The 11 Worlds come to an end

Dirt from Earthday

She cried when I told her the Topiary bunnies were going to be killed. Then she found out what 'topiary' was.

Jekyll would be miffed, but it's still worth saving

It's not just the plants (which will be dispersed to the four corners of America), the sculptures will be preserved - like dead treetrunks in a blighted landscape.

Caution - gone for good!

my favorite place in nj

Not nearly as dangerous as the management here!

This is the Irish garden. Just this little bit here.

"When we see a fountain of four waterfalls gushing up amid lush grapefruit and orange trees in the Indo-Persian garden, we sense the power of royalty who could command such abundance in the desert." Joseph D'Agnese

Greenhouse only 10 years old!

I love this place

Completely authentic, a visiting Chinese family told me - but Ms Raver chose to mock the other gardens instead.

"The Edwardian Garden looks like a mish-mash from Home Depot": Anne Raver, NYT. Ironically, the new Display will be composed solely of the type of plants in this room!

10 Gardeners: It is my hope and expectation that my Executors and Trustees and the foundations in which I am an officer at my death … shall employ as many of these persons as reasonably possible in order to maintain my various properties and to operate these foundations after my death. Will of DDuke

better view: B l a c k M a g i c

Fifty people a day are looking at this picture. Please take 2 minutes to send an email from the Save Duke Gardens web site. This page is the 'visitor book' for a flickr group of pictures by people who love Duke Gardens.

Doris Duke's glorious indoor display gardens at her Estate in NJ will be closed then destroyed on May 25th, by the order of the Trustees of the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation.

The individuals responsible for this destruction are: Joan E. Spero (President), Nannerl O. Keohane (Chair), John J. Mack (Vice Chair), Harry B. Demopoulos, Anthony S. Fauci, James F. Gill, Anne Hawley, Peter A. Nadosy, William H. Schlesinger, John H.T. Wilson and John E. Zuccotti.

These Gardens are a labor of love and a work of art. Doris Duke spent years creating them, and would sometimes spend 16 hours a day working in them. She created the Duke Gardens Foundation in 1960 to sustain them. They are being destroyed only 15 years after Doris Duke's death, on the 50th anniversary of their creation, by her Trustees, who say the gardens don't 'represent the best environmental practices'.

Really.

The Trustees have a PR machine that says the Gardens will re-open in a couple years. But what this really means is that a different garden will reopen in a different Conservatory. Not Doris Duke's elaborate set of interconnected display gardens. They will be destroyed forever.

alternate view of my photostream (Flickr Hive Mind)

This photo has notes. Move your mouse over the photo to see them.

To take full advantage of Flickr, you should use a JavaScript-enabled browser and
install the latest version of the Macromedia Flash Player.

Comments

nrmorris9 says:

The gardens are wonderful. It will be a great shame to lose them as envisioned by Doris Duke. Not only are they a piece of history, but a unique attraction to Hillsborough, Somerville and all of Somerset county. It is hard for me to imagine that the new "attraction" will come close to the Duke greenhouses as they exist. To dismember them is like painting over a Rembrant. The Somerset County Freeholders should pressure the Trustees to reconsider their decision to close the gardens.
Posted 15 months ago. ( permalink )

Val Ann says:

I tried to get a reservation for a tour of the indoor gardens. According to the web site, all the reservations are taken. I regret that I did not visit Duke Gardens in earlier years.

--
Seen in 1-2-3 NJ (post 1 image, leave 2 comments) (?)
Posted 15 months ago. ( permalink )

ra377 says:

It would be a tragedy to lose these extraordinary gardens!
Posted 15 months ago. ( permalink )

femme_makita says:

Use the phone number (see en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duke_Gardens). The web site booking tool doesn't work.
Posted 15 months ago. ( permalink )

nosha says:

I've had good success with calling the phone number when they open at around 8:30 in the morning. Over the past month we are 2 for 2 in being able to get in.
Posted 15 months ago. ( permalink )

hopefoote says:

Thanks for letting people know about this.

