Class preview: Season-Long Bloom

Christmas fern

By Lauren Sims
Photos by Jason Holmes

Human beings are creatures of habit. This makes our lives and choices easier, when you know what is for breakfast, or look forward to the favorite TV shows, for example. But in your garden, repeating the same plantings over and over simply loses its appeal.

For people aching to escape the humdrum garden this year, Duke Gardens instructor Lauri Lawson, of Chapel Hill’s Niche Gardens, has some tips for creating a stunning season-long perennial garden.

First of all, think of your backyard garden as a year-round companion. Triangle gardeners can take advantage of an extra-long growing season that lasts well into the autumn months. Lawson urges people to make use of the full year of bloom, “from the little spring ephemeral bloomers that start the season off to the more boisterous blooms of summer,” and on into the oft-neglected fall plants which can significantly expand your color and texture palettes.

Hardy ginger lily

Lawson advises gardeners to keep in mind the nature of perennial plants when planning and planting a perennial border.

“I think the beginning gardener wants bloom, bloom, bloom, bloom all the time,” she says. But this is not the basis of a low-maintenance perennial bed. Instead, you’ll need to learn the growing times of your plants and plan for the sequence of blooms they display. That way, there will always be something interesting to see in the garden. Also, take note of the textural properties of your plants and incorporate non-blooming structural elements like ornamental grasses for added visual interest.

Finally, Lawson suggests that local gardeners take advantage of the horticultural knowledge and displays in the Triangle area. In addition to several excellent nurseries, Triangle gardeners have access to a variety of public botanical gardens, including Duke Gardens, and even private homes that hold exquisite garden tours.

“We live in one of the horticultural meccas, where there are almost too many gardens to tour,” she says.

Poke around area gardens and take notes of what plants and plant combinations appeal to you, says Lawson. Then take that inspiration home and transform your own backyard space.

If you’d like to learn more, consider taking Lawson’s Season-Long Bloom class at Duke Gardens on April 5 from 6:30 to 9 p.m. The class is part of the Gardens’ new Home Horticulture Certificate program, but anyone is invited to take it. For information or to register, please call 668-1707 or email slsmith@duke.edu. See our full list of classes & events here. Also, mark your calendars for Duke Gardens' Spring Plant Sale, featuring Duke Gardens plants, other plants ideal for this region from Duke Gardens and other vendors, and other nature-related gift items. The sale is April 30 (9 a.m.-2 p.m.), with a preview sale for members on April 29 (5-7 p.m.).

Sarah P. Duke Gardens creates and nurtures an environment in the heart of Duke University for learning, inspiration and enjoyment through excellence in horticulture. The Gardens is at 420 Anderson St.

Lauren Sims is a graduate student at Duke Divinity School and a work-study assistant at Duke Gardens. This column first appeared in the April 2 Durham Herald-Sun.

Indian Pink

Field trip: meet the critters

Spotted salamander

By Lauren Sims
Photos by Jeff Pippen

Do you know who your neighbors are? I’m thinking about your garden neighbors—have you gotten a chance to meet them? If you’d like a fun introduction, consider a field trip into Duke Forest to learn more about the critters that live just out of sight. You can see skinks, non-biting worm snakes, or beautiful spotted salamanders.

The home garden is full of all sorts of interesting and beneficial critters that populate and preserve your backyard oasis, says Jeff Pippen, an instructor and research associate at Duke’s Nicholas School of the Environment, who’ll lead Duke Gardens’ “Herp Hunt” field studies trip to Duke Forest on April 2.

Meet the skink, for example. Skinks are small lizards that eat various types of insects and tiny creatures. Many of them have yellow body stripes and blue tails when they’re young. Catch a peek quickly, though, because they will scurry off very quickly.

Worm snakes are another prevalent garden companion. They’re very small and incapable of biting humans and they are commonly found under leaf litter in the yard, says Pippen. Fortunately for us, they feed on the small bugs and worms that might harm our plants—a task that toads also take on.

Even larger garden snakes such as the earth snake and ring-necked snake can come in handy in Piedmont gardens, Pippen says.

“Most of them are harmless,” he says. “And most of them are beneficial to have in terms of keeping various bugs or pests in check.”

If you’re interested in meeting your neighbors face to face, try putting down a critter shelter, or coverboard, in your garden.

“It’s easy to just go ahead and lay down a couple of pieces of wood or tin or some type of coverboard that can be made aesthetically pleasing if you have artistic abilities,” Pippen says. “A lot of these creatures are around anyway and this gives you a chance to see and appreciate them.”

A few of our backyard neighbors are even individually identifiable, Pippen notes. Spotted salamanders, found throughout the Piedmont area, spend much of their time underground but can sometimes be found underneath logs or other garden coverboards. Each has its own pattern of yellow or orange spots, so if homeowners pay attention they might find that they are being visited by the same salamanders over and over again.

