Guided Programs in the Gardens
These programs are designed to introduce students of all ages to the complexity of the garden environment. They are age appropriate and correlated to the North Carolina Standard Course of Study. Skill building includes communicating, listening, observing, cooperating, problem solving, measuring, predicting, recording, reading and reporting. All programs are led by trained docents.

Preschool through First Grade
- Scavenger Hunt: Use visual clues to discover the wonders of Duke Gardens. Explore a variety of areas using your senses to uncover the mysteries of nature found in the gardens. Make a wish in our wishing well.
- Flower Bingo: Play bingo in the Italian Terraces, Perennial Allee or Butterfly Garden and discover the many forms, shapes and colors of flowers. Make a wish in our wishing well.l.
- In the Amphitheater: see description below.

Second through Fifth Grade
- Name That Tree: Focus on how botanists identify trees by looking at their leaves. Using clues, teams identify a selection of trees and discover the unique characteristics of each species. Each team will report its findings.
- Tree Detectives: Teams work together as detectives to unravel the special characteristics of their assigned tree. Learn how botanists describe a tree, make a bark rubbing, measure the trunk and discover who might be living in the tree. Teams report their findings to the whole group.
- All About Flowers: Explore a wide variety of flowers up close and learn the structures and functions needed for reproduction. Discover the role animals play in plant survival and make a botanically correct flower to take home.
- Native Tales (fourth graders): Plants have stories to tell. Discover how plant lore and folklore connect native plants to North Carolina history. Learn how native people and early settlers used plants to survive. This program is offered to students studying North Carolina history. Using a printed guide, students walk through our Blomquist Garden of Native Plants and explore the rich stories from our native flora.
- Plant Explorers: Travel to distant lands with a Plant Explorer as your guide. Learn how these real-life characters traveled the globe in search of new plants. Discover the challenges of finding plants in wild places and become a plant explorer as you travel through the Gardens after this program with a printed self-guided.
- In the Amphitheater: This program is designed for as many as 100 students. We begin with a 20-minute dramatic presentation. Then each student receives a guide to become a plant explorer in the gardens. For first through fourth grades.

Tea Programs in the Japanese Tea Pavilion
- Haiku Trail into the Garden: Learn about haiku and create your own poem while traveling through the Culberson Asiatic Arboretum.
- Tea Box in the Teahouse: Participate in a unique tea presentation while being introduced to tea culture from a garden tea box.

General and Speciality Tours available for all ages.