Duke commutes: May

I've been busy these last few weeks, both with my job as a research administrator at Duke and taking care of my own home yarden. Thankfully,  it is bright enough in the mornings that I can get some work done outside before my house wakes up.  I've finally done all the transplanting, pruning, and potting that I wanted to do by April 15. It only took me an extra month.

From inside the historic terraces at Sarah Duke Gardens where folks were (justifiably) peony crazed all month long. This may be the best shot I've ever taken in the terrace garden.

Wherever the porcelain berry wants to grow, it does...it has led some of us to think it might be a wild hop vine.  And yes, that would be me.  I was very disappointed to learn otherwise. This picture is from near the Davison Bldg. on West Campus and definitely the best shot I have ever taken of an exotic invasive.

Duke commutes: February yellow

wintersweet- Sarah P. Duke Gardens

crocus- Sarah P. Duke Gardens

winter jasmine- West Campus

yellow berried nandina- Sarah P. Duke Gardens

Salix- Sarah P. Duke Gardens

winter honeysuckle- West Campus

new Plensa sculptures in town..

On Tuesday, I noticed  the large Hewitt pottery pieces had been removed from the Nasher Museum's lawn. I was actually pretty disappointed to see this because of what I thought had been put in their absence.  As I cruised down Anderson Street at 25mph, sporting a newly acquired Durham Pace Car magnet on the back of my wagon, I slowed down for the light and glanced over a half-dozen newly planted American Hollies.  My thought was something like, "This totally screws up a perfect open lawn!" Left to reach their full size, the trees would one day murk the view of a gorgeous building.  But then the light turned red and I looked closer. I was happily surprised to see these trees were being being held by some pretty cool looking figures.

I visited the Nasher yesterday with my five year old son. On our way to the east entrance, he asked me  what the difference was between a statue and sculpture as he, ahem, tried to climb on a stone sculpture/installation just outside the doors.  Because I didn't have a good answer, I pretended not to hear and instead told him that he was going to get us in trouble. But then I bought him cookies from the cafe and we hit the patio to see these things up close.  It was fun.

According to the Nasher's marketing and communications manager Wendy Livingston, the cast bronze figures are on loan from the Richard Gray Gallery until the spring when they will be removed.....along with the trees.  This work is entitled The Heart of Trees and was created in 2007 by Spanish sculptor Jaume Plensa, who is a regular household name in the Triangle.  Enjoy it while it lasts friends.

in the shade of Duke Chapel and is there an app for this?

On my lunch break today I pretended to be a tourist around a landmark that I am very familiar with. The trees below are extra large examples (from top to bottom): American Holly, Southern Magnolia, Purple Leaf Plum, Willow Oak.

The hinge is a reminder that Gothic architecture often pulls its motifs from Nature.

Speaking of reminders...can anyone help me remember the capitalization rules for plants... Hmm...the beauty and curse of blogging?  Has anyone invented an app for editing? Or maybe there is a cloud-editor website out there that would employ live people pouring over inane blog post from around the globe and pitching back an occasional tidbit of goodness. This scribe would subscribe. Ouch, maybe I should have deleted that last play on words.

spooky

This is a picture of a Japanese cryptomeria. It is part of the skyline of evergreens that line Chapel Drive on Duke's west campus. The roundish growth near the top of this old tree is called a "witch's broom." I had never heard of this until I started reading about rock gardening...apparently there are several dwarf conifers that have been introduced to the nursery trade after an enterprising propogation artist figured out how to graft a piece of a witch's broom onto "normal" rootstock. Now, I don't know if this particular Frankenstein on Duke's campus would produce anything new for the legions of Japanese cedar fans out there (ya'll are out there right?) but if there is an interested botanist reading this who has the time and the ladder....then shoot me me an email. I'd love to watch.

west campus: pictures from Duke and Duke Gardens

 
Pictured from top to bottom  L to R
Meyer lilac (Sarah Duke Gardens)this picture was taken this morning
Flagstone walk outside of the Davison Building on Duke's West Campus
Indian Hawthorne in bloom near the visitor parking lots at Sarah Duke Gardens....I always forget that this dependable evergreen actually has nice flowers. I usually think of it for its foliage / drought resistance. Even though that puts it on a list of "carefree" shrubs, I've seen plenty struggle in locations where there is not  enough sun or the drainage is not good.
A native Fringe Tree Chionanthus virginicus- a nice blooming tree that does not wait until it is mature before flowering. This almost-medium sized  specimen was probably planted about five years ago when the Bostock Library was constructed.
   

japanese flowering cherry

picture taken today on Duke's west campus

check this out...

The eastern redbuds will be blooming soon. I noticed some glowing buds on my way to Duke's Bostock Library today. In the stacks, I've seen that more and more books have made their way to Bostock by way of Duke's Biological and Environmental Sciences Library, which has apparently closed.....

The illustration and old library card sleeve are  from Carolina Landscape Plants, by R. Gordon Halface (1971, The Sparks Press, Raleigh).

a few months from now.....

