Peachie’s Pick Stokes’ aster – An essential for a shade garden, this perennial is a floriferous and deer-resistant native that draws butterflies to its large, lavender blue blooms.

Trumpet honeysuckle is an attractive woody vining plant with showy clusters of 2” long, crimson tubular flowers. It is quite vigorous, growing from 10-20’ tall and is easily trained on a trellis, arbor or fence.

The Scree Garden is an area where drought and heat tolerant plants grow.   This garden’s dominant design element is a large exposure of Gneiss and a crushed rock walking path that forms the rear border of the planting area.

The Rock Outcrop garden is an exposure of an indigenous rock formation known as Gneiss.  It is an area of approximately 3000 sq. ft. and was created to represent a naturally occurring rock outcrop habitat where heat and drought tolerant plants grow.

With its unique deeply lobed, oak-like leaves, large white flower clusters, and attractive exfoliating bark, oakleaf hydrangea is impressive when massed or used as a specimen.

An attractive broad-leaved flowering shrub that produces stunning clusters of white angular flowers in June.

Tidy and compact Rudbeckia, perfect for containers around the Copeland House.

Button snakeroot foliage looks very similar to the desert yucca while the striking, creamy-white flower heads resemble thistles and are wonderful for dried arrangements.

Butterfly weed, a required food for monarch butterfly larvae, is also a great nectar plant for other butterflies and insects.

With thick, glossy leaves and large, fragrant flowers, southern magnolia brings a commanding presence to the Round Garden. Its flowers can reach up to 8″ in diameter.

A combination of native perennials and exotic annuals bring added color to the Round Garden throughout the seasons.

The Trial Garden is currently evaluating over 100 selections of phlox, one of the most popular perennials in today’s garden.

For four years Mt. Cuba Center’s research horticulturists studied Baptisia, a low-maintenance, drought-tolerant native perennial with profuse flowers that bloom in a variety of colors. In 2016, we released “Baptisia for the Mid-Atlantic Region,” a report detailing the results of the study of 46 different cultivars of Baptisia and rates the overall garden performance of each species.

Monarda, commonly known as bee balm, has been a popular garden perennial for many years. Mt. Cuba Center set out to determine which Monarda