Seen in NJ 1-2-3.
Posted 15 months ago. ( permalink )

femme_makita says:

Everyone is who hears is very upset. We have nearly 100 letters from website, with only word of mouth advertising so far.
Posted 15 months ago. ( permalink )

florabritannica says:

This is just such a perfectly conceived gem of a circuit, can't believe someone would think "oh let's rip it down and do some other stuff instead, we can do better than this." The arrogance!
Posted 15 months ago. ( permalink )

Ross-mac says:

Even here in the centre of Ireland, the home of the world-famous Birr Castle Gardens, we know of AND LOVE the unique Duke Gardens. They are an unrepeatable and irreplaceable treasure and MUST BE RETAINED.
Posted 15 months ago. ( permalink )

richard.frithmacdonald says:

I've never seen anything quite like these gardens ... why do they want to destroy them?
Posted 15 months ago. ( permalink )

listentoreason says:

Self-guided, indeed...
Posted 15 months ago. ( permalink )

femme_makita says:

I've read many many pages of text from tax filings to obituaries, and talked to many people with various connections. All I can figure is the Trustees live in New York, Boston, and Washington, and it's not important to them.
I hear the Trustees are touring the gardens next week, some of them for the first time.
Posted 15 months ago. ( permalink )

~vivian~ says:

I'm so glad to see this shot because they don't even show this map on the Duke Gardens website and it's a good one! Would make a great souvenir...

As I toured the incredible gardens yesterday, I couldn't help but feel an overwhelming sadness that the product of the work, dedication and passion of Doris Duke, is about to be DESTROYED. I am astounded that the Trustees have chosen to take such a step while some have not even VISITED them before!

I was also astounded by the comment from one of the doscents, who in reply to one of the visitors, said, "These plants and flowers are exotics. They are not native to this area; they don't belong here..." How boring would it be to visit a zoo, a museum or a garden with examples of ONLY what's native to the area? For that, I'll just walk around outdoors!
Posted 15 months ago. ( permalink )

doodoopuppy says:

I don't understand why they can't "go in a new direction" with the property and preserve the Garden at the same time. What a crime to dismantle the beauty of this place. It is such a gem in our little corner of NJ. The hard work of creating the garden and the TLC of maintaining it for all these years will be gone just because of a decision made by people who don't even live here. Do these people know what they are doing?? I am heart sick.
Posted 15 months ago. ( permalink )

florabritannica says:

viviansb and doodoopuppy, SO RIGHT, take a look at The Eden Project www.edenproject.com/

On their front page under the Horticulture heading they list three biomes: the Humid Tropics, the Warm Temperate, and the Outside. Two protected biomes full of stuff that "doesn't belong here" embedded within a third natural biome. The idea is that you learn to value all three.

It works. You step out of the exotic and look at the commonplace with a fresh eye. Oh, and they heat it by burning grass. Closed carbon cycle. It CAN be done. And I don't buy that it can't be done with old glasshouses, which is the trustees' line: a boiler is a boiler is a boiler (apologies to Gertrude Stein). What's the point in becoming a "beacon" for green technology if you don't USE it to save things like this?
Posted 15 months ago. ( permalink )

justmecpb says:

I agree with doodoopuppy, they should be able to promote their trails, become an environmental center but still find a way to preserve the greenhouse gardens and make them environmentally friendly.

They obviously don't want to. As to why they don't want to, you have your answer in that they don't live nearby. If they had wonderful memories associated with this place, these powerful people would not be doing this. But as long as THEY have beautiful gardens where they live, why should they care about this one?

They apparently don't care about Doris Duke's wishes, either. (Doris, are you doing somersaults or merely spinning these days?)
Posted 15 months ago. ( permalink )

femme_makita says:

@florabritannica: A furnace is a furnace is a furnace, here in the USA!

