Spring Plant Sale Preview: Amsonia 'Storm Cloud'

Amsonia 'Storm Cloud'. Photo by Annie Yang.

By Annie Yang
Duke Class of 2020

In the spring, these perennials sprout from the ground with stems as dark as foreboding clouds on the horizon right before a downpour. But once Amsonia ‘Storm Cloud’ blooms, those dark skies are replaced by star-shaped periwinkle blue flowers.

A North American native plant, ‘Storm Cloud’ is also a relatively easy plan to maintain. It’s moderately drought tolerant once established, and it’s deer resistant. It grows best in partial to full sun and moist soil.

‘Storm Cloud’ is also a versatile plant that can fill many roles in your garden. It can replace shrubs, line driveways and yards, or be planted as a large group. ‘Storm Cloud’ also brighten up a floral arrangement as a cut flower. Far from raining on your parade, these plants can be a delight in any garden.

Look for ‘Storm Cloud’ at our Spring Plant Sale on Saturday (or member preview sale Friday). We’ve selected hundreds of plants that thrive in this region, including many propagated from the plants we all love throughout Duke Gardens. Details are below. Hope to see you here!

SPRING PLANT SALE INFO:
Date: Saturday, April 7, 2018
Time: 8 a.m.-noon
Preview sale for members only: Friday, April 6, 4-6 pm. Duke Gardens members get 10% off at the preview sale and public sale, as well as a full list of plants in advance! 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.
Your support helps Duke Gardens to provide summer internships to aspiring horticulturists from across the nation.
Please see our event page for more information, and we'd love for you to spread the word by sharing the event on Facebook and inviting your friends.
Thank you!

Spring Plant Sale Preview: Peonies

Paeonia 'Emma Klehm'. Photo by Chris Holaday.

By Annie Yang
Duke class of 2020

Peonies are always a crowd-pleaser at Duke Gardens' Spring Plant Sales. So local gardeners will be thrilled to hear that we will have a whopping 17 cultivars at this year's sale, from 'Moonstone' to 'Coral Sunset' and 'Pink Parfait'. The sale is Saturday, April 7, with a preview sale for members on Friday evening (details below). Here are two cultivars that will surely pique gardeners' interest.

Paeonia ‘Emma Klehm’

The deep, rich pink petals of Paeonia ‘Emma Klehm’ are guaranteed to attract the attention of any garden visitor. This striking flower gets its name from Emma Klehm of the Klehm family, who have had a long history of growing flowers and producing new hybrids. One has to wonder what kind of woman Ms.  Klehm was to inspire the name of such a bold peony!

‘Emma Klehm’ is a later bloomer, showing off its splendid colors from late spring to early summer, but the wait is quite worth it. Long-lived and relatively easy to grow, this plant prefers moist but well-drained soil and, in a warmer climate like North Carolina, thrives under partial sun.

Its vibrant colors make ‘Emma Klehm’ an easy choice for cut flower bouquets or as a border plant. Consider grouping it with other plants so its striking hues can really pop out and brighten up any garden.

Paeonia 'Monsieur Jules Elie'. Photo by Chris Holaday.

Paeonia ‘Monsieur Jules Elie’

This peony was first introduced in 1888, but its huge bloom, ruffled light pink petals and wonderful fragrance have made it an enduring garden favorite. Perhaps inspired by French painter Jules-Élie Delaunay, this peony cultivar is truly a work of art.

Long-lived, virtually pest free, and resistant to deer and rabbits, ‘Monsieur Jules Elie’ is an ideal plant for gardeners looking for intense color and vibrancy but relatively little hassle and maintenance. ‘Monsieur Jules Elie’ enjoys partial to full sun and fertile, well-drained soil, like many of its peony cousins. Some staking may be required to support its large, heavy blooms when they appear in late spring or early summer.

