Fall is my favorite time of year! Colored leaves. Cooler weather. What could be better? How about that PLUS the brilliant blooms still struttin’ their stuff (y’all) over at the Sarah P. Duke Gardens?
Here are just a few of the flowers I’m seeing at this beautiful “garden for all seasons” as the shorter, milder days of autumn replace the sun-drenched days of summer.
Lilies in the Historic Terrace Gardens. Simple, reliable, and beautiful.
These “Strawberry Fields” Gomphrena, a cut-flower favorite, have captivated me all summer long and are still going strong.
The ornamental peppers “peppered throughout” the Historic Terrace Gardens look good enough to eat! (But from what I’ve read, ornamental peppers are either hot, hot, hot or bland, bland, bland. Take your pick. Or rather, don’t.)
The Fish Pool in the the Historic Gardens is loaded with colorful lily pads and water lilies right now.
The Fish Pool literally sparkles and shimmers!
![I declare that the cute little dragonfly on this water lily is smiling! [Click to enlarge and see if you agree!]](https://lorilynnsullivan.files.wordpress.com/2013/09/lily_dragonfly_dukegardens.jpg)
I declare that the cute little dragonfly on this water lily is smiling! [Click to enlarge, and see if you agree!]
The Butterfly Garden is drying off a bit, but I found this hunka’-hunka’ burnin’ love among the ground covering. (In case you can’t read the blurry plaque, this bright-colored beauty is called “Burning Love.”)
My favorite flower in bloom over at the Duke Gardens right now is the big leaf princess flower. Isn’t it gorgeous?
As autumn descends in its golden splendor and I enjoy the final colors of summer, I’m reminded that autumn, too, will pass. But as “leaf subsides to leaf,” (if I may quote Robert Frost), there will always be some bold statement of nature and creation to be explored in the Gardens.
