Duke Gardens summer intern report

One of my favorite waterlilies in the Virtue Peace Pond. You can vote for your favorite online in IWGS's international waterlily competition.

A Rotation in the Life of a Duke Gardens Summer Intern:
Rotation Two

Article & photos by Amanda Wilkins

Since I didn’t answer any of the questions I’d asked the other two interns last time, I am taking a moment in today’s post to share my thoughts and internship experiences.

Like I said before, I am a horticulture student at N.C. State University. I just finished my first year there, so I am the greenest intern this summer (no pun intended). However, I have lived around Daniel Stowe Botanical Garden most of my life, so I fell in love with botanical gardens.

When I was thinking about a career, horticulture made the most sense. I wanted to get more experience in a public garden setting, and Duke Gardens had a good reputation and was recommended to me by a friend at State. I was so excited to apply, and I couldn’t wait to get to work and learn more about plants. I couldn’t help myself when I considered I would be working in a garden every day and learning so much.

My first rotation at Duke Gardens was in the Doris Duke Center area. On my first day of work I was by myself, but it was complete heaven. I had never been more content weeding and watering in my life. Those were the majority of my duties, but I also checked the containers in the front and back every day, pruned, and moved plants around.

It hardly rained the entire time I was in the area, so I watered a lot. I really enjoyed working with horticulturist Tamara Kilbane in the water garden and learning about the aquatics. I worked with some great volunteers as well. The only negative experience the entire rotation was my battle with poison ivy that left me with rashes on both of my arms for a week. The poison ivy may have won the battle, but I won the war.

Tamara shows the interns Carolina fanwort (Cabomba caroliniana) in the greenhouses during an aquatic plant ID class.

This is our last week in our second rotation and I am finishing up at the Blomquist Garden of Native Plants. Working with Blomquist curator Stefan Bloodworth and horticulturist Katherine Wright has been great, and seeing the biodiversity of the Blomquist was refreshing. I really enjoyed working with the unique and endangered plants. I learned a lot. I have done a lot of different things this time around. I started out by sanding cedar branches, then I moved on to grooming paths and making labels. Some of my favorite activities were repotting plants and watering in the nursery. Yet again, my least favorite part of the whole experience was the second round with poison ivy. This time I ended up having to see a doctor because the rash began to make my arm swell. However, in my opinion, the poison ivy still lost.

I miss both areas already, but my next rotation will bring me to the Culberson Asiatic Arboretum. Sadly, I haven’t been able to walk around the Arboretum as much as I would like, but I do look forward to helping in the area. There are so many things going on in that area of the Gardens that I know I will always be busy. I especially look forward to learning about Asian design. Paul Jones, the arboretum’s curator, is very knowledgeable and has a passion for the Arboretum and its goals.

Finally, like all of the other interns, I have an internship project as well: writing some articles and blog posts about the Gardens. I hope you have enjoyed my posts. Look forward to more in the future!

Duke Gardens summer intern report

Unlike this stone lantern in the Culberson Asiatic Arboretum, a garden that intern Tate Warren is working on will feature broken stone pieces to resemble a ruined ancient house.

A Rotation in the Life of a Duke Gardens Summer Intern: Rotation One

Interview byAmanda Wilkins
Photos by Amanda Wilkins, except where noted.

Summer 2010 has brought Duke Gardens three new horticulture interns. My name is Amanda Wilkins and I am one of the interns. I am a sophomore in horticulture science at N.C. State University. Tate Warren has traveled all the way from Mississippi State University to work in the Gardens. He has one semester left before he gets his bachelor’s degree in horticulture. The third intern, Heather Seifert, is pursuing a second career in horticulture and is at Alamance Community College, after being in nonprofit preservation for many years. So even though we come from different places and backgrounds, we are united in our interest in and passion for horticulture.

Tate Warren visits the site a garden he's working on in the Culberson Asiatic Arboretum.

The way our internship works is we each work in a separate garden for three weeks, then switch to another garden. We have been working at Duke Gardens for almost four weeks now and last week was our first week in a different garden since we started. There has been plenty of time to adapt to the sweltering North Carolina summers and get a little wear on our side clippers. Since I never get to work with the other interns, I felt it was time to see how they were doing.

