretty much any surface—trees, rocks, seashells and more.

There’s plenty of room for creativity and imagination in displaying your air plant. Whether it’s in a terrarium, a mason jar or a hanging air plant rack holder, there’s a lot of room for creativity and imagination in displaying your air plant. Place them near a window to get bright, indirect light and good air circulation too.

But air plants can’t survive on sunlight and air alone. Every week or so, remove your air plant from whatever you’ve chosen to attach it to and soak it in room temperature water for about 20 to 30 minutes. After it’s soaked, gently shake your plant to remove excess water—sitting water can cause rot and harm or kill your air plant. Set it out to dry with the leaves facing down, and within four hours, or about when you get back from class, the plant should be completely dry and ready to be returned to its container. If you nurture your air plant, it may even bloom in wonderful colors—a once in a lifetime event for each plant.

Cristina Lai's low-maintenance succulent plant.

You can also expand your succulent collection at Saturday’s sale. Senior Cristina Lai got her succulent because having greenery in her room “brightens up the space and makes it feel more homey rather than temporary,” she says. Succulent-focused events at DuWell, Duke’s student wellness center, always draw an enthusiastic crowd. Justin Sharpe, a student development coordinator for DuWell, says students like the sense of responsibility in being able to “make something, call it their own, and take care of it all at the same time.”

Of course, taking care of succulents is low-maintenance and low-stress—you won’t need to panic too much if you’ve forgotten to water them for a few days or even a week or so. The key to taking care of succulents is to wait until the soil is completely dry and then soak them. If you’ve put your succulent in a pot with drainage holes, water the plant until water runs out of the holes. But if you don’t have a container with drainage, don’t worry. You can add pebble or sand layers to your soil to help with drainage, or tip the container to let the excess water run out.

So even with midterm season ahead, with its never-ending piles of work, these dorm-loving plants will be one less thing to worry about and one more thing to ground you.

Fall Plant Sale details:

Air plants look great together!

Date: Saturday, Sept. 30, 2017
Time: 8 a.m.-noon
Membership benefit: Duke Gardens members get 10% off! Join now or on site.
Student air plant giveaway: Each student will receive one air plant during the sale, while supplies last. Students must show a current Duke ID to qualify.
Parking: Free.
Pets not permitted
Wagons + boxes: Our supply is limited; please bring your own if possible, and you'll have more time to spend gathering beautiful plants.
Please see our event page for more information, and we'd love for you to spread the word on Facebook. Thank you!

Fall Plant Sale Preview: Wintersweet

Wintersweet (Chimonanthus praecox).
Photo by Paul Jones.

By Paul Jones
Curator, Culberson Asiatic Arboretum

To be precocious is to develop earlier than might be expected. In the garden this adjective may be used to describe certain plants that come into flower while Mother Nature is still enforcing the chill of mid-winter.

Witchhazels (Hamamelis spp.) are well-known shrubs that often display this tendency. Japanese apricot (Prunus mume), another. A less familiar shrub, but one that is certainly a favorite among those privy to its charms, is Chimonanthus praecox, or wintersweet.

As the scientific name implies, wintersweet is precocious (the Latin praecox meaning early ripening). And as the common name implies, the flowers are sweetly fragrant—in the winter. And fragrant it is! As one person’s comments I read about this species put it, “there is truly nothing like it.” Just delightful.

Wintersweet is native to China and belongs to the plant family Calycanthaceae—the same family that our prized spring flowering native sweetshrub (aka sweet Betsy or Carolina allspice) Calycanthus floridus belongs to. Wintersweet has translucent multi-petaled yellow flowers, about an inch or so in diameter when fully opened, produced in great abundance. Typically the flowers remain unscathed through some pretty cold temperatures.

Winter flowering shrubs are often intensely fragrant, presumed so because of the scarcity of pollinators during the cold. Perhaps humans are displacing hibernating insects as the primary pollinator of wintersweet as we greedily bury our noses deep into flower after flower, savoring its most glorious scent.