Closed carbon cycle heating of the Display Gardens would bring new technology to New Jersey, and showcase it.
Posted 15 months ago. ( permalink )

Christie13 says:

I've really enjoyed seeing all the photos of the Display Gardens--what a great place! It's a real shame they want to dismantle it.

Isn't New Jersey called the Garden State?
Posted 15 months ago. ( permalink )

Kate Alsop says:

Good luck with your campaign to save these stunning gardens! It is a travesty that the very people in whose trust these gardens were left are planning to dismantle them!
Posted 15 months ago. ( permalink )

...Steve says:

Good luck with the campaign. Have you tried digging it, excuse the unfortunate pun!
Posted 15 months ago. ( permalink )

AnnuskA - AnnA Theodora says:

Good luck to the Duke Gardens...
Posted 15 months ago. ( permalink )

theskepticaloptimist says:

I hope we can get in to see the gardens this weekend. We'll give it a try. This is really sad - I hope this grassroots (excuse the pun) effort to save the gardens succeeds!

Please add this beautiful photo to CITRIT,Best of yours!
Citrit group

Posted 15 months ago. ( permalink )

freakgirl says:

I am visiting the gardens tomorrow - made reservations as soon as I heard about the closing. Thanks to everyone for making me aware of the situation.
Posted 15 months ago. ( permalink )

femme_makita says:

Please take some photos of the visitor's book - it is page after page of people saying "Please don't do this".

I wrote "www.savedukegardens.org" at the top of my page, and got a very dirty look from one of the senior management! But I think it worked... 109 letters so far... Tell people in the gardens about the website - print a sheet of slips with the address and hand them out?

Look forward to seeing your pictures in the savedukegardens pool!
Posted 15 months ago. ( permalink )

Harrier says:

Nice shot! The eyes tell the whole story.

123 NJ
Posted 15 months ago. ( permalink )

paulskillman says:

Don"t stop fighting? There are deeper motives working here.
Posted 15 months ago. ( permalink )

paulskillman says:

Don"t stop fighting? There are deeper motives working here. Some how the gardens must be made to support itself by maybe an entrance fee or sponsored by local businesses, grants or what ever you can think of.
Posted 15 months ago. ( permalink )

paulskillman says:

Get them made a National Heritage site.
Posted 15 months ago. ( permalink )

femme_makita says:

It's not a matter of giving our money to save them, it's a matter of persuading the Trustees not to destroy them!

Doris Duke created the gardens herself and donated them to The Duke Gardens Foundation in 1960. Gardens are now owned by the Doris Duke Charitable foundation, which has nearly $2 billion, (yes that's billion!), in assets. She left plenty of money to take care of her work of art.
Posted 15 months ago. ( permalink )

Lori Smaltz says:

Awful thing that is happening.

I went to your site and sent letters! I hope it helps.
Posted 14 months ago. ( permalink )

florabritannica says:

Cheers Lori – the more the better. I think your quote on your own photo of Hansford's grave is pretty appropriate to what's going on here too:

Evil is committed without effort, naturally, fatally; goodness is always the product of some art
~Charles Baudelaire
Posted 14 months ago. ( permalink )

imnphd says:

Please save the Duke Farms. This place is gorgeous.
Posted 14 months ago. ( permalink )

femme_makita says:

Tell your friends!
Posted 14 months ago. ( permalink )

~vivian~ says:

On May 2, I told one of the doscents that closing the gardens made me very sad. She replied, "If you're sad, imagine how I feel! Every day I come to work, my heart breaks a little bit more, knowing that these gardens are not going to be here soon. I feel as if I'm providing hospice care to a terminal patient and at the same time I have to do my best to make everyone's visit a pleasant one..." My heart went out to her... so sad!
Posted 14 months ago. ( permalink )

femme_makita says:

Someone just emailed me:
Regarding Miss Duke's Will: I don’t imagine she felt it necessary at the time to specify that she would like her visions kept alive and well for others to appreciate. What the heck do they think she started the foundation for? I read her whole Will, thank God she specified that she wanted her pets to remain alive or they probably would have put them down too!
Too true...
Posted 14 months ago. ( permalink )

jfetzko08844 says:

One only needs to look a few miles to the East and a few years into the past to find another example of "progress". I am referring to the destruction of the former majestic Pennsylvania Station in New York City. I am reminded of a commuter who commented on the difference between the old Penn Station and the new one which is buried under Madison Square Garden. "In the past when you arrived at Penn Station you arrived in New York feeling like a king and now you feel like a rat." Unfortunately, the destructive act of dismantling Duke Gardens will be lamented twenty, thirty or fifty years from now and of course it will be far too late to do anything about it. I am sure there will be cheese served at the grand opening of the new greenhouse.
Posted 14 months ago. ( permalink )

femme_makita says:

@jfetzko

I was at both Grand Central and Penn Station today, as I often am. I don't have to tell you about the contrast.

We were playing with the vaulted ceiling outside the Oyster Bar, doing the whispering thing. A couple was getting wedding photos taken under the azure constellations.

Then back to Penn, where we sit by the line for the fragrant and overtasked bathrooms, and look at the fabulous moving Sculpture (a really good toy for us rats). When the platform is called, 2 minutes before departure, we like to go down the mystery stairs by the pretzel stand and walk through the hot, filthy, crazy-wired half-subway tiled, half-marble tunnel to tracks 1-10. Gotham.

And as we trudged through there I looked up at the incredibly ugly low dusty cracked utility pipe dirty rat-run roof above me, and thought of what was saved at Grand Central, and what was destroyed at Penn. It was a sudden metaphor for the utilitarian mind of whichever millionaire Trustee is pushing this soul-less destruction, compared to the 'conspicuous consumption and personal passion' of Doris Duke.

I think I feel a flickr diptych coming on!
Posted 13 months ago. ( permalink )

tinylens says:

Great picture!

I went to Duke gardens on the last day. It was really sad to think that I won't see the gardens again. I don't understand why can't they keep the gardens. My heart is broken!
Posted 13 months ago. ( permalink )

rtoyzz says:

I was so sad to find out that Miss Duke's gardens will be no more. I've seen pictures, have heard friends and family rave about them, and have always wanted to see the actual gardens, thinking I would do this "someday". After I heard about the closing I made plans to go with a friend who has been there many times, but we were too late! I love horticulture and history, and the Duke Gardens seem to be - make that "seem to have been" - the perfect example of that blend right here in NJ. How is it that the DuPont family's Longwood Gardens (PA), the Vanderbilt's Biltmore (NC) and so many other places in this country that belonged to the wealthy people of our past are still being preserved and kept open for people to experience, but our little piece of history "costs too much to maintain"? They're trying to get us to believe that it's acceptable to destroy what Miss Duke worked to create and preserve because the property (I can't call it "gardens" anymore) will be "new & improved"?! I'm not buyin' it! It may be too late but I sent Corzine an email from the Save Duke Gardens website anyway. If a protest/rally is organized and publicized (either at the estate or in Trenton) I would love to participate!
Posted 13 months ago. ( permalink )

Tommy Bass says:

It's a sickening disgrace that these gardens will be destroyed.

Greed knows no bounds.
Posted 10 months ago. ( permalink )

abhi_tinnu1 says:

Gj
Posted 10 months ago. ( permalink )

immortalfriendstotheworld says:

Hi, I'm an admin for a group called soulful group, and we'd love to have this added to the group!
Posted 2 months ago. ( permalink )

immortalfriendstotheworld says:

Hi, I'm an admin for a group called sad world, and we'd love to have this added to the group!
Posted 2 months ago. ( permalink )

immortalfriendstotheworld says:

Hi, I'm an admin for a group called a new world, and we'd love to have this added to the group!
Posted 2 months ago. ( permalink )

immortalfriendstotheworld says:

Hi, I'm an admin for a group called The Best Pictures of The World, and we'd love to have this added to the group!
Posted 2 months ago. ( permalink )

Dan McCarry (Miami, NYC, LA) says:

It's a scandal and a crime what the trusties of the DDCF has done to Doris Dukes beloved gardens.