What attracted you to Duke Gardens?

Heather: “Well, I have been a volunteer here since July of last year. My background is historic preservation and this is a second career for me. I was hoping to combine my years of nonprofit preservation experience with my love of gardening, so I quit my job and took this huge plunge and went to school. I am trying to get some background in public gardens and historic gardens. Obviously, being here would be a big help for me, so I have been working for Jan [Watson, a Gardens horticulturist] since July.”

Tate: “Well, for the past two years I have been working in greenhouses, and I feel like I have a good understanding on how to manage greenhouses. So when I was deciding what I was going to do for my internship, I kind of wanted to broaden my knowledge to different fields of horticulture. I decided I would try public gardens to see what it was like and if I enjoyed it, and so far I do, and just broaden my experience just a little bit.”

So we do a three-week rotation. Where did you work the first three weeks? What kind of things did you do?

T: “I worked in the Blomquist Garden, which is the native garden. Well, I cleaned up a waterscape, did a lot of weeding of Microstegium, helped sand down some cedar branches that we are getting ready to build a fence with, and replaced all the rope fences and groomed paths. Stefan [Bloodworth], who is the curator, let me join in on a tour he gave some of the volunteers … . That’s pretty much it. Groomed paths a lot. Maybe twice a week.”

H: “I worked in the Terraces and it was their big annual winter-spring-summer annual switch, and we planted, we figured, 15,000 plants in those three weeks. That’s a lot of holes. And that was really it. It was this major switch.”

What was your favorite part of working in those gardens?

H: “My interest, of course, has been in that particular part of the garden for a long time, and it is fun for me to see the combinations that Mike [Owens, Historic Gardens curator] and Jan come up with. It’s not always the same standard plants together all the time. That’s the fun of being there, seeing the great, unusual combinations they pull together.”

T: “My favorite part was learning about the native plants and noticing the wildlife that these native plants support. I mean, you saw rabbits, you saw squirrels, hawks, all kinds of birds. There is a lot of wildlife in the native gardens and I think I enjoyed learning about that more than anything else.”

Did you have a least favorite part about working in those gardens?

T: “I mean, well, weeding is never fun, but it is a necessity. You have to do it. So I don’t mind doing it, but I would have to say that it was my least favorite part.”

H: “The only thing I can think about is it was hot. But no matter when you do it, it’s going to be hot. Endurance was an important part of the last three weeks.”

Sun shines through a Japanese maple in Asiatic Arboretum.

What gardens are you in now? What have you been doing this week?

T: “I am in the Terraces. We’ve been doing a lot of pruning. We pruned the old wisteria right there on the terrace, right as you walk in on the pergola.

After looking at his arms, we knew immediately: “And roses, apparently,” Heather said.

T: “We pruned some roses yesterday, some spirea. We’ve pruned a lot of stuff the past few days, actually.”

H: “I am in the Arboretum. I have been weeding, which is interesting, though, because it is very specific. It’s this one, not that one. That one, not this one. So, I know a sweet gum tree when it’s 30 feet tall but not when it’s an inch. So that’s been interesting. I’ve spent a lot of time in the [Japanese] Pavilion understanding locking up, cleaning up, how it should look, and sort of the etiquette of that part of the garden. Dead-headed daylilies for about four hours yesterday. Lots of daylilies. There are more little rooms in the Arboretum than I realized. Little rooms, that is the best I can describe it.”

Heather points to one of the many vines of poison ivy she was trying to avoid that plague the area she is weeding in the Asiatic Arboretum. Don't worry, the vines are not near the paths!

What are you looking forward to the most in the garden you are working in now?

T: “For me, it’s basically design. Like Heather said, how plants go together. I am also curious to see how they’re going to grow together. It’s more important to me than what they look like right now, because they have only been in there a couple of weeks. I really like the aesthetics of the Terraces. I think it is a really, really nice spot in the garden.”

H: “I am interested in the Pavilion. There is a tea ceremony that we get to go to. The whys of ‘why this plant?’ There’s the lighting of the lanterns. All that very Asian-influenced gardening. I am fascinated with it, but know very little about it, so here’s obviously a great opportunity to get to the bottom of it.”

As a horticulture intern, we each work on a project that interests us over the course of the summer. What is your summer internship project?