We'll have wintersweet and more at our Fall Plant Sale on Saturday, Sept. 30, 2017, from 8 a.m. to noon. Hope to see you here!

This plant highlight originally appeared in Duke Gardens' Flora magazine.

Fall Plant Sale details:

Date: Saturday, Sept. 30, 2017
Time: 8 a.m.-noon
Membership benefit: Duke Gardens members get 10% off! Join online or on site.
Parking: Free.
Pets not permitted
Wagons + boxes: Our supply is limited; please bring your own if possible, and you'll have more time to spend gathering beautiful plants.
Please see our event page for more information, and we'd love for you to spread the word on Facebook. Thank you!

Fall Plant Sale Preview: Climbing Aster

By Jason Holmes
Curator, Doris Duke Center Gardens

I am always interested in cool climbers, and climbing aster, known to us botanical types as Ampelaster carolinianus, is one of the coolest I know.

The prefix ampel means climbing; thus we have the genus “climbing aster.” This deciduous semi-woody plant grows long vine-like stems. These 6- to 8-foot-long sprawling stems may be attached to a trellis, arbors or fences, or allowed to ramble through shrubs. Unlike other vines, it has no way to attach itself, so it relies on whatever may be its closest garden companions.

Ampelaster is native to lowland marshes and moist areas throughout Florida and a few isolated coastal counties in Georgia, South Carolina and North Carolina. Easily adaptable to our garden soils, this climber thrives in full sun and has grown magnificently wherever I have planted it.

Its best attribute is its striking floral display during the fall. Like clockwork, climbing aster is covered with clusters of 1-inch flowers in November. I often recall these beautiful blooms because Ampelaster is one of the few plants blooming when leaves are changing to their autumn colors. The flowers have pinkish to purple ray petals that radiate out from the vivid yellow-orange disk flowers in the center. I have found this species to be a great late season nectar source for monarch butterflies and other native pollinators.

We'll have climbing aster and more at our Fall Plant Sale on Saturday, Sept. 30, 2017, from 8 a.m. to noon. Hope to see you here!

This plant highlight originally appeared in Duke Gardens' Flora magazine.

Fall Plant Sale details:

Date: Saturday, Sept. 30, 2017
Time: 8 a.m.-noon
Membership benefit: Duke Gardens members get 10% off! Join online or on site.
Parking: Free.
Pets not permitted
Wagons + boxes: Our supply is limited; please bring your own if possible, and you'll have more time to spend gathering beautiful plants.
Please see our event page for more information, and we'd love for you to spread the word on Facebook. Thank you!

Plant Sale Preview: See Fall Beauties in Person

Hedychium coronarium, or white ginger lily.
Photo by Jason Holmes.

By Rose James
Duke T'20

Shopping at Duke Gardens' Fall Plant Sale can require a bit of imagination sometimes: you plant these bulbs near this tree and that shrub, anticipating what they will all look and smell like many months from now.

But for fall beauties, you don't have to wait. Simply take a stroll through Duke Gardens right now, and you can get a preview of some of the delights we'll have waiting for you at our Sept. 30 sale.

Start by following your nose to Osmanthus fragrans, also known as the fragrant tea olive. Visitors can never get enough of this vibrant plant's intoxicating scent, and they always want to know more about it. Native to the Himalayas, China and Japan, this is a hardy plant with an exceptionally long bloom period, up to two months during the fall. It can grow up to 30 feet tall, although the typical height ranges from 10 to 12 feet. You can find fragrant tea olives blooming in various areas of Duke Gardens. If you are near it, you will not be able to miss its amazing smell. You can read more about it in this fall 2016 blog post.

