With origins stretching back more than 80 years, Mt. Cuba Center in Hockessin, Del., has been a home for conservation and preservation since the 1930s. Transformed from farmland to a lush botanical garden featuring more than 1,000 species of native plants, Mt. Cuba inspires an appreciation for the value of these plants and a commitment to protect the habitats that sustain them. On Thurs., May 25, join Adkins Arboretum on a trip to explore Mt. Cuba’s stunning gardens and grounds and to learn about the history of preserving the site’s natural lands.
Pamela and Lammot du Pont Copeland completed their Colonial Revival-style home and began establishing formal gardens on the site in 1937. In addition to these gardens, which surround the house and are laid out with the symmetry and geometry that characterize formal garden design, Mt. Cuba Center includes a 15,000-square-foot trial garden used for native plant research, wooded paths and slopes, ponds, a bog garden, a dogwood path where woodland meadow plants intermingle at the forest edge, a meadow, a trillium garden and other points of interest.
Surrounded by exotic-looking plants and trees that brush the skyline, Mt. Cuba’s Ponds provide shelter and sustenance for carnivorous plants, native orchids and water-thriving wildlife. Photo courtesy of Mt. Cuba Center.
The day will include a guided in-depth tour of the gardens and opportunities to learn about notable natives, sustainable gardening practices, climate change, systems-thinking and consciously sourcing native plants. Following lunch in the Colonial Revival house, there will be ample time to explore the grounds. Participants can expect to see plants such as phacelia, coreopsis, Canada anemone, Ozark phlox, spiderwort, Bowman’s root, penstemon, baptisia, blue flag, sarracenia and lady slipper orchid.
The fee of $145 for Arboretum members and $180 for non-members includes transportation, driver gratuity, admission, guided tour and a gourmet boxed lunch. The bus departs from Aurora Park Drive at 8 a.m. and will make stops at the Route 50 westbound/Route 404 Park and Ride at 8:20 a.m. and the 301/291 Park and Ride in Millington at 8:45 a.m. Return time is 5 p.m. Advance registration is required at adkinsarboretum.org or by calling 410-634-2847, ext. 100.
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