morning slideshow: from today's commute through Sarah P. Duke Gardens

perennial favorites

I purchased a gallon-sized Ruellia simplex last weekend at the Sarah Duke Gardens fall plant sale. It has been showing up in more and more gardens lately...probably because it blooms late in summer and is pretty carefree. A common name for this perennial is Mexican blue-bells. 

Ruellia simplex has simple needs: sun and room to spread...

I am sure if you were to pinch it back it would grow much shrubbier and less lanky. Last fall while visiting the incredible perennial border at the JC Raulston Arboretum, I noticed a clump growing in front of a tall patch of swamp sunflower- Helianthus angustifolius  Not only was the yellow and violet color contrast a nice one, but the Ruellia shielded the lower 1/3 of the swamp sunflower which was looking pretty ratty at the bottom. The picture below is of the swamp sunflower that was planted alongside Ellerbe Creek in Durham’s Northgate park as part of a state funded stream restoration project. I took the picture yesterday...so drive or bike by soon if you want to see this native wildflower at its peak. Hell, you could probably fly over in a light plane and see it just fine.

swamp sunflower in bloom alongside Northgate Park's Ellerbe Creek

Speaking of plant purchases and the JCRA, this Saturday is their famous Plant Distribution Event where (I’m not making this up)....”thousands of choice and rare plants are freely given away.” You have to be a member of the arboretum to participate but you can pay your dues in person on the morning of.

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.
   

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.

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?

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

Japanese banana

....at Sarah Duke Gardens. Taken yesterday, May 6th about 4:45pm

Cold Weather Color: January 9th at SDG

Southern Living has recently named Durham's Sarah P. Duke Gardens as one of the top ten public gardens in the Southeast. I spent my lunch break there on Friday exploring what looked good this time of the year. The answer was plenty. With our last projected freeze a good three months away, you may think it would be a dreary hike in spots. But I found several reasons to fumble for the digital camera. Here are some pictures. (Right: buds of flowering quince 'Texas Scarlet' and yellow blooms of winter jasmine / Bottom left to right: wintersweet, Golden Sword Yucca, Japanese flowering apricot)

winter berries

This is a Winterberry Holly (ilex verticillata). It is an obvious candidate for best-in-show when the middle of winter comes and we are looking around for something besides evergreens to brag on in our yards and gardens. Today's picture comes from a tallish shrub near the duck pond at Sarah Duke Gardens. Its site near the water gives a clue as to this native's love for moist soil. But thankfully, drought is not necessarily a threat to its existence. Check with your local nursery or online resource to see what hybrids are available and how many male versus female shrubs you need for pollination purposes.

Japanese sacred lily

I am not sure why this herbaceous perennial is not more popular. Japanese sacred lily (Rohdea japonica) would make a great replacement or companion plant for the hostas we see everywhere. In addition to thriving in shade, this 12-24 inch high mound of evergreen straps sports subtle cones of red berries in the coldest months. Deer supposedly pass it over and it can stand drought.

These pictures were taken today in the Culberston Asiatic Arboretum at Sarah P. Duke Gardens. The lacecap hydragena makes a nice contrast behind the sacred lily (left).
I notice this grouping almost every day that I walk to and from work. Today, the rain and fallen leaves seemed to make the dark green foilage beg a little louder for attention.

The closest place to Durham I know for buying Japanese sacred lily is Niche Gardens , just outside Chapel Hill.

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.

Trying for a Southern Accent

A ten foot tall thicket of Bottlebrush Buckeye (Aesculus Parviflora) grows inside the Sarah Duke Gardens. This attractive shrub stands near the Millstone Pond in a six acre woodland garden devoted to southeastern native plants. High pines shade a curved gravel walk beside the under-story specimen. The plant, path, and entire property lie within Duke’s middle campus and only a ten minute stroll from my desk at work. Almost two weeks ago, during a Bottlebrush Buckeye site visit on my lunch-break, I was reminded of three reasons why I would recommend this planting choice to anyone with a little patience and room in their garden.

Reason one is that it is a native plant, occurring in forested coastal plains and piedmont areas from South Carolina to Alabama. You can stick one next to some woods in Durham and reasonably expect it to act as if it were born around these parts. Local gardeners should collect all the congratulations such an eco-friendly choice deserves. The more stringent native plant enthusiasts might point out that this is not really a natural occurrence for my clay, since we are north of its real habitat but I like to bend this rule. North Carolina lets the rest of the South mess around with smoked pig dishes without getting too upset—we can share regional delights.

The second reason is in the name. Bottlebrush spikes of creamy flowers, some over 12 inches long, make a wonderful announcement in mid-June. This is a welcome time of flowering for any small tree or medium woodland shrub in the landscape. After a first encounter with one in full bloom, I immediately bought a gallon-sized Aesculus Parviflora of my own. My new purchase from Niche Gardens Nursery near Chapel Hill was not blooming at the time, but it held a promise of flowering candles that would perfectly coincide with my son’s future birthdays. White, bee-attracting, and showy panicles are the hook for many people and likely a good part of the reason why the late founder of the North Carolina Botanical Garden, William Lanier Hunt, referred to it as one of the most beautiful shrubs in the world.

A third reason to try this shrub is a fall leaf which turns the color of a ripe golden delicious apple. I have to confess that I did not learn this from taking autumn notes on my own up-start. Our family’s juvenile Bottlebrush Buckeye is now only 15 inches high and, from a distance, could be confused with a fallen limb. One of its four palmate leaves turned a little yellow before falling off. It has survived the summer drought, but a safe bet is that it will not be featured on any October calendar pages in the next decade.

The Bottlebrush Buckeye cannot be magically transformed from seed to sucker to stand in a season or two. This is the only downside to the shrub’s habit. A relatively thrifty gardener, like me, who settled for one item at the cash register, is confronted with a pitiful stick in winter and slow growth for the first two springs and summers. After talking with a volunteer at the Duke Gardens, I will need to wait about four more years before I can start bragging about the plant from personal experience. This illustrates what greener thumbs already know: you have to have a lot of patience if you want to enjoy the results of a well planned landscape.

One of these days my thicket is going to take off. New roots will form. Spreading offspring will join their parents in a suckering, shading, and thriving gang of Aesculus Parviflora near the west corner of my front yard. My small grove will look nice between the lawn and the road as it rises inside the partial-shade of a pecan tree. It will probably not rival the version at Sarah Duke Gardens, but a check of its progress may draw me home on a lunch break now and again. I am looking forward to it.