Here is some more helpful information:
None of the 11 Trustees who destroyed Duke Gardens were named as Trustees by Doris Duke in her last Will, which specified 5 Trustees (Article TEN.B).
Four of the Trustees who destroyed Duke Gardens were appointed by a court following a lawsuit to remove Miss Duke's named Trustee Bernard Lafferty.
Trustees are compensated $126,078 / year, for 60-78 hours of 'Time devoted to Position' (2005 tax filing, Statement 17, excludes A Fauci and JHT Wilson)
That's $2100 / hour.
The gardeners who worked full time on Doris Duke's Indoor Display Gardens were not paid $126,078 / year.
None of the 11 Trustees make their home in New Jersey (inferred from employment and home addresses), although N. O. Keohane is currently a visiting professor at Princeton.
Some of the Trustees visited the Gardens for the first time in May 2008 (hearsay).
A search finds The Duke Gardens Foundation, Inc in Doris Duke' will (FIVE.C.2)
A search finds no mention of the Duke Gardens Foundationon the current Duke Farms website.
A search finds no mention of the Duke Gardens Foundation on the current DDCF website.
sites.google.com/a/savedukegardens.org/save-d uke-gardens/... ***********
Posted 2 months ago. ( permalink )

Would you like to comment?

[?]

	nosha's photostream
		1,137 uploads

This photo also belongs to:

	What you like. (Set)
		0

	Help Save Duke Gardens! (Set)
		0

	NJ - NEW JERSEY (Pool)
		0

	1-2-3 NJ (post 1 image, leave 2 comments) (Pool)
		0

	CITRIT,Best of yours! / Invited shots only/comment 2 / (Pool)
		0

	soulful group (Pool)
		0

	Save Duke Gardens (Pool)
		0

	The Best Pictures of The World (Pool)
		0

	a new world (Pool)
		0

	sad world (Pool)
		0

Additional Information

Some rights reserved Anyone can see this photo

Taken in Somerville, New Jersey (map)

Taken with a Nikon D300.
More properties
Taken on April 24, 2008

22 people call this photo a favorite

Viewed 6,045 times
Replaced on April 24, 2008

Add to your map

Yay location removed

...

(Some formats are OK.)

Anyone will be able to see this on the map

(edit)

Or, remove it from the map.

Go to the map | See nearby photos and videos

You	Sign in \| Create Your Free Account
Explore	Places \| Last 7 Days \| This Month \| Popular Tags \| The Commons \| Creative Commons \| Search
Help	Community Guidelines \| The Help Forum \| FAQ \| Sitemap \| Help by Email

The 11 Worlds come to an end

Comments

nrmorris9 says:

Val Ann says:

ra377 says:

femme_makita says:

nosha says:

hopefoote says:

femme_makita says:

florabritannica says:

Ross-mac says:

richard.frithmacdonald says:

listentoreason says:

femme_makita says:

~vivian~ says:

doodoopuppy says:

florabritannica says:

justmecpb says:

femme_makita says:

Christie13 says:

Kate Alsop says:

...Steve says:

AnnuskA - AnnA Theodora says:

theskepticaloptimist says:

freakgirl says:

femme_makita says:

Harrier says:

paulskillman says:

paulskillman says:

paulskillman says:

femme_makita says:

Lori Smaltz says:

florabritannica says:

imnphd says:

femme_makita says:

~vivian~ says:

femme_makita says:

jfetzko08844 says:

femme_makita says:

tinylens says:

rtoyzz says:

Tommy Bass says:

abhi_tinnu1 says:

immortalfriendstotheworld says:

immortalfriendstotheworld says:

immortalfriendstotheworld says:

immortalfriendstotheworld says:

Dan McCarry (Miami, NYC, LA) says:

Would you like to comment?

Tags

Additional Information