The Blomquist Garden of Native Plants: A Museum in the Woods

The Blomquist Pavilion. Photo by Sue Lannon.

By Sarah Leach Smith

Visitor Services Coordinator

This post marks the first in a series highlighting the curators and plant collections of Duke Gardens. It is thanks to them that we are a world class botanic garden!

Curator Stefan Bloodworth. Photo by Cecelia Xie.

When walking through the Blomquist Garden of Native Plants, many people find themselves thinking a common thought: "I feel like I’m in the middle of the woods!"

The Blomquist Garden is one of four unique gardens in Duke Gardens. Its curator, Stefan Bloodworth, is glad that people feel like they are in the middle of the woods rather than the middle of the city of Durham. As with each distinct area within Duke Gardens, this garden has a unique history and mission. 

The Blomquist Garden was dedicated in 1968 in memory of professor Hugo L. Blomquist, the first chair of Duke University’s Department of Botany. At that time, the garden was an extensive fern collection to honor professor Blomquist’s extensive knowledge of native ferns. The collection was about one-quarter of the size of the present-day garden.

Bloodworth’s tenure as curator of the Blomquist began in 2002. By that time, the garden had expanded beyond ferns to include other types of plants native to the southeastern United States. The collections were well established, but Bloodworth was excited to put his spin on things. His background was in forest ecology, landscape design and carpentry.

McNabb Family Bridge and Stream. Photo by Rick Fisher.

Since his arrival, Bloodworth has worked to advance and evolve the Blomquist Garden in several ways. One of his first goals was to incorporate signature hardscapes that would complement and enhance the existing landscape elements. When planning for these projects, Bloodworth is deeply thoughtful with his aesthetic. From the material type and origin to the structural design, everything has to have a reason for being used.

One recent project is the McNabb Family Bridge and Stream. The integration of the wood and metal in the bridge serves both a functional and aesthetic purpose, tying together nature and man-made materials. The wood was locally sourced  southern reclaimed sinker cypress, and the metalwork, integrating sculptural accents inspired by native species, was created by a local artisan.

Close-up of metalwork on the McNabb Family Bridge. Photo by Bob Ayers.

“Everything has a purpose. There are stories everywhere, in every element of the design,” Bloodworth says. 

This same philosophy encompasses the horticultural goals that Bloodworth has for the Blomquist. “Just like every landscape architecture design decision you make has a story behind it, so does every planting decision that you make.”

Bloodworth wants the garden to communicate the idea of “conservation horticulture” to its visitors. He takes into account ecosystem science and wildlife habitat design when creating new spaces. His aim is to create a “museum in the woods” to help visitors understand that they are in a botanical garden with unique and special collections, and he uses educational signs to interpret the space and help people appreciate what they are seeing and experiencing.

A male red-bellied woodpecker in the Blomquist. Photo by Stefan Bloodworth.

One of the “exhibits” in Bloodworth’s museum is the Steve Church Endangered Species Garden. Created in 2004, this collection of plants aims to educate people about the importance of conserving rare species. Most of the species in the collection have a sponsoring organization or a custodial partner, such as a fish and wildlife agency or a botanical garden, which is responsible for monitoring and actively conserving these plants in the wild. The sponsoring organizations will also take action as needed to promote the protection of the species’ natural habitats and ex-situ conservation. Visitors can learn about these organizations from interpretive signs in the Endangered Species Garden. Smartphone accessible QR codes included on the signs link visitors with in-depth information about each species, including the names of the groups charged with their care.

Bloodworth believes that with its more than 300,000 visitors each year, Duke Gardens has a unique opportunity to teach people about the importance of plant conservation and connect visitors with the organizations working to protect these disappearing species. More information about plant conservation and sponsoring organizations can be found on the Center for Plant Conservation website.

Starry rosinweed. Photo by Sue Lannon.

The Blomquist Garden of Native Plants is a special space any time of the year. Because of the garden's unique collections and wildlife, dogs and bicycles and not allowed. We hope you'll take a stroll through this “museum in the woods” on your next visit to Duke Gardens!

What IS a botanic garden, anyway?

By Sarah Leach Smith

In case it isn’t obvious, we love plants here at Sarah P. Duke Gardens. From the rare and endangered native perennials to the wise, old magnolia trees, each plant is a special part of the Duke Gardens collection. As the sole public garden in Durham, Duke Gardens is honored to be able to share this collection with our visitors. In fact, you will see on the Duke Gardens website that this is a critical component of the Duke Gardens vision:

Sarah P. Duke Gardens is a premier public garden. Our living collections promote knowledge of the vital connections between people and plants, fostering an appreciation of the natural world, environmental awareness and sustainable practices. It is an indispensable and lasting feature of life at Duke University, accessible to all, providing outreach and respite to a diverse and vibrant local community and visitors from around the world. 

