On the Rocks: A Scree & Crevice Garden Tour

At first glance, a pile of rocks seems like the last place a plant would want to call home — yet the scree and crevice gardens at Duke Gardens are bursting with an array of tenacious, beautiful and cleverly adapted plants. Participants can join Branden Kowalyszyn, horticulturist of the Gateway Gardens at Duke Gardens, for a guided tour through these rugged landscapes, where sharp drainage, shifting gravel and thin soils support an extraordinary community of plants from around the world.

The tour will explore the artistry and science that go into creating these gardens, including how the angle of a tilted stone, the chemistry of the gravel and the geometry of a crevice allow these plants to live there. Participants will learn how a plant’s form, texture and growth habit reveal its survival strategies.

Whether participants are seasoned gardeners looking for new ideas or have simply walked past a rock garden and wondered what’s going on, they’ll get an insider’s look at the horticultural craft required to create these habitats and leave with an appreciation for plants’ ability to thrive even in the hardest of places.