The Osmanthus fortunei will also be featured at the plant sale. It is commonly known as fortune's tea olive, and it produces small, white flowers during the fall. It is a fragrant evergreen that is particularly resistant to deer. Bigger than the typical Osmanthus fragrans, fortune's osmanthus can grow to be 15 to 20 feet tall and equally wide. It does well in sun and shade gardens, and it is drought resistant. If you are looking for a hardy yet sweet-smelling plant to enhance your garden, look no further than the Osmanthus fortunei.

Muhlenbergia capillaris.
Photo by Jason Holmes.

The Hedychium coronarium, called the white ginger lily, is an herbacious perennial native to the Himalayas that flowers from August to October. It is a fan-favorite for showy, fragrant flowers. With blooms said to resemble white butterflies, the white ginger lily is an excellent addition to any garden that gets full sun or partial shade. The lily will grow to be 3 to 6 feet tall with a spread of 2 to 3 feet. It can be found along the banks of North Pond (just south of Yearby Avenue) in the Asiatic Arboretum. Follow your nose, and you are sure to find it.

Another plant currently in its dazzling season is Muhlenbergia capillaris, commonly called pink muhly grass. This is a perennial Asian grass that grows to be 2 to 3 feet tall and equally wide. This is a low maintenance plant that has a gorgeous spread of pink flowers in the fall months. It is a wonderful addition to any garden that gets full sun or partial shade, and when it is not in bloom, it features glossy green leaves and stems, making it beautiful year-round. You can see this grass in the Doris Duke Center Gardens, including on the hillside adjoining the lower parking lot.

Callicarpa cathayana. Photo by Rose James.

If you are looking for color for your garden, you need to check out Callicarpa cathayana -- also called beautyberry, and for good reason. This is a deciduous shrub that grows to be 4 to 8 feet tall and 3 to 6 feet wide. Like the pink muhly grass, the beautyberry is best suited to full sun or partial shade gardens, and it is low maintenance. The real treasure of this plant is its plentiful purple berries, preceded by pink and purple flowers. This plant will attract birds in the fall, when the berries emerge. It is a must-see in Duke Gardens.

We hope your Duke Gardens visit whets your appetite for the vast array of plants we'll have at the Fall Plant Sale. Our expert horticulturists will be happy to talk to you about ideal plants for your garden conditions and gardening style. Duke Gardens members will get 10 percent off all purchases -- you may join in advance or on site. We look forward to seeing you here!


Fall Plant Sale details:

Date: Saturday, Sept. 30, 2017
Time: 8 a.m.-noon
Membership benefit: Duke Gardens members get 10% off! Join now or on site.
Parking: Free.
Pets not permitted
Wagons & boxes: Our supply is limited; please bring your own if possible, and you'll have more time to spend gathering beautiful plants.
Please see our event page for more information, and we'd love for you to spread the word on Facebook. Thank you!

Fall Plant Sale Preview: Musa velutina

Musa velutina. Photo by Jason Holmes.

By Jason Holmes
Doris Duke Center Gardens Curator

One of my absolute favorites among the hardy bananas is the Pink Velvet. From northeastern India, Musa velutina forms a stunning clump of large leaves that reach to 8 feet high. A spike of flowers develops atop the pseudostems, and by mid-summer the spike of flowers becomes a mass of attractive bright pink, velvety bananas. This is where the word “velutina” translates to “velvety banana.”

These bananas are very small and seedy, and I imagine that they would not provide a substantial source of calories. In November, the pink bananas burst open to reveal a white interior that from a distance makes them look like they are flowering again.

The Pink Velvet banana thrives in our heat and humidity and does well with good moisture and lots of sun or even the high canopy of trees. Though Musa velutina is hardy to zone 7b, it may be best protected with a pile of leaves during the winter.

The Pink Velvet banana is a true hardy tropical for the summer landscape and will leave many gardeners asking, “What’s that?” We'll have this gorgeous plant and more at our Fall Plant Sale on Saturday, Sept. 30, 2017, from 8 a.m. to noon. Hope to see you here!