T: “I am working in the Arboretum. There are some woodlands right behind the Pavilion across the path and I am going to try to create a winding path through those woodlands, and in these little pockets we are going to try and build ruins to look like someone has lived there. Take some stones and slab that looks like it used to be part of a house, and then plant Japanese garden-type plants around those ruins in these pockets through there. Just make that extra area people can enjoy in the Arboretum.”

Although it was hiding among harmless Virginia Creeper vines, this poison ivy vine was one of many throughout the future site of the ruin garden in the Culberson Asiatic Arboretum. The underbrush in the area will be cleared when construction begins.


H: “My project is the redesigning — finding the plans for the James G. Hanes Garden in Winston-Salem. Ellen Shipman did the gardens here as well as that particular one in Hanes’. And there was a Hanes connection and Ellen Shipman connection … and they knew my interest in historic gardens and were kind enough to make that connection. So, we thought we knew where the plans were. Now we are not so sure anymore. … One person says they’re there and another one doesn’t, so now I have to decide when I am going to cut this loose and go on, just design it myself in an Ellen Shipman style. So we went last week to look at it, to see what was left of it and it was interesting.”

Heather Seifert's project involves the James G. Hanes Garden in Winston-Salem. Ellen Biddle Shipman, who designed Duke Gardens' original Terrace Gardens, also designed the Hanes garden, which is now masked by overgrown boxwoods. Photo by Mike Owens.


We still have eight weeks left in our summer internship, but so far we have had an interesting time. Each day and garden bring some new experience for us. Check back in a couple more weeks for an update on “A Rotation in the Life of a Duke Gardens Summer Intern.”

Fifth-graders Become Itinerant Haiku Poets

Article and photos by Nancy J. Hamilton,

Cultural programming coordinator, Culberson Asiatic Arboretum

On May 19, fifth-graders from Duke School for Children gathered for a haiku adventure in Sarah P. Duke Gardens. These emerging haiku artists took their inspiration from the 17th century Japanese haiku poet Basho, who abandoned his humble dwelling in the old city of Edo to travel Japan on foot and record his meanderings in a now-famous haiku diary. In similar fashion, the students set out onto the trails of the Culberson Asiatic Arboretum to see what scenes and experiences would inspire their writing.

Stopping at a quiet streamside spot, a bamboo grove overlooking a small waterfall gave our writers pause.

“Creek,” by Charlotte
A creek reflecting green,
An old pathway,
With new life.

“Green,” by Aaron
Dominant Color,
Everything Around Us,
Green with no envy


“Waterfall,” by Margot
Tinkling of a waterfall
A feather floats down
This is where the pond ends

“Stream,” by Zoe
Tall stalks of bamboo
Water, cascading down rocks
Bright new leaves of spring

“Wet Bamboo,” by Lindsey
Tall, skinny, green.
Bamboo.
Wetness.

Moving farther into the garden, our young poets were greeted with the fresh scent of the previous evening’s rainfall.

“Shiver,” by Amelia
The air is cold and sweet
After a long rain
Is my shiver cold or joy?

“Tears,” by Djelimory
Water falls on the trunk
As if the tree is crying
Tears for its kinsmen

“Nature’s Treasure,” by Shelby
Water drops from a leaf
Diamond shatters on the dirt
Earth swallows the gem

“Rain,” by CJ
Rain has fallen
Turning green
Grass greener.



A quiet moment pondside inspired these artists to reflect on the ever-fleeting treasures of the garden.

“Mother Duck,” by Rachel
A big mother duck
With four cute baby ducklings
Oh no! They’re gone now

“Birds,” by Katelin
Gliding above the trees,
Touching the clouds
With its wings

“The Pond,” by Emma
Very still water
A duck breaks the silence
Leaving spray in its wake

“Duck,” by John
The feather glistens
in the sun
Dark as night

“The talk of the forest,” by Conrad
The trees talk
Silent whispers of life
Can you hear it?

These poems were written as part of a haiku field trip offered by Sarah P. Duke Gardens’ Into the Gardens children’s programs. For program information, please contact Annie Nashold, director of children's education and family programs, at 919-668-1708.

