Jan, Aspenhill (Terri) and I had a great time meandering the figure-8 trail at Mt. Cuba Garden Center. The azaleas blooming here and there definitely got our attention, but our amazement was really for the swaths and clumps of blooming wildflowers, all native to the "Piedmont Region." They are also caretakers & curators of a nationally recognized collection of trilliums.
I generally trailed behind Jan and Terri, not because my legs were lazy, but because I kept stopping every 3 to 10 steps for another photo!
I'll be uploading appropriate photos to the database, so please do not do that for me (some need additional cropping or tweaking).
COPYRIGHT INFORMATION Consider these images to be under a restricted Creative Commons license, as follows: Attribution must remain with the images (that is, credit should be given to Jill M Nicolaus, and the watermark may not be removed). Non-commercial use does not require my permission. Alteration or other changes is not permitted (except for cropping as needed for your purposes).
*click * to enlarge... these photos are mostly widescreen, so only the center portion shows on the thumbnails
Also, please note that I will be uploading many of these photos to the database... please do NOT do it for me!! In some cases, I'll want to re-edit them to a different crop (such as a square) first, to better show the plant.
Licorice Fern... Mayapple with pink bloom... Phlox stolonifera 'Smith'.. Twisted Trillium... Large Yellow Ladyslipper... Dwrf Larkspur, Delphinium tricorne... Showy Trillium (click to also see Twin Leaf)... Shooting Star... "Green & Gold," Chrysogonum virginianum
They have a remarkable collection of trilliums, and my guess is that the "show" will continue through a couple more weekends... the different species don't all bloom at once.
For me, I was thinking next May about this time. Cuz in a couple weeks I'll be heading to NY followed by Jeff when he gets out of school first weekend in June. We will be up there most of the summer helping a son do some reno on a house they are closing on at the end of May. We'll be popping back periodically to NJ, but summers we are gone.
When I do I'll post to see if anybody can go.
Following the downhill path brought us to a magically beautiful series of ponds and streams. We found out later that the Japanese Primrose blooming at the water's edge is the only non-native grown in these gardens -- because Mrs. DuPont so loved them. I can see why!
Along the way we spotted jack in the pulpit, columbine, red buckeye, and a huge Carolina allspice that made us rethink where we'd put the baby "bubby bushes" SallyG shared with us LOL.
The trillium in this set didn't have a sign by it, but the plants by the lake are Dwarf Blue Dogbane (Amsonia taburnaemontana) and (really tall!) Royal Fern (Osmunda regalis). The azalea in the last 2 photos is 'Pink Mist'. Isn't the stone-stack mushroom cute?
