Every day, visitors arrive at Duke Gardens, and the plants have already been checked, paths cleared and beds quietly tended.
What looks like effortless beauty at the Gardens — from the blooms to the carefully arranged landscapes — is the product of daily labor and year-round planning. Behind the quiet paths and the lively South lawn, who are those responsible for the beautiful blossoms year-round?
The work falls to a coordinated team of staff horticulturists, interns and volunteers, supported by a facilities specialist and a plant collections manager who maintains a detailed database of the Gardens’ plant collections.
Together, the team, led by Director of Horticulture Robert Mottern, keeps one of Duke’s most visited spaces open every day of the year, welcoming more than 650,000 visitors annually. In his role, Mottern oversees both the day-to-day maintenance of the Gardens’ plant life and long-term planning for landscape infrastructure, including patios, pathways, irrigation systems, drainage, garden structures and seasonal plantings.
The Duke Gardens are divided into four distinct sections — the Historic Gardens, H.L. Blomquist Garden of Native Plants, W.L. Culberson Asiatic Arboretum and the Gateway Gardens — each managed by a team of horticulturalists who are experts in their respective areas and largely manage their sections independently.
“I really let each individual team make most of the decisions in their areas because I want everyone to have a part of ownership in their area … and their thoughts and ideas represented,” Mottern said.
Behind the visible displays, Mottern noted the “constant manipulation of plants,” with spaces intentionally shaped and maintained through specific plant selection, design and routine trimming for both aesthetic and safety reasons. He added that maintenance also includes removing dead trees, cleaning up and repairing damage caused by storms, repainting the iconic Meyer bridge, as well as routinely managing disease and pests.
In addition to full-time staff, the daily upkeep of the Duke Gardens relies on a broad network of students, interns and volunteers to help with daily operations. During the academic year, about 15 to 16 work-study students assist with tasks ranging from mulching to assisting weekend visitors. Each summer, the Gardens also hire interns from horticulture programs across the country to support routine maintenance, including watering the Gardens’ many container plantings.
Volunteers are also a significant part of the Gardens’ backbone. Mottern said between 30 and 50 horticulture volunteers regularly contribute hours each week, while others support departments across the Gardens, including education, special events and visitor services.
“It takes a lot of people, a lot of hands and a lot of coordination to maintain the Gardens like we do,” he said.
Much of the care that comes with maintenance is labor intensive. This includes hand-pulling weeds, mulching, pruning and rotating the seasonal plants in and out. The process begins in the greenhouse, where plants are moved into containers before being transferred to different areas of the Gardens and eventually replanted each season. According to Mottern, replanting typically takes place in the spring and fall, the busiest periods for the Gardens team.
Each year, Duke Gardens also prepares months in advance for the influx of visitors during cherry blossom season, an effort so extensive it has come to be known as “Operation Cherry Blossom.”
“It’s constant work,” he said. “… We’re always busy with something. It’s just that some seasons are a little bit busier than others.”
For Lilyann Gardner, a first-year Master of Fine Arts student, working behind the scenes has become valuable experience. Gardner works as a student intern in the Historic Gardens, where her responsibilities shift with the seasons.
Depending on the time of year, Gardner helps with watering, weeding, pruning and planting — much of the hands-on labor at the core of Duke Gardens’ upkeep. Currently, much of her work has focused on preparing the terraces by removing old plantings, tilling soil and installing bulbs for future blooms — work Gardner described as “really gratifying.”
Behind the work is also a strong emphasis on sustainability, something Gardner said many visitors may not notice. She explained that when seasonal flowers such as tulips and daffodils are removed after a season, all plant material is composted and reused to create new soil and mulch for future plantings.
Mottern said that behind all the planning and labor, the Duke Gardens are ultimately meant to be a place where visitors can explore, learn and take inspiration home. By showcasing “unique and unusual plants” and designing them in what he called “the most exciting way to use certain plant material,” Mottern hopes that people will “take home ideas and maybe represent what they see here at Duke Gardens … in their own yards.”
He added that Duke Gardens’ year-round, free admission makes it a rare resource among university gardens.
“We just want people to come in here, enjoy the Gardens and respect the Gardens but just really enjoy this space,” Mottern said. “… There’s lots of universities that have arboretums and gardens, but not really [of Duke Gardens’] caliber.”
Gardner described her time working at the gardens as centered on “community” and “teamwork.” Although each individual action may be small, together, the efforts of staff and volunteers certainly don’t go unnoticed.
“There’s a lot of people that are doing work behind the scenes, and they’re really making it beautiful, day in and day out,” Gardner said. “It’s just wonderful to then be able to see the Duke community, Durham community come out and enjoy the fruits of that labor.”
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