For information about haiku field trips or other cultural experiences in the Asiatic Arboretum, please contact Nancy J. Hamilton, coordinator of cultural programming for the Culberson Asiatic Arboretum, at nancy.hamilton@duke.edu

Duke Gardens Spring Plant & Craft Fest

We hope to see you at the Plant & Craft Festival today. The weather has been fantastic, and crowds lined up early to get first dibs. There's still plenty left for afternoon shoppers, including some late-day markdowns.

Please also see our Plant & Craft Fest videos, including vendor features and horticulturists and curators talking about specific plants from their gardens.

Below are some of our happy shoppers.

Got Duke Gardens questions?

Garden Ambassador Charity Cole

Got questions about our gardens? The answers are now closer at hand, thanks to two recently refined outreach programs.

Look for our Garden Ambassadors at strategic locations throughout the Gardens. Our ambassadors – clad in easy-to-spot green vests -- are volunteers who know the Gardens well and are happy to assist you in finding or understanding your favorite Gardens spots. They’ve got maps, program brochures, information on what’s currently in bloom and on our semi-annual Plant & Craft Festivals, and other useful pointers for new or experienced visitors.

And in the cottage opposite the Terrace Café in the Historic Gardens, Durham County Extension Master Gardener volunteers will be at your service from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. on the second and fourth Wednesday through the end of May and again in September and October, as well as on the second Wednesday monthly in June through August and November. The Master Gardeners are a font of horticultural information. Feel free to dig deep with them. We hope you’ll benefit from their generosity in serving Duke Gardens visitors.

Master Gardener volunteers Bob Shaw and Nan Len.

Duke Gardens April events

Below are some events coming up through the end of April. Please call 668-1708 for information about children's events, 668-1705 about the Spring Plant & Craft Festival, or 668-1707 for all other events. We hope to see you here!

April 9
Spring Flower Walk in the Arboretum
The Culberson Asiatic Arboretum features many fascinating plants, displayed in beautiful and ever-changing combinations. Join curator Paul Jones as he guides you to some of the little known garden spaces and unique plants. You will leave with an enhanced perspective on the arboretum. $5; free for Gardens Friends. *Event full; please e-mail to be added to waiting list.

Fridays in April and May, 10 a.m.-noon
Nature Ranger Cart
Look for the colorful cart at the foot of the Terrace Gardens; it's full of simple and fun activities for children. Play flower bingo or make pressed flower bookmarks, paper butterflies, pond life pictures and bark, insect or leaf rubbings. Or get some nutritious food for the Gardens' ducks.

Saturday, April 10, 8 a.m.
Bird Walk
Enjoy an early morning stroll in the Gardens with fellow bird enthusiasts and Cynthia Fox, of Chapel Hill's Wild Bird Center. Cynthia will help you to spot, identify and learn more about the birds that call this region home, even temporarily. Don't miss this opportunity to experience that one remarkable bird sighting. Children are welcome if they are age 8 or older. Please bring binoculars. If the weather is iffy, please call Alice Le Duc at 730-2503 to check the status of the walk. Free, but registration required. *Event full; please e-mail to be added to waiting list.

Saturday, April 10, 10:45 a.m.-noon
Traditional Japanese Tea Gathering
As a guest to Tea, you will experience the patterns and poetry of Chado, or the Japanese “way of tea,” while enjoying an enticing bowl of whisked tea and a seasonal treat. The practice of Tea is characterized by the phrase ichigo ichie, or “one moment – one meeting.” The small class group will meet at the Doris Duke Center to be escorted by instructor Nancy Hamilton to the Durham-Toyama Sister Cities Pavilion in Duke Gardens for this intimate gathering. $30; $20 Gardens Friends. *Two seatings; both full. Please e-mail to be added to waiting list.

Saturday, April 10, 11 a.m.
Story Time
Enjoy nature stories with your children, and help them make a take-home creation. $2 per child.

Saturday and Sunday, April 10 & 11, 8 a.m.-2 p.m.
Improving Photo Quality
Stretch your skills and learn techniques that will improve the technical and artistic merit of your photographs. Instructor Richard Cicone will focus on understanding and manipulating the variables that go into making a quality photograph. $120; $85 Gardens Friends.