Duke Gardens is a botanic garden, which means several things. According to Botanic Gardens Conservation International (BGCI), “botanic gardens are institutions holding documented collections of living plants for the purposes of scientific research, conservation, display and education." Duke Gardens’ collection has also been mapped using GIS technology by our plant collections manager, Beth Hall. Not only do we have records of every plant in our collection, but we also know its exact GPS coordinates.

Our commitment to the Duke Gardens plant collection extends beyond our record-keeping and mapping. In addition, we have put together a list of tips for how to best utilize the Gardens. For example, we do not allow sports equipment in the garden. A wayward soccer ball could end up stuck in a camellia or floating in the Fish Pool. Not only would the ball cause damage to the plants, but you could also cause further damage (to the plants and yourself!) as you go to retrieve it. Similarly, kites and balloons could easily get stuck in a tree. And balloons can be harmful to wildlife.

We invite you to come and enjoy Duke Gardens and its extensive plant collection. In case you don’t fancy yourself a “plant person,” or your kids may not be quite as into the Gardens as you are, we have options! Watch for announcements of our Holiday Celebration and spring Exploration Stations. We also have Family Backpacks available at the Doris Duke Center information desk that contain a variety of ideas for enjoying the Gardens. Finally, we have a diverse array of programs that may interest you, from photography to cooking,  birding or beekeeping. 

Help us continue to preserve this internationally acclaimed botanic garden so that it may be enjoyed for many years to come!

Seed Collecting for Biodiversity and Conservation

By Sarah Leach Smith
Visitor Services Coordinator

It was a cool, gray day in late October. Leaves were starting to change color, there were more seed heads than blooms in the Gardens and the morning was chilly enough that I needed a jacket. While this may be prime time for hot chocolate and fluffy scarves, it is also the optimal time for seed-collecting in central North Carolina.

On this day, I excitedly joined Horticulturist Annabel Renwick and Plant Collections Manager Beth Hall on a seed-collecting trip around Orange County. They were gathering native plant seeds for use in the new Piedmont Prairie, located in the Blomquist Garden of Native Plants. I had no idea what a seed-collecting trip entailed, but I was looking forward to finding out.

We started the day in Chapel Hill, visiting our friends at the North Carolina Botanical Garden.  We had a nice time chatting with our counterparts – seed program coordinator Heather Summer, greenhouse and nursery manager Matt Gocke and curator of habitat gardens Chris Liloia – and it was a treat to briefly stroll through the gardens. The fall color is looking fantastic! Heather sent us on our way with two species of seeds we were seeking, Symphyotrichum concolor (eastern silver aster) and Clematis ochroleuca (curly heads).

Our next destination was a great hidden gem. Niche Gardens is a mail-order and retail nursery near Chapel Hill that specializes in nursery-propagated plants. They have a unique selection of wildflowers and native plants, so they were a natural stop for us on our trip. Annabel spoke with Lauri Lawson, who helped us purchase several native species: Rudbekia laciniata (cut-leaf coneflower), Symphyotrichum cordifolium (blue wood aster) and Scutellaria incana (hoary skullcap). We loaded the flats into the truck and were off.
 
For the rest of the afternoon, we cruised around rural Orange County scouting roadsides for wildflowers in seed. Armed with brown paper bags and sharpies for labeling, we walked along the road and through ditches to find our treasures.

“I was particularly excited in finding such a rich vein of wild flowers,” Annabel told me when we returned to Duke Gardens. One of the highlights of the roadside collection was finding Solidago rugosa (wrinkleleaf goldenrod) in seed. Gathering seeds can be a waiting game, Annabel said. “I have one more outing to collect seed, and I have been waiting for several flowers to go to seed.” Annabel’s wishlist includes Solidago bicolor (white goldenrod), Symphyotrichum grandiflora (large flowered aster), Symphyotrichum puniceum (purple stemmed aster) and Silphium asteriscus (starry rosinweed).

Why go to the trouble of collecting seed from roadside ditches? For Annabel, it’s important that the Piedmont Prairie has “a sense of place," she says. "We want it to contain the progeny of plants whose parents populated the roadsides of this region before there were roads.”

Additionally, growing plants from seeds ensures genetic diversity, unlike asexually-propagated cultivars. Creating a prairie landscape rich in biodiversity is one of Annabel’s primary goals.

Joining Annabel and Beth was a wonderful experience that will cause me to forever look at roadsides in a different way. We are in an area that is so rich with native plant species! We’re excited to be part of this conservation effort and hope you make time to enjoy the Piedmont Prairie on your next visit to Duke Gardens.