Harry P. Jenkins

Harry Jenkins, superintendent of Duke Gardens, helps unload potted evergreen shrubs from Pender County.
...
HARRY P. JENKINS
...
DURHAM - Like the hearty yellow daffodils that push up from the cold ground early each spring, Harry Jenkins is a perennial.
...
After graduating from N.C. State University the next year with a degree in floriculture, Jenkins went to work full time."I've seen a lot of changes in 35 years, but I still look forward to coming to work each day," said Jenkins, 56.
...
But ask Jenkins to show you something he has done and he'll rattle off the names of the others who contributed more than he did.Jenkins isn't the top administrator at the gardens, though he has been there longer than anyone else.The 22 full-time employees are augmented by a brigade of about 300 volunteers.He is one of five horticulturists on staff, and each has his own budget, but many decisions are made collaboratively.The orientation of each new path, bed or boulder is drawn out well in advance, the plans reviewed by a committee."The staff here is great to work with," he said.
...
As a boy, Jenkins was an active member of the local 4-H club."I've always loved working with plants," he recalls as he gives a visitor a morning tour in a golf cart."From 10 or 11 years old, I've always known my life's work would be with plants.I love them all, except maybe bamboo."He says this while driving past a large stand of towering green stalks in the asiatic arboretum, expounding on how he finds bamboo aesthetically pleasing but practically aggravating.Related more closely to grass than trees, bamboo spreads quickly and can be tougher to eradicate than kudzu.Jenkins abruptly hits the brake, and the cart crunches to a halt on the gravel path."You see that blue heron down there?"he asks, pointing to a majestic, brightly colored bird standing proudly on top of a small pagoda."You know they're very territorial.There's only one in the gardens, and he's it."Responsibility for the garden's various sections is divided, and Jenkins focuses mostly on The Terraces, flower beds between low walls made of the signature Duke stone quarried near Hillsborough.

In addition, people have unknowingly contributed to the tree's demise just by walking around its base and compacting the soil, said Harry Jenkins, gardens superintendent.

"While trees generally aren't hurt by people climbing them, no tree can survive the constant activity the magnolia has endured," Jenkins said.
...
"We're trying to use this as a teaching opportunity," Jenkins said.

Meanwhile, gardens staff have chained off another tree, the Dawn Redwood, which is among the rarest in the gardens.The Dawn Redwood was thought to be extinct until a specimen was found in China in 1941.Duke's is one of the original trees grown from seed collected from the rediscovered specimen.

The life expectancy for magnolia trees varies, but they are known to live more than 100 years, Jenkins said.

"It's always inspiring," said superintendent Harry Jenkins."Who can't come here and look out at the tulips blowing in the wind and not see the beauty?"

As Jenkins gives a tour of the Gardens, he points out little surprises.

"That's a bluet," he said of the tiny flower poking up from a moss garden."That spicy aroma you smell is from the viburnum plant."

This sense of place, the changing aromas and blooms from season to season, comes naturally to Jenkins, Duke Gardens' elder statesman with 32 years of service.

With more than 2,000 species, "there's something blooming all of the time here," he said.

Garden grows

Jenkins talks with earnest pride about the growth of the Gardens, including the 1984 addition of the Culberson Asiatic Aboretum, named after the late William Louis Culberson, director from 1978 to 1998.
...
Jenkins also lists more mundane changes that take place under visitors' noses.

Throughout the winter, workers spruced up the wisteria-capped pergola that ushers visitors out into the manicured Terraces.Crews reinforced the Duke stone walls of the Gardens' terraced flowerbeds with mortar, replaced soil and edging and put in a new irrigation system.Staff members also planted 11 new trees as well as 11,000 annuals and perennials and 11,000 bulbs.

"We do all of this for the visitors," Jenkins said.

But visitors shouldn't forget "garden etiquette."

"We want them to enjoy it, but respect it," he continued, walking past the Terraces' tulips."It's a museum.
...
The Gardens could not operate without the volunteers and private donations, which account for roughly half the Gardens' $1 million operating budget, Jenkins said.
...
Jenkins speaks with reverence about Shipman's terraces and walkways, which stretch out in a longitudinal and latitudinal fashion as if they were a globe laid down flat.Considered her finest work, the Gardens remain the only public garden Shipman ever designed.One of the premiere public gardens in the Southeast, the Gardens are featured in this month's Our State magazine.

Jenkins said the spring blooms and fall color changes are the best time for visitors.

Spring draws out the birds and bees as well.

From the looks of an empty champagne bottle and clothing left under a tree, students recently picked the Gardens' South Lawn for a late night romp in the grass.

"I've seen it all, and that's all I'll say," Jenkins said, chuckling.

"It's very devastating to the staff, especially when admission to the gardens is free," said Harry Jenkins, superintendent of the gardens."Our goal is simply to have the gardens as beautiful as possible."

The statue was added last year when the two pools in the terrace section of the garden were reconditioned, Jenkins said.Statues in place before were too small, and a landscape architect recommended larger statues be placed in the pools.

The gardens' director of development sought out a donor to pay for the additional statues.Florentine Craftsman Inc. of New York created the statue.

Jenkins is offering a $200 reward for information on the theft.People may call him at 668-1701.

Although it likely won't be able to be reattached, Jenkins said he wants the statue back.A new one is on order.

Thefts of smaller statues have taken place before, but Jenkins said extra measures have been taken recently to secure them.Jenkins said he would now look for even better ways to secure them.

The gardens are open year-round and close at dusk.

Duke police began boosting their presence around the gardens at night after a string of robberies last year.

With Harry Jenkins, superintendent of the gardens.