Mt. Cuba Center
Beautiful and truly eye-opening, this botanical garden built around the country home of Pamela and Lammot du Pont Copeland focuses on an important garden trend: the use of native plants—species that have occurred in a region for thousands of years without human intervention—to support local wildlife and biodiversity. The forward-thinking Copelands added a wildflower garden in the 1940s, eventually expanding their use of native plants to 68 acres including formal gardens, trial gardens for native varieties, and naturalistic woodland areas. Mt. Cuba opened fully as a public garden in 2013. Some nonnative plants (like lilacs and tulips) remain, but native plants are the stars. Spring is a good time for wildflowers, such as Mt. Cuba's famous trilliums; the Ponds area blazes with color in fall. There's a visitor center in the former Copeland home, and a Welcome Walk is a great introduction to the gardens and how (and why) to use native plants. The garden now is about 1,000 acres, much of that natural land crisscrossed by 2½ miles of trails.