If  you are a parent, March can be a month for making summer plans. The school and camp enrollment forms are probably due and folks are beginning to search through the calendar for the best potential summer vacation week.

These pictures are of new growth from perennial clumps of black-eyed susans.  I was surprised to see them so far out of the ground this time of year, but their location is in a very sunny and sheletered spot between the two buildings of Duke's Fitzpatrick Center . They are part of a perennial border that is a useful display of  low-maintenance plantings....plants like these are just the kind of thing you might cherish later on this summer when you need to go out of town for a week.

bright branches

Chinese witchhazels were blooming in Sarah Duke Gardens this past week. These pics were taken Wednesday.
This grouping is on the grassy slope behind the large Dawn redwood-just north of the terraces. I thought the images could be appreciated on a cold and soggy midwinter day.

one of the best evergreen screens for the South

These photos were taken today in the perennial allee at Sarah Duke Gardens. Most of the visitors do not notice the sasanqua camellias 11 months out of the year since they form the dark green backdrop for showier shrubs, yuccas, vines, tropicals, herbs, and native perennials. But today, this utilitarian backbone is smothered in a galaxy of light pink blooms.
It is a shame we don't see more privacy screens made up of these wonderful shrubs, which are native to Asia but have been a part of Southern landscapes for well over a hundred years. Compared to the cold weather blossoms of c. japonicas, c. sasanqua flowers may not be as impressive, but they can take more direct sun and drought. This particular variety is called Maiden's Blush.

molten lava leaves

There are several excellent medium-sized trees that can be planted beside patios and near driveways and avenues in the lower South (zones 7-9) but the Chinese pistache is arguably the one with the most vivid fall color. Be patient if you plant a young specimen; try to train it to a central trunk. Until the lower branches are above your head, it may look a little gangly. This Chinese pistache sits beside the building where I work. Last week, I kept meaning to take a picture and finally got around to it on Friday's lunch break. I am glad I did. Today, almost half of these beautiful leaves were down on the ground and plastered to the cement sidewalk. Sunday's breezy and rainy pass from a cold front did a week's worth of stripping in one day. This tree is part of a row of three-- planted approximately fifteen years ago.

the last week of October and the first of fall's peak color

Today I had to walk a good bit on Duke's west campus. I made four trips to and from my car which I park on the far side of Sarah Duke Gardens and along the way I took about two dozen photographs. This week everyone will really notice the variety of trees, shrubs, and perennials in various stages of fall color all over the piedmont.

Left - fallen leaves from a Japanese cherry tree.
Below- a big leafed hydrangea starting to turn. Not pictured here are the dogwoods, redbuds, ginkgos, and Chinese pistaches which will be at their best over the course of this week. Be on the lookout. Our rakes and lawn mower-bags will be gathering much of this stuff too soon.

enough light to work by

Late summer and early autumn kind of run together around here. I hiked through Sarah Duke Gardens last week and even though I felt warm, I was not uncomfortable. The real guide is the sun. This picture was taken on my lunch hour. I think the sunshine looks like four o'clock in June. That difference makes me a feel a bit melancholy.........but anyway, I am not an astronomer or a poet, so let's move on.

I am a gardener so I do know that shorter days make it hard to finish my chores: dividing perennials, seeding rye grass, digging a French drain, thinning the arugula seedlings. Those boxes remain unchecked. It didn't help that on Saturday, I came home with almost two dozen items from the annual plant distribution event at the JC Raulston Arboretum in Raleigh. I now have the charge of deciding where to plant my climbing hydrangea, a narrow-leafed possumhaw viburnum, the mysterious-sounding hidden cone ginger, a false rosemary, and a trunk full of other things that will probably outgrow their assigned seating around the perennial border. Not only is my garden running out of room but I am running out of hours. And daylight savings ends in less than a month.

But if I were caught up with everything I would not have a reason to work in the garden. What is the point in that?

in the middle

When I lived in Baton Rouge, live oak trees were like crape myrtles in North Carolina-- they were planted everywhere. But in south Louisiana, live oaks were more than a "street tree." They turned into large and low-slung behemoths. From a distance they looked like thunderheads of evergreen and gray. The coastal and deep South is where Quercus virginiana gets real big and sometimes gets real Spanish moss on its limbs.

But live oaks can survive into Durham (zone 7a/b) and other parts of the middle South. There are online garden forum discussions of specimens even making it in Kentucky and Tennessee. Some of those threads get crazy when folks start debating the trending of real temps, global warming, native trees, etc. Even weather is controversial when you get passionate folks together who have the Internet and an opinion to share.

Pictured above is my favorite local live oak. It was probably planted thirty-plus years ago when Duke's mid-campus apartments were newly built/landscaped. The sheltered and sunny site in between two buildings makes a good spot for this marginally hardy tree.

hive visit

Duke university student, Chuck Abolt, prepares to check on a colony of honey bees. He is involved with Duke's Farmhand organization and a university apiary club.

