Weekend Snapshot: Number 53

This has been my week of gardens. I shot the hummingbird today (Sunday) in JC Raulston Arboretum at North Carolina State University (NCSU) in Raleigh, NC.
I suggested to Bill that we go to this garden which is the city where I live, to finish off my week of gardens. For the doors challenge this week, I used some doors I found Monday in the Sarah P Duke Gardens which belongs to Duke University in Durham NC (about 30 minutes from me). I also found doors on Thursday, which I posted, at the North Carolina Botanical Garden at the University of North Carlina (UNC) in Chapel Hill which is about 45 minutes from me. I thought for my weekend snapshot post I'd post shots from each of these gardens.
The shot above is one I took today in the Raulston Arboretum's shade house which is very extensive but hard to shoot except in small sections as there are lots of turns.
The shot above is from the sunny part of the Raulston Arboretum and the shot below is from one of the shady sections at the same garden. NCSU has a large horticulture department and the garden is used in part for teaching purposes.
Since this is already getting long and I have posted some shots earlier this week of the other two gardens, I'll limit myself to two photos each for them. All of these gardens are very large and have so many different parts to them that there is no way, even in a long post for each garden, that I can do them justice.
The shot above is on one of the shady paths at Duke Gardens. It's great in the summer to feel the dramatic temperature drop going from full sun to full shade. The shot below is from one of the sunny parts at Duke gardens.The NC botanical garden at UNC is a conservation garden and much of the garden is very naturalized which I like. They also have sections representing the different ecological systems in the different parts of the state. The shot below is in the mountain section and leads to the Paul Green cabin.
The last shot on this whirlwind three garden tour is also at the UNC garden and is in a section where you're leaving the coastal plain habitat garden and aren't quite to the mountain habitat garden.
I'm sure I'll be posting more shots from these gardens at some point but I'll end this long rambling mixed garden tour here.

For more WS shots you can go to the home of Weekend Snapshot on Monday or browse technorati here weekend-snapshot.