Sarah P. Duke Gardens

I was lucky enough to visit the triangle or Raleigh - Durham - Chapel Hill this summer, and fell in love with the Sarah P. Duke Garden on Duke's campus. How lucky are the students to have this treasure to enjoy! I saw about a dozen students tucked into corners of the garden, headphones on, studying away. The Yellow Flowers are Hedychium, or ginger. Looked for a name tag, but alas, it was either not there or covered by giant plants!

The landscape shot is in the heart of the garden, apparently the popular spot for weddings! There were wedding planners and brides-to-be walking the grounds when we were there! This shot represents only 1/20th of this garden space. I like how they designed garden rooms, so you have to explore to see everything.

Do you recognize this flower? Blooms in spring, white flowers, a beacon of hope in the understory forest, or a specimen tree in many a backyard, has red showy fruit this time of year that persists into the winter, birds love the fruit.....have you guessed it yet? Its a Dogwood...Cornus florida.

This last picture is in the water garden area. You can see hybrid water lilies on the pond surface, and a Tacca sp. (bat plant) in the center growing out of the water. These water lily pads are giant! These things are almost 3 feet across! These large pads originally came from the Amazon, likely selected for flower color, flower size, pad size, and WOW factor!

Longwood Gardens in Kennett Square PA also has a collection of these massive waterlily hybrids. Worth the visit if you have not been...though you will need to wait until August or so to see large pads...they get bigger as the summer progresses.

If you havent been to your local public garden in a while, check it out! This is the ideal time to experience fall in the garden. Between fall blooming plants, red, orange, and golden leaves, and berries galore...there is much to see and marvel over in the fall garden. Plus, what better time to get out and breathe some fresh crisp air! And, I bet they have lots of fun classes during the winter to keep you dreaming of spring....

My advice? Make up a thermos of hot chocolate to take along the way. Hot chocolate makes everybody happy...