On Sunday I spent some time visiting the six honey bee hives that are being kept at Sarah Duke Gardens, by the Duke Apiary Club. Their main purpose, according to member Chuck Abolt, is to educate the community about the importance of honey bees.

Domestic and feral honey bee populations have been in decline in North America. Thankfully, an interest in beekeeping is on the rise as more and more folks wish to see and taste where their food really comes from (i.e. backyard gardens and small local farms).

Honey bees play a crucial role in pollinating fruit and vegetables. Agricultural operations of all sizes are paying good money to rent hives for the growing season. Look for my short article on beekeeping in next month's issue of Boom. It is a free monthly newspaper you can grab outside of Whole Foods, where I recently paid a king's ransom for a pound of good local clover honey. It was worth it. But considering the two hives on the left produced 120lbs of honey in a single harvest, the idea of keeping my own colony has real appeal.

May is a good month to see what is blooming at Sarah Duke Gardens. But is also worthwhile to notice all the new perennial growth that is making promises for summer. Tomorrow's tall Joe Pye weed and Asiatic hybrid lilies are gaining some serious height as I write this. Sometime in the humid and hot weeks ahead they will bust open their buds; but they can be appreciated well before then.

Joe Pye weed


cabbage leaf coneflower

Hibiscus mutabilis

Here is a large flowering shrub at Sarah Duke Gardens. Commonly called a cotton rose or Confederate rose hibiscus, it can grow over eight feet tall and wide in the summer. This is an old-fashioned favorite that will die back in the winters around here. But it springs back like a perennial. Late summer and fall blooms are always a premium in my book and this giver is just getting started.

a contract with contractor's shrubs

Last Tuesday I trolled the parking lot at a home improvement super store. By the curb a lawn and garden sign advertised: CONTRACTOR’S SHRUBS. For less than $10 a pop you could walk away with some smallish evergreen bushes—it seemed like a good deal. But the buyer should beware.

A lot of these hollies and cypresses and boxwoods get stuck next to foundations and walkways and parking lots at new construction sites where you have to wonder if anyone is thinking ahead. For example, a Buford Holly (Ilex cornuta Bufordi) will grow up to be a small tree if you let it. I should know. Under my home’s front windows is a collection of decades old bufordis that have to be kept in check almost weekly from May through September.

The result are tiresome green lollipops that are forced to grow no more than five or six feet tall. If I gave up and let them go? They would each look like this specimen on Duke’s campus, probably planted outside the North Building in 1958 when the structure was newly built.

By the way- if you are interested, there are dwarf versions of Buford Hollies and other evergreen bushes out there.

winter walk

It is early February and I can count four different varieties of yellow bloom on a walk through Duke's campus.

The first, fragrant wintersweet, I noticed several weeks ago on my way to work. Its deliberate planting beside a trail in the Sarah Duke Gardens could not be missed. Chimonanthus praecox can become a large shrub or trained as a small tree. By now the small waxy trumpets have lost their keen smell, however they turned my head from ten feet away just after the New Year. Hopefully a three inch sapling I have planted near my front walk will do the same one day. This Southern favorite comes from China and Japan.

Leaving the Gardens and climbing a hill near the medical school, I arrive to the roundabout terminus of Research Drive. An embankment covered with winter jasmine sits near a service entrance to the Perkins-Bostock Library. Thousands of small yellow flowers make it a favorite early blooming shrub to put along steep grades and in difficult sites. Many folks (including me a few years ago) mistake it for an early blooming forsythia. It is much more of a low-grower.

Between the bank of winter jasmine and my workplace, I veer west to find the pedestrian path beside Hudson Hall and the Nello Teer Libray. This walkway is lined with healthy, useful, and typical groups of azaleas, camelias, and hollies. In one shady pocket I am pleasantly surprised by a thicket of Japanese kerria. This six-foot tall mass of crayon green stems is a spreading old-fashioned shrub not very common in institutional landscapes. My newly "discovered" specimen is presently sporting a few golden fluffy flowers which were possibly preserved from a sporadic late summer bloom. A good many new buds are starting to open, a preview to the early spring flowering that lends it one common name, "Easter Rose." I am trying to grow a bunch on the east side of my house beside a bedroom window. Their leafless arches are very attractive in winter.

Lastly, I make a detour past the Levine Science Research Center to a columned walkway. Thick boughs of Carolina jessamine climb these columns, and their small tubular yellow flowers bring it a lot of attention in February. You can count on this native evergreen vine as a good choice for climbing mailboxes, fences, or even cascading down walls. It can be drought tolerant when established and take partial shade or sun. Look for it in trees and yards around town before spring bulbs start to steal everyone's attention.

Monday 2.25.08: a revision
I was wrong about the jessamine vine. It really does not bloom until well into March. My visit today revealed lots of yellow studs that will flower in the weeks to come. There are some scattered flowers so I guess it counts for February, just not in the way I had imagined it.