The Herp Hunt field trip will be from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. on April 2. To register, or for more information, please call 668-1707 or e-mail slsmith@duke.edu. For information about other Gardens events, please see our full events brochure (PDF) at gardens.duke.edu, or our abbreviated list. See more of Jeff Pippen's nature photos.

Sarah P. Duke Gardens creates and nurtures an environment in the heart of Duke University for learning, inspiration and enjoyment through excellence in horticulture. The Gardens is at 420 Anderson St.

Lauren Sims is a graduate student at Duke Divinity School and a work-study assistant at Duke Gardens. This column first appeared in the March 19 Herald-Sun.

Fowler's toad

Spring is on the way!

Photos and text by Lauren Sims

Well, it seems the groundhog was right this year. My recent stroll through Duke Gardens tells me that spring is on our doorstep.

Buds are giving way to beautiful and fragrant blooms throughout the Culberson Asiatic Arboretum.

The pinks and whites are lovely right now.

The oversized blooms of the Yulan magnolia are definitely a must-see.

More pinks popping...

What better complement to a Carolina blue sky?

And even on the cloudiest spring day, the daffodils throughout the Gardens are enough to make you smile.
This time of year, Duke Gardens seems to change and grow every day--new shapes, new colors, new scents. Come on out and see for yourself, and be sure to bring your camera to capture all the beauty!

Tour our gardens to plan yours

Allium and golden yarrow make a vibrant team

By Lauren Sims

The time has come to think about this spring’s garden. The seed magazines are waiting on the coffee table. Garden stores await your visit. The only question left is what to choose. If you’re at a loss, the curators at Sarah P. Duke Gardens may be able to fire your imagination and supply some home garden inspiration on your visits or with our guided tours.

Intriguing colors and plant combinations are the order of the day in the Historic Gardens this spring. One of curator Mike Owens’ favorite groupings is that of a golden yarrow with the purple allium ‘Ambassador,’ which stands about 4 feet tall. The mixture of colors, heights and shapes makes quite the conversation starter.

“That is probably the one combination of plantings for the spring that we get the most questions about,” Owens says.

Another fun focus this year in the Historic Gardens will be the blending of roses, like the knockout and drift rose, with annuals and even grasses like the pennisetum ‘Princess Caroline.’ This plant, while not hardy, has a dark burgundy foliage that appears almost black and would be an attention-grabbing addition to any home garden.

Grasses are also on display in the beds and containers of the Doris Duke Center Gardens this year. They add structure and visual interest to the garden, and curator Jason Holmes hopes to highlight opportunities to incorporate grasses into the landscape, whether it’s in a perennial border, shrub border or annual planting. Among the offerings to check out this season are the African feather-top grass pennisetum villosum, switch grasses and pink muhly grass. Another great grass option this year would be foxtail grasses, which are resistant to hot, dry Carolina summers.

If your garden focus this season is more of a full-sensory affair, a tour through the Culberson Asiatic Arboretum with curator Paul Jones may be just the ticket.

“We just try to make it a delightful experience,” Jones explains, “a walk through the garden talking about whatever is on people’s minds.”

While the plants are primary on the agenda, Jones moves beyond that to examine the overall atmosphere of the garden. Consider the fragrances of your plants, he says. Think about the design of your garden, the placement of your various plants and structures. Look beyond the blooms of your plants and notice their underlying form and structure. Also, take time to listen to the sounds that permeate your backyard garden. The landscape is about more than blooms, after all. Enjoy it with all your senses.

SCHEDULES: Spring Flower Walks in the Arboretum will be at 10 a.m. March 11 and April 8. Historic Gardens Color Walks will be at 9 a.m. April 7 and May 12. And Doris Duke Center Gardens tours will be at 10 a.m. May 27 and June 24. The Gardens also offers a Walk on the Wild Side through the Blomquist Garden on the first Thursday of each month, as well as periodic guided bird walks and Water Lily Walks in summer.

To register, or for more information, please call 668-1707 or e-mail slsmith@duke.edu, or read our full program guide (PDF) at our website., please go to gardens.duke.edu (or scan our abbreviated list). Our garden walks page also has tour information.

Sarah P. Duke Gardens creates and nurtures an environment in the heart of Duke University for learning, inspiration and enjoyment through excellence in horticulture. The Gardens is at 420 Anderson St.

Lauren Sims is a graduate student at Duke Divinity School and a work-study assistant at Duke Gardens. This column first appeared in the March 5 Durham Herald-Sun.

Tour the Duke Herbarium

Passiflora specimen, courtesy of Duke Herbarium

By Kathleen M. Pryer

Just what makes an oak an oak or a pine a pine? Until recently, it was based upon what we could see about a plant. For centuries, botanists and plant collectors have searched for plants in remote and isolated jungles, in urban waste lots and along railroad tracks, in order to document the diversity and distribution of the earth's flora.

The dried plant specimens are stored and studied in herbaria, which can be thought of as a library of plant life. As we lose natural habitats across the world, herbaria provide a record of plant life, and they serve as a repository of precious genetic information. Herbaria hold the tools for our understanding of the plant world.

