Mount Cuba

About this property

Mt. Cuba Center is a non-profit botanical garden located in Hockessin, Delaware, near Wilmington, in the gently rolling hills of the Delaware Piedmont. Its woodland gardens produce some of the most spectacular displays of wildflowers in the mid-Atlantic region. Mt. Cuba is open to the public from April through November for general admission, guided tours and special programs. Education courses, including a Certificate in Ecological Gardening, are offered year-round. Mt. Cuba Center is the former home and family estate of Lammot du Pont Copeland and his wife, Pamela Cunningham Copeland. In 1935, the Copelands built a stately Colonial Revival manor house near the village of Mt. Cuba, outside of Wilmington, Delaware. The Copelands were prominent members of the community. Mr. Copeland served as President and Chairman of the DuPont Company, while Mrs. Copeland was a leader in many community and cultural organizations. During the late 1930s, formal areas were designed first by the prominent Philadelphia landscape architect Thomas W. Sears and later, in the 1950s, by noted landscape designer Marian Cruger Coffin. In the 1960s, the Copelands were becoming acutely aware of a changing land ethic and they became more interested in ecology and the need for conservation. Mrs. Copeland, in particular, was increasingly concerned about wildflowers and the impact on them by development and unscrupulous practices. In response, landscape architect Seth Kelsey was hired to develop the woodland wildflower gardens with native plants, design their ponds, and plan many woodland garden paths. In 1983, Dr. Richard Lighty was hired by the Copelands as their first Director of Horticulture. The Copelands expanded their horticultural endeavors to study native plants of the Appalachian Piedmont, the beginnings of a botanic garden on a private estate. That same year, Mr. Copeland passed away. In the late 1980s, Mt. Cuba Center began hosting visitors by offering docent-led tours during the spring. Mt. Cuba Center horticulturists also began documenting their increasingly diverse native plant collections. In 2001, Mrs. Copeland died. Mt. Cuba Center was no longer a botanic garden on a private estate but a public garden for all to be inspired about native plants. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2003. Continuing education classes started in 2006. In 2013, Mt. Cuba Center launched general admission during the spring, summer, and fall seasons. Mt. Cuba's well-documented plant collection is focused on the study of eastern North American flora, with emphasis on the Appalachian Piedmont. The collections hold over 6,500 accessions. Horticultural research focuses on Coreopsis, Heuchera, Baptisia, and Trillium. Mt. Cuba Center is a "national collection" holder for Asarum and Trillium. Several of its introductions are widely popular, including Aster laevis 'Bluebird', Aster novae-angliae 'Purple Dome' and Solidago sphacelata 'Golden Fleece'.

Location

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Property data from the National Register of Historic Places, National Park Service (public domain).

Description adapted from Wikipedia under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

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