The beauty of ‘Monsieur Jules Elie’ can be showcased as a cut flower or in a number of different roles in the garden. It can stand on its own as a specimen plant, work together in groups of other plants, dot the border of a walkway or driveway, or serve as an informal hedge. This versatile and dependable plant is a delightful addition to any garden.

SPRING PLANT SALE INFO:
Date: Saturday, April 7, 2018
Time: 8 a.m.-noon
Preview sale for members: Friday, April 6, 4-6 pm.
Membership plant sale benefit: Duke Gardens members get 10% off & a full list of plants in advance! 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.
Your support helps Duke Gardens to provide summer internships to aspiring horticulturists from across the nation.
Please see our event page for more information, and we'd love for you to spread the word by sharing the event on Facebook and inviting your friends.
Thank you!

Spring Plant Sale Preview: Hostas

Hosta 'Island Breeze'

By Annie Yang
Duke T'20
Photos by Beth Hall

Hostas come in more than 2,500 different cultivars of different shapes, colors, sizes and textures, opening up an vast range of possibilities of integrating them into your garden. They can work well grouped together as background plants, but their exciting colors also make them great ornamentals.

These perennials are low-maintenance and usually live quite long. Hostas have a reputation for being shade plants, but the brighter the leaf color, the more sun it will require. In general, hostas require watering once a week at the soil and not on the leaves. Hostas are relatively pest-free—aside from slugs and the occasional deer—and they will also attract hummingbirds to your garden. There are thousands of hosta cultivars. Here are a few that we’ll be featuring at the 2018 Spring Plant Sale on April 7.

‘Dancing Queen’ 

Hosta 'Dancing Queen'

Unlike other yellow hosta varieties, ‘Dancing Queen’ keeps the excitement going and stays bright yellow all season long. Though hosta’s foliage is usually the star of the show, the mid to late summer blooms of pale lavender flowers are nothing to ignore!

‘Stained Glass’
The glossy gold leaves and green borders of this plant may remind you of the colorful designs on large stained-glass windows. Hosta ‘Stained Glass’ grows huge leaves and large, fragrant light purple flowers in the late summer. This cultivar is also more tolerant of sun than its cousins are.

‘Island Breeze’
The yellow centers and thick green margins of ‘Island Breeze’s’ foliage evoke a sense of tropical tranquility. When grown in darker shade, the yellows will become more chartreuses. But if exposed to more light, ‘Island Breeze’ will also lighten in color. It’s visually quite similar to its cousin ‘Stained Glass’, but an observant eye will notice that the leafstalks of ‘Island Breeze’ are also tinged in red.

EVEN MORE HOSTAS! Specialty hosta grower Green Hill Farm will also be a vendor at our plant sale. See additional specialty vendors at our plant sale link below.

SPRING PLANT SALE INFO:
Date: Saturday, April 7, 2018
Time: 8 a.m.-noon
Preview sale for members: Friday, April 6, 4-6 pm.
Membership plant sale benefit: Duke Gardens members get 10% off & a full list of plants in advance! 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.
Your support helps Duke Gardens to provide summer internships to aspiring horticulturists from across the nation.
Please see our event page for more information, and we'd love for you to spread the word by sharing the event on Facebook and inviting your friends.
Thank you!

Making Botany Come Alive

Gain a deeper understanding of plant parts and their roles in "Basic Botany."
Photo by Bill Snead.

Lots of people like to garden, and many appreciate a beautiful garden design, but how many know exactly how plants manage water and nutrients? What makes them grow bigger flowers or juicier fruits? If you have ever wondered about these things, consider joining us for Alec Motten's "Basic Botany and Plant Growth" class beginning on Thursday, Feb. 15, from 6-9 p.m.

Motten is a distinguished associate professor emeritus in Duke's Department of Biology, and his passion and engaging way of teaching also made him a quick favorite among Duke Gardens instructors. You'll see why if you take his class. In the meantime, Motten offered some insights about himself and his love for plants in the following email exchange from 2016:

Alec poses with a beautiful friend.