Each herbarium specimen is key to understanding plant relationships, geographic distributions and economic usefulness. More recently, genetic and molecular studies using herbarium specimens have allowed us to see plants at an entirely different level. This refinement in our understanding of how plants may be related is a dramatic story in the botanical world.

Some early herbaria were established in Europe in the early 1600s, a time of great exploration. New plants were being found at such a rate that botanical gardens could not keep pace by growing living examples of every new species found. Representatives of many known (and even undescribed) species of plants can be found in herbaria today, carefully mounted on sheets of archival quality paper, labeled with important collection information about them, and stored on shelves in cabinets in climate-controlled rooms.

All in all, the quiet herbarium holds a fascinating story. At the Duke University Herbarium you can see 800,000 diverse specimens of algae, fungi, lichens, mosses and vascular plants. These include samples of rare passionflowers discovered in the 1970s by Duke scientists working in Costa Rica, grasses from the 1890s Biltmore Estate, and Amborella, a small shrub found only on the island of New Caledonia in the South Pacific.

Duke Gardens is offering a tour of the Duke Herbarium on March 4 from 3 to 4:30 p.m. You will have the opportunity to see the collection, hear from a botanist who studies and manages it and learn about the amazing work being done across the globe. For information or to register, please call 668-1707 or e-mail slsmith@duke.edu.

Sarah P. Duke Gardens creates and nurtures an environment in the heart of Duke University for learning, inspiration and enjoyment through excellence in horticulture. The Gardens is at 420 Anderson St.

Kathleen M. Pryer is director of the Duke Herbarium and an associate professor of biology at Duke. This column first ran in the Durham Herald-Sun on Feb. 19.

For more Duke Gardens classes and special events, please see this previous post.

Adiantum specimen, courtesy of Duke Herbarium

Garden design: where to start?

By Lauren Sims
Photo by William Cullina

This spring, many of us will head to a local nursery or garden center and select a few new plants for our yards. Perhaps you are looking for a couple of containers to sit on the front porch, or maybe some brightly colored annuals to line the path to the door. This seems simple enough, right? But for a lot of people, “designing” a garden space is a completely different and more daunting endeavor.

“I think design is intimidating for most people,” says William Cullina, a gardening author and director of horticulture at the Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens. “There’s a sense that there’s a right way and there’s a wrong way to do it, and if you do it wrong it’s out there in your front yard and everybody is going to see it and you’ll be embarrassed.”

But Cullina is quick to point out that garden design does not have to be intimidating, and there is no such thing as right and wrong.

“In a sense, design is all about perception, right? It’s our perception of beauty.”

Some homeowners like the idea of a garden space that blends in with the natural landscape surrounding it, or one that suggests a landscape that they wish surrounded them, says Cullina, who counseled many Triangle gardeners back when he was nursery manager at Chapel Hill’s Niche Gardens. Others prefer a more abrupt design that sets the garden apart from its surroundings. Choose what you like, he says; no one aesthetic is better or worse than another.

One key to designing a garden space is to take the time to think abstractly, Cullina says. Right now, before that spring trip to the garden center, is the perfect time to play around with new ideas. Daydream about what you would like for and from your garden. Sketch out some ideas. Take digital photos of plants, or cut them out of a seed catalog, then lay them out and shuffle them around to see if and where you like them. And if you don’t like what you see, just grab a new piece of paper or snap a few more photos and experiment some more. No harm done.

The most important part of garden design is to enjoy yourself, says Cullina.

“Everybody has an opinion about what’s beautiful and everybody thinks that their opinion is the best one,” he says. “So I think you have to take it all with a grain of salt and have fun with it.”

You can learn more from Cullina when he visits Duke Gardens for two special events this month. On Feb. 12, from 9 a.m. to noon, he’ll lead a workshop called “Beyond the Surface: Soil Demystified.” Then from 3 to 5 p.m., he’ll present a talk titled “The Botany of Design.” For more information, please call 668-1707 or e-mail slsmith@duke.edu. To see Duke Gardens’ full roster of discovery programs, please go to gardens.duke.edu.

Sarah P. Duke Gardens creates and nurtures an environment in the heart of Duke University for learning, inspiration and enjoyment through excellence in horticulture. The Gardens is at 420 Anderson St.

Lauren Sims is a graduate student at Duke Divinity School and a work-study assistant at Duke Gardens. This column first appeared in the Durham Herald-Sun on Feb. 5, 2011.

Training new docents. Join us!

Duke Gardens is pleased to announce the dates for this year's docent training. We are expanding programming in children’s education and hope to train 7 or 8 new children's docents. We would also like to offer more trolley and walking tours in our adult tour program.

Docent trainees must attend each of the three trainings listed below. The deadline to sign up is Feb. 16.

Dates: February 21, 23 and 25

Time: 9 a.m. to noon

Please contact Chuck Hemric if you would like to sign up or are seeking more information. You can also read more on our website about our volunteer opportunities in education, as well as other volunteer opportunities.

Thanks for your interest!