Photo Journal: Mt. Cuba Center

The du Pont family made its fortune in gunpowder and chemicals. They used some of those riches – without any apparent sense of irony – to turn the Brandywine Valley, a pocket that spans southern Pennsylvania and northern Delaware, into a “garden-lover’s paradise.”  Inspired by grand tours of Europe, they built Longwood Gardens, Winterthur Museum, Garden and Library, Nemours Estate, and Mt. Cuba Center.

The official mission of the Mt. Cuba Center, in Hockessin, DE, is to inspire an appreciation for the beauty and value of native plants and a commitment to protect the habitats that sustain them. Like the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center, Mt. Cuba is squarely in the camp of botanical gardens dedicated to ecologically-sound and sustainable gardening (as opposed to displaying vegetative exotica).

What may distinguish Mt. Cuba from other native-focused public gardens, though, is its emphasis on influencing the nursery trade as well as residential gardeners.

To that point, one of the Center's key elements is its trial gardens, which are used to compare the appearance, resilience and -- critically -- ecosystem performance of native plants and some of their related varieties and cultivars. So in addition to assessing blossoms, foliage and hardiness, they analyze the extent to which nature- and human-designed plants provide food and habitat for insects and birds. As a general rule, I’d encourage planting species (nature-designed) plants rather than cultivars (human-designed), but I’d make an exception for cultivars Mt. Cuba has validated as providing superior ecosystem services. To date they’ve assessed asters, echinaceas, heucheras, coreopsis, baptisias, monardas, phlox, heleniums, and hydrangeas. You can find the reports on their website. They use their findings to try to get the “winners” into wholesale production.

We had a chance to visit the Center for a few hours one morning in early April. Delicate spring blossoms were just starting to emerge – some of them so subtle that getting down on the ground for a rabbit’s-eye view was the best way to appreciate them. Instead of writing a long article, I thought for a change I’d just share photos of some of the highlights from that excursion.

Moss and lichen carpeting a brick wall. Mosses and lichens are considered pioneer organisms, meaning they’re often the first plants to populate an area. The lichen breaks down rock (or brick) to form fertile soil. In other words, if the wall were left unattended, this would be the first stage on a long successional trajectory heading toward a forest.

The mid-Atlantic’s answer to Texas bluebonnets is Virginia bluebells (Mertensia virginica). They’re ephemeral, meaning the blossoms and foliage die back completely after blooming, and they’re much loved around these parts as a fleeting symbol of spring.

Bloodroot (Sanguinaria canadensis) thrives in the thin leaf litter of deciduous woodlands, forming large masses with the help of underground rhizomes. The plant’s incongruous common name is inspired by an orange-red sap that oozes out if you cut the stem. 

Rue anemone (Thalictrum thalictroides). These types of small and seemingly unassuming spring blossoms are in fact powerhouses, providing critical support for early-emerging native bumblebees and other pollinators.

A just-unfurling bottlebrush buckeye (Aesculus parvifolia), a shrub with a candelabra-like structure and summertime blossoms that resemble...well, bottle brushes.

Quaker ladies (Houstonia caerulea), miniature flowers that thrive among moss. The common name is apparently inspired by hats that Quaker women once wore.

Wood lilies (Trillium cuneatum) go in for drama – at least compared to the diminutive Quaker ladies and rue anemones above. They spread by underground rhizomes or by getting ants to disperse their seeds. A Mt. Cuba Center report found that 32 percent of all trillium species are threatened with extinction.

Speaking of drama: check out this purple flame blue flag (Iris versicolor ‘Purple Flame’). Okay, so this is a cultivar for which I'd make an exception to my species-only rule, and it hasn’t even blossomed. That foliage color!

I love the Dr. Seussical attitude of these fronds, which I believe are royal ferns-in-waiting (Osmunda regalis).

Another curiously Seussical plant, also pre-bloom: golden ragwort (Packera aurea). The blossoms will be bright yellow and daisy-like when they pop, but until then they apparently undergo a brief adolescence of these gangly, moody purples.

Yertle and friends admiring the view.

Yertle & Co.'s view.

If you’re in or near the Brandywine area, I encourage you to visit Mt. Cuba Center. You'll find inspiration, education and a peaceful respite from the surrounding world. Even if you can’t drop by in person, they offer all kinds of online courses and activities.

One final note: Mt. Cuba conducted a study of 7000 plants grown at wholesale nurseries in the region. Of these, 75 percent were non-native ornamentals, such as roses and hostas. Nurseries grow what they think consumers want. So when you’re plant shopping, be sure to ask for natives! We’ll get the supply we need only when the horticulture industry feels the demand.