Tuesday, April 13, 2-4 p.m.
A Hanging Basket for Summer
A hanging basket planted with beautiful and colorful flowers and foliage will enhance your porch or deck area throughout the summer. Alice Le Duc will help you create an innovative basket of plants for that special place around your home. Please indicate when you register whether your basket will be in a sunny or shady area. All supplies included and each student will complete a basket. $55; $40 Gardens Friends. Pre-registration required, so we can purchase sufficient supplies.

Wednesday, April 21, 2-4 p.m.
Tour: Historic Gardens Color Walk
There is an astounding range of plants displayed across our gardens: perennial plants, annual flowers and foliage and tropical plants, all in wonderful combinations. Join our expert staff members in a casual walk through a variety of garden spaces to learn more about what is currently in bloom and which plant combinations they especially love. Color walks will focus on the Perennial Allée, Historic Terraces, Butterfly Garden and Memorial Garden. Tours continue in May and July. $5; free for Gardens Friends. Registration required. *Event full; please e-mail to be added to waiting list.

Saturday, April 24, 9 a.m.-2 p.m.
Spring Plant & Craft Festival
Let us help you prepare for spring gardening and gift-giving, whether it be a new shrub or tree, a plant for your apartment, bird houses or scented soaps. The Gardens and other vendors will sell an array of plants appropriate for this region, including many featured in Duke Gardens. Local artisans will sell garden-related gift items. And you can also get free horticultural advice from the staff and Durham County Master Gardeners. Free admission. Join Friends of Duke Gardens (684-5579) for an invitation to the preview sale April 23 (and -- now through June 15 -- for a free subscription to Better Homes & Gardens). Discount student memberships available.

Arts in the Garden: Timmy Abell

Asheville songwriter/storyteller Timmy Abell will kick off our spring Arts in the Garden series April 3, with an outdoor performance in the Angle Amphitheater outside the Doris Duke Center (it’ll move inside if it rains).

Timmy has won national acclaim for his concerts, original music and CDs, including a National Parenting Publications Award and honors from the American Library Association and the N.C. Arts Council. N.C. Public Television featured his songs in its Celebration Series, and he starred in a public television special, "Timmy and Friends."

Timmy spoke with Duke Gardens work-study student Nnenna Ene about his performances with his wife Susana. Here are some highlights from that interview:

On connecting with children:
“When we’re performing, we try to connect with children by treating them as if they are very intelligent beings. And we’re very careful not to try to talk down to them. We have found that with so much of the media these days and types of children’s music and so forth that they just sort of treat children like they are less than human. So we really try to connect with them by just having fun, by doing things that are participatory and easy for them to do but also respect their intelligence.”

On older audiences:
“Most of what we present is family oriented, not just kid oriented. … Some people sort of accuse me of writing children’s songs for adults. There’s a lot in the songs that I write, and many of them that adults can easily relate to just as well as kids. … It’s really family entertainment, not children’s entertainment.

On audience participation:
“We have a wonderful thing in the middle of our concert which is called the sit-down square dance. Basically, one of the kids is up playing a percussion instrument. It’s an old-fashioned type of wooden toy that has this little dancing man and he keeps the beat. And I play the banjo and I call a square dance, which would be a typical square dance calling except that all the kids are doing that in their seats, all the different dance calls. Another thing that they do which is participatory, we do lots of hand motions, like with particular songs that we sing. They sing along with us. There’s lots of singing.”

On puppets and morals:
“Susana has this wonderful puppet show called "The Gardener." It’s a little 10-minute European-style puppet show. It’s not necessarily geared for kids like the puppetry in the United States is considered for young kids; in Europe and Asia and other countries, it’s just as much or more for adults. This is the European-style puppet show, and it’s got a little story of good and evil, and it has a moral, and we’re always trying to engage the kids, and figuring out what is the lesson from the story -- that sort of thing.”

On traducción:
“Susana has this one other puppet, which is a sloth from South America named Quick, and he only speaks Spanish. And we go into lots of schools where there is a population of Spanish-speaking students. So it’s very uplifting for those kids, and it’s also good for the English-speaking kids, to see one of the bilingual kids come on stage and translate for Quick so that we can understand what he said.”

Tickets:
Tickets are $10 and available at the Duke University Box Office online or at 919-684-4444.