Duke Gardens

Actually, the winter was pretty mild here in Cary, NC, but the blog needed a rest, and our routine provided a good opportunity for some downtime. 

Last week, with nearly everything in bud or blossom, daughter Rebecca took us to Duke Gardens, in nearby Durham. Though there's no lack of foliage where we live, it was very nice to see a large, mature botanical garden, with many specimens, very well presented. Memories of Keuckenhof last year and before and of so many great English gardens in previous years. Thank you, Rebecca!

Big place, right at the center of the old campus, next to the Duke
Chapel...memories also of SMU friends who came from Duke...
Andy Parker, Andy Bryant, and foremost Ken Pye, whom I was
privileged to work for before I became vice provost...

Moi, at the entrance

Sans moi

Ample water features and such

Interesting rock garden

Among the ponds

More rock features, waterfalls

Camellias going well

Many Japanese accents

Us, there

Excellent signage...seriously...hardly
a shrub, flower bed, nor tree was not
well identified

Now in what the Brits would call the "kitchen garden"

Worm farm...part of an educational exhibit

Ditto: the compost pile...note the tomato escaping over the fence

In the kitchen garden

More water features

Neo-Gothic cruciform arch?

Last seen at Keukenhof

Outside the gift shoppe

Also outside the gift shoppe, just as we were leaving,
I spotted a specimen of my favorite weird tree, a very young
Monkey Puzzle; my set was complete; well...except for
the rhodos...maybe later