Tell us about your background and experience.
I earned my Ph.D. in zoology at Duke in 1982 and received undergraduate degrees in botany from UNC-Chapel Hill in 1970 and in zoology from the University of Washington in Seattle in 1976. I've always straddled the line between traditional botanist and zoologist designations and consider myself an equal-opportunity natural historian.

My primary responsibility at Duke has been teaching undergraduates an array of courses, including introductory biology, organismal diversity, botany, ecology, and genetics and evolution. I've also taught writing for first-year students and senior biology majors. My research interests are in evolutionary biology, pollination ecology and plant reproductive biology.

For my doctoral dissertation I studied plant-pollinator interactions in the spring wildflower community of Duke Forest. I still consider March and April my favorite time to be in the woods, and I like to lead spring wildflower hikes to local natural areas.

In my spare time, I enjoy hiking, camping and canoeing. During travels in the U.S. and abroad, I look forward to opportunities to learn the local flora and fauna and indulge my interest in wildlife and nature photography.

Learn how plants manage water in response
to the environment. Photo by Orla Swift.

What can we expect from your class, and what do you hope participants will gain from it?
Students in the class will get a whirlwind tour of basic plant biology and learn how plants are put together, how they function, grow and reproduce, and how they interact in different ways with animals. Extensive, colorful handouts will be provided to help students follow along with the many different topics we'll cover.  I'll also bring in live specimens and lots of demonstration materials for hands-on activities and student personal observations.

Although any science class necessarily includes a certain amount of jargon, I'll keep that to a minimum and make sure to explain technical terms in language accessible to a non-specialist. My experience is that folks taking this class all have some interest in plants, often from a gardening or environmental conservation perspective, and my hope is to expand on that interest by helping students make connections with aspects of plant biology they are less familiar with. Plants are often taken for granted in our society -- they can be the unnoticed "wallpaper" of our world -- and I'd like to provide a deeper appreciation of just how amazing plant biology can be.

Learn how the structures of plants attract specific 
pollinators. Photo by Annabel Renwick.

What are you most excited about in this class?
In a time when much of academia is caught up in either increasingly narrowly focused topics or trendy multi/inter/cross-disciplinary studies, it is refreshing to teach a rather more traditional subject and help students delve into it with fresh eyes and new curiosity.  I always look forward to this opportunity to share my enthusiasm for botany with willing, interested students in a largely informal, relaxed setting -- no quizzes or papers! And, without a set curriculum to cover for an exam, I like being able to go off on botanically oriented tangents as student interests and unexpected opportunities may lead. The students and I always learn something new!

Motten's class meets for four Thursday night sessions, from Feb. 15 to March 8, from 6-9 p.m. If you are interested in learning more, please check out the class description for "Basic Botany and Plant Growth" on our website. To register, please call 919-668-1707 or send us an email. We look forward to seeing you!

This article is adapted from a 2016 post by Sarah Leach Smith.

Fall Colors in Duke Gardens

The Woodland Bridge in the Doris Duke Center Gardens.
Photo by Clarence Burke.

By Sheon Wilson
Publication Coordinator

Fall colors are spectacular at Duke Gardens, and despite our dry summer, this year is no exception.

Visitors are marveling at the sugar maples (Acer saccharum) that flank the parking lot as they enter, and they're raving about the camellia flowers in the Culberson Asiatic Arboretum.

Japanese maple leaves.
Photo by Sue Lannon.

“They all comment, saying [the maples] are so pretty and the color is breathtaking,” says Sue Schneider, a Duke Gardens ambassador who greets visitors at the Gothic Gates. “And in the Asiatic Arboretum, the red bridge with the maples in the Japanese garden are spectacular.”

Schneider also volunteers in the arboretum, where fall visitors are often surprised by the blooming camellias.

“People who aren’t from this area say, ‘Wow, what is that?’ ” she says. “They can’t believe what they’re seeing.”

