What’s Beautiful This Season

Below are some plants that are especially interesting or typically in bloom this season at Duke Gardens.

Every year unfolds differently, depending on seasonal weather conditions. For an idea of plants you may wish to seek out this week, please download our “What’s Beautiful Now” map.

What's Beautiful Now Map

Summer Highlights

Evergreen needles of Duke Gardens plum yew.

‘Duke Gardens’ Plum Yew

Cephalotaxis harringtonia
'Duke Gardens'

A row of dwarf boxwood plants in a formal garden.

‘Little Missy’ Boxwood

Buxus microphylla
‘Little Missy’

A conical bunch of small white flowers on a tree branch, with deep green leaves and more flowers higher on the branch. Background is deep green in soft focus.

‘Natchez’ crapemyrtle

Lagerstroemia
‘Natchez’

Close-up of a yellow acorn squash growing on a metal arbor, with green vines and leaves around it.

Cucurbita pepo

A female ruby-throated hummingbird perches on an anise-scented sage plant in flower.

Anise-Scented Sage

Salvia guarantica

Azure Bluets

Houstonia caerula

A trained weeping bald cypress over a staircase.

Bald Cypress (Weeping)

Taxodium distichum
‘Cascade Falls’

Pink hydrangea flower clusters.

Bigleaf Hydrangea

Hydrangea macrophylla

Close-up of a blackberry lily flower with a soft focus background.

Blackberry Lily

Iris domestica (syn. Belamcanda chinesis)

Brown's Trumpet Lily

Brown’s Trumpet Lily

Lilium brownii

Purple flowers of cardoon, with trees and a garden path in the distance.

Cynara cardunculus

Leafy foliage of cast iron plant.

Cast Iron Plant

Aspidistra elatior

Bumblebee landing on a purple catnip flower

Nepeta spp.

A cluster of three rounded evergreen cryptomeria trees in a snowy landscape

Chapel View™ Japanese Cedar

Cryptomeria japonica
‘PIICJ-I’ Chapel View™

Low-growing clumps of Cherokee sedge in a woodland setting.

Carex cherokeensis

Green China fir foliage with yellow pollen catkins at the tips.

Cunninghamia lanceolata

Coast redwood foliage and developing cones.

Sequoia sempervirens

Red coral honeysuckle flowers

Coral Honeysuckle

Lonicera sempervirens

Close-up of three pink cosmos flowers and one bud, with more pink and orange flowers in soft focus behind them.

Cosmos bipinnate

Creeping fig on Duke stone

Ficus pumila

Close-up of a white-petaled lily flower with red stamen, and a soft-focus dark green background.

Crinum asiaticum

Trunk of dawn redwood tree in a grassy lawn.

Metasequioa glyptostroboides

Daylily - Primal Scream

Hemerocallis
‘Primal Scream’

Devil's walking stick

Devil’s walking stick

Aralia spinosa

Bicolor needles of dwarf tigertail spruce.

Dwarf Tigertail Spruce

Picea
‘Howell’s Dwarf’

Close-up of a purple eggplant with green leaves behind it.

Solanum melongena

Lavender plants in bloom next adjacent to a stone wall

English Lavender

Lavandula × intermedia
Phenomenal™ 'Niko' PP24193

Yellow ginkgo foliage in a woodland setting.

Ginkgo biloba

Close-up of a large red hibiscus flower with purple leaves, and green leaves in the background.

Hibiscus

A bee sits on pale green leaves with tiny white flowers at the center, and more leaves and flowers in the background.

Hoary Mountain Mint

Pycanthemum incanum

Hosta Victory

Hosta
'Victory'

Pink Japanese anemone flower with a background in soft focus.

Japanese (Chinese) Anemone

Anemone hupehensis

A Japanese black pine in a Japanese garden.

Japanese Black Pine

Pinus thunbergii

Japanese Maple

Acer palmatum

Japanese Maple (Moonrise)

Acer palmatum
'Moonrise'

Acer palmatum
'Beni otake'

Rolled needles of Korean fir.

Abies koreana
'Silberlocke'

Heart-shaped foliage of leopard plants beside a flowing stream.

Farfugium japonicum

Tuft of longleaf pine needles

Pinus palustris

Close-up of a pink and white lotus flower with a yellow center and a bee collecting pollen.

Nelumbo nucifera

Close-up of a pink and white lotus flower with a yellow center, and ferns and other leafy plants surrounding it.

Nelumbo nucifera

Okra flower and foliage.

Abelmoschus esculentus

Close-up of tree trunk with red strips of peeling bark.

Paperbark Maple

Acer griseum

Parrot pitcher plant

Parrot Pitcher Plant

Sarracenia psittacina

Yellow flowers of partridge pea

Chamaecrista fasciculata

Two images of pink banana flowers and fruit.

Musa velutina

A bridge with arches and ferns in the side metalwork, and a shrub in the foreground with orange flowers

Plumleaf azalea

Rhododendron prunifolium

Water plants in a pond

Powdery Alligator-Flag

Thalia dealbata

Purple pitcher plant

Purple Pitcher Plant

Sarracenia purpurea

Blue rosemary flowers and foliage.

Salvia rosmarinus (Rosmarinus officinalis) 

Close-up of pale peach roses with a patio and fountain in the distance.

Roses (‘Reve d’Or’)

Rosa
‘Reve d’Or’

Pink seashore mallow flowers

Seashore Mallow

Kosteletzkya virginica

Partially folded leaves of a sensitive plant, with a stone wall in the background.

Sensitive Plant

Mimosa pudica

Shagbark hickory trunk

Shagbark Hickory

Carya ovata

close-up of two white camellia flowers with red centers, surrounded by leaves.

Stewartia malacodendron

A close-up of white hydrangea flowers in partial bloom, with a green soft-focus background.

Silverleaf Hydrangea

Hydrangea radiata

Close-up image of the cream and pale green flowers of oakleaf hydrangea.

Snowflake Oakleaf Hydrangea

Hydrangea quercifolia
‘Brido’

Close-up of a white magnolia flower with yellow carpals and stamens.

Southern Magnolia

Magnolia grandiflora

Succulent plants growing amidst vertical pieces of stone in a scree garden, with bright red flowers and greenery in the distance.

Purple basil leaves

Ocimum basilicum

Close-up of pale pink and purple sweet potato blossoms with deep green leaves.

Sweet potato blossoms

Ipomoea batatas

Dionaea muscipula

White hawthorn blossoms and green leaves.

Washington Hawthorn

Crataegus phaenopyrum

A deep pink water lily among lily pads in a pond.

Nymphaea

Watermelon surrounded by vines

Citrullus lanatus

Pink, white and green pitcher plants amid grasses in a garden

White-topped Pitcher Plant

Sarracenia leucophylla

Harvested winter squash plants lined up in front of the vines.

Curcurbita moschata

Woodland pinkroot flowers

Woodland Pinkroot

Spigelia marilandica

Yellow Pitcher Plant

Sarracenia flava

Close-up of coral colored zinnia flowers with a pollinator house and more flowers and green plants in the background.

Zinnia elegans

Expand your plant knowledge by checking out our Garden Talk series, searching our plant highlights and following us on social media.

Questions about what’s beautiful this season?

Please contact us at 919-684-3698 or gardens@duke.edu.