This plant highlight originally appeared in Duke Gardens' Flora magazine.

Fall Plant Sale details:

Date: Saturday, Sept. 30, 2017
Time: 8 a.m.-noon
Membership benefit: Duke Gardens members get 10% off! Join online or on site.
Parking: Free.
Pets not permitted
Wagons & boxes: Our supply is limited; please bring your own if possible, and you'll have more time to spend gathering beautiful plants.
Please see our event page for more information, and we'd love for you to spread the word on Facebook. Thank you!

The Beauty of Autumn – and the Science Behind It

By Ashley Wong (T'16)

Culberson Asiatic Arboretum

Anyone who has taken a stroll through Duke Gardens within the past few weeks can resoundingly attest that fall is in full swing.

Now that the foliage has taken an autumnal turn and the air holds a pre-winter crispness, you may have wondered about the processes governing nature’s lovely color transformation that we witness at this time every year. It’s a phenomenon poignant enough to have inspired countless works of literature by writers and philosophers -- so poignant that renowned autumn-enthusiast Henry David Thoreau notably wrote an entire journal chronicling his observations of autumnal beauty as an homage to the season.

The Spring Woodland Garden

Unsurprisingly, the transformation of green leaves into sundry shades of red, orange, yellow, and brown has evolved into a particularly lucrative tourist attraction over the years. Autumn-inspired tourism, an activity so prominent that it has earned the name “leaf peeping tourism,” brings in approximately $1 billion dollars in revenue to North Carolina each year, a sizable chunk of its more than $20 billion dollar annual tourism income. Luckily for us, North Carolina seems to be a prime location for admiring fall foliage.

Blomquist Garden. Photo by Micaela Unda.

So what are the biochemical processes that lead to this revenue-boosting spectacle? Stefan Bloodworth, curator of the Blomquist Garden, recently presented a lecture on the biochemistry of fall color for Duke Gardens volunteers. He says that the onset of fall color is essentially a signal that photosynthesis has ended for the year.

As the number of daylight hours dwindles, the energy cost of photosynthesizing begins to climb, since the inputs of sunlight and warmth that are necessary for photosynthesis are no longer steadily coming in. Thus, plants are triggered to stop producing chlorophyll, which absorbs red and blue light and reflects the leafy green for us to see. In addition, the plant grows a corky membrane between the leaf and the tree, essentially cutting off support of the leaf. At this point, we begin to see pigments that have been there throughout the growing season but were masked by chlorophyll the rest of the year.

One class of pigments, carotenoids, helps enhance the annual photosynthetic process by allowing the leaf to absorb light from the blue spectrum. Carotenoids have an additional part to play as well: acting in a photoprotective role throughout the growing season. Carotenoids protect leaves by cleaning up free oxygen radicals within the leaf. Also, as the level of sunlight declines, excess energy can build up and harm the leaf; carotenoids help in dissipating that energy as heat. This class of pigments is predominantly responsible for the vibrant orange and yellow hues associated with autumn foliage. 

But what about the purple and red colors? Anthocyanins, another class of pigments, are responsible for those hues, and they also emerge after photosynthesis ends and chlorophyll is no longer present. These pigments absorb blue-green light wavelengths, allowing the red wavelengths to be visible to us as red. Anthocyanins are also integral to photoprotection, acting as light screens to modulate light absorption and minimize the damage from too much sunlight. We have these molecules to thank for our visual and emotional pleasure every autumn. 

So even as the end of fall semester approaches and work inevitably begins to pile up (mercilessly so), take a minute to step outside and absorb the brilliant autumn coloration surrounds you – believe me, it’ll be worth it.

Japanese maple in the Historic Gardens. Photo by Lori Sullivan.

Blogger Ashley Wong is a Duke senior majoring in environmental studies, with minors in biology and visual & media studies. She is also a Duke Gardens work-study marketing assistant. All photos by Ashley Wong except where noted.