Seasonal color has peaked in western North Carolina, but deciduous trees in the Triangle weren’t in any hurry to put on their fall coats of yellow, orange and red in early fall. Now the show is on.

Fall's changing colors. Photo by Sue Lannon.

Each fall, changes in temperature and the length of daylight cause leaves to stop the food-making process in cells containing the chlorophyll. As chlorophyll breaks down, the green color disappears, and the yellow to orange colors become visible. The College of Environmental Science and Forestry in Syracuse, N.Y., offers a fuller explanation.

If that makes you want to learn more, check out classes at Duke Gardens that delve into plant life, including “The Winter Garden” at 2:30 p.m. Dec. 6, “Landscape Plants for North Carolina Gardens” in February, and “Basic Botany and Plant Growth” in February and March.

Ginkgo biloba.
Photo by Jason Holmes.

Horticulturist Michelle Rawlins has the perfect picture of fall in her head, and it involves the magnificent large maidenhair tree (Ginkgo biloba) in the Historic Gardens, planted about 50 years ago.

“A couple of years ago, there was a girl, probably about 5, in a red petticoat underneath the ginkgo, picking leaves up and throwing them in the air,” Rawlins said. “It was the epitome of perfect, and it's a mental picture that I carry with me.”

The ginkgo is one of Rawlins’ favorites because “it's a tree that turns gold one day, and then the leaves start falling, and it's raining fall color.” There’s still time this fall to see the tail end of the ginkgo’s golden display.

Camellias in
Pine Clouds Mountain Stream.
Photo by Sue Lannon.

Rawlins, a prize-winning chrysanthemum grower, also recommends checking out the numerous mums displayed throughout the Asiatic Arboretum. The diversity of color, shape, size and form makes these plants eternally fascinating.

“We've had a lot of good compliments on them,” she said. “It's a flower that's doing its thing when not much else is.”

Student perspectives: fall’s varied palette

Camellia sasanqua in the Culberson
Asiatic Arboretum.

By Annie Yang
Duke Class of 2020

One of the pleasures of returning to Duke Gardens time after time is that it is constantly evolving throughout the year. Every week I visit, the scenery gradually changes with the cycle of the seasons, and a new plant that has just started to bloom catches my eye.

More pretty camellias
in the Asiatic Arboretum.

Autumn is a chance for trees to play starring roles, their red, orange and yellow leaves creating brilliant fall vistas. But walk through Duke Gardens and you’ll see a wider palette than you may expect, with berries and blooms offering additional visual delights.

All around the Culberson Asiatic Arboretum are camellias (Camellia sasanqua), whose bright yellow stamen against vibrant pink and white petals are sure to catch your eye. This species of camellia also emits a pleasant fragrance, so keep your eyes and nose open while you walk through this part of the gardens.

American beautyberry
in the Asiatic Arboretum.

Near the edge of the Asiatic Arboretum, as well as in the Blomquist Garden of Native Plants and elsewhere in Duke Gardens, is a plant I initially mistook for grapes when I first encountered it. The bold purples of the berries hanging on these small shrubs certainly demand attention. It’s no wonder that this plant is called the beautyberry (Callicarpa americana). The berries cluster together along the branches, and it’s almost impossible not to be mesmerized by the deep purple hue.


Winterberry holly (Ilex verticillata) adds visual punctuation throughout Duke Gardens, including in the Asiatic Arboretum and the Historic Gardens. The small, bright red berries of this plant give a festive feeling to its surroundings and are a reminder that winter holidays are almost upon us!

Kohlrabi in the Charlotte Brody Discovery Garden.

The Discovery Garden was not a place I expected to see “showy” plants, but I was pleasantly surprised. I came upon kohlrabi, a vegetable bred from the wild cabbage plant.  A relative of kale, cabbage, broccoli, Brussels sprouts, and many other vegetables, this wild cabbage is stunningly versatile.

Kohlrabi can come in pale green or deep purple, and the bulbs grow above ground, its many stems appearing to shoot up from the soil. This is definitely not your average vegetable, and it definitely pops right out. It’s edible, too, as with everything in this sustainable, organic food garden, so it has both form and function.

On your next fall visit to Duke Gardens, stay tuned to the palette beyond the palette. Fall’s fiery leaves put on a spectacular show, but you may decide that some of their co-stars also deserve top billing.

Fall for Orchids exhibit: an interview with Pei-Fen Liu

Visitors love taking photos of the wide variety of blooms
featured in the Fall for Orchids exhibit.
2016 exhibit photo by Kathy Julian.

By Sheon Wilson
Publications Coordinator

Musicians may know Duke instructor Pei-Fen Liu for her talent as a pianist. But this weekend at Duke Gardens, Liu will share another longtime passion: growing orchids.

Liu's blooms are part of the third annual Fall for Orchids exhibit, a collaboration between Duke Gardens and the Triangle Orchid Society. The exhibit opens Friday at 1 p.m. in the Doris Duke Center, with extended hours through 7:30 p.m. It will continue  through the weekend. Admission is free.

“Growing up in Taiwan, my mother grew all kinds of plants in our garden, orchids being one of them,” Liu, who has taught classical piano at Duke since 1994, wrote in an email interview this week. “She mounted Dendrobiums on tree ferns and hung baskets of Cattleyas behind shade cloths in the summer heat. The natural environment in rural Taiwan was pristine and we often took hiking trips in the mountains in search of wild orchids.”

North Carolina’s climate is also orchid-friendly, Liu says. So she and other orchid society members have ample opportunity to build and share their orchid-growing skills. 

Pei-Fen Liu with one of her orchids.
Photo courtesy of Pei-Fen Liu.

The exhibit will feature hundreds of stunning blooming orchids in lush garden-like settings, with displays by orchid societies from North Carolina and neighboring states. It will also include workshops and lectures about growing, repotting and caring for orchids (see schedule here), and visitors will have a chance to buy orchids and supplies.

Liu shared more about her love for orchids in the following Q&A:

What is the allure of the orchid? Orchids have always fascinated me with their diversity and endless variety. From the delicate blooms of the Phalaenopsis to the splash petals of peloric Cattleyas, orchid-growing is a hobby that never gets old. Each genre has its own appeal, and it has become an addiction to collect every single kind!                                                               

What orchid varieties do you grow?  I grow many varieties and have recently started to collect various species, particularly Dendrobiums. One of my favorites is Cattleya orchids; they can range from large and fragrant to compact and floriferous. Some of my favorites are Cattleya Sea Breeze, Cattlianthe Blue Boy and Rhyncholaeliocattleya Malworth ‘Orchidglade’.

What does it take to grow an orchid and keep it thriving? We are lucky to live in a climate that is both humid and warm enough to grow orchids outdoors in the summer. Finding the best medium, fertilizer and growing spot can take time, and I'm still trying to find better ways for my orchids to bloom bigger and healthier. It’s a giant learning curve but well worth making the effort.

What are some notable attributes of the orchid? What I find most interesting is that many species have different variations, which are typically expressed as a "var" at the end of their botanical names. This variation is usually a difference in color, but it also can be a splash in the petal or a different form in the flower. This variety in the orchid kingdom is passed down to hybrids, which has led to some amazing crosses.

Do orchids inspire your music, or does you music inspire your orchid-growing? Orchids and music represent each other.  I am inspired by both.

FALL FOR ORCHIDS EXHIBIT DETAILS

DATES: Friday, Nov. 10, 1-7:30 p.m.; Saturday, Nov. 11, 9 a.m.-5 p.m.; and Sunday, Nov. 12, noon-4 p.m.

COST: Free drop-in exhibit for all ages. Adult chaperone required. Parking fees apply Friday through 5 p.m. and after 1 p.m. Saturday and Sunday.

LEARN MORE: exhibit information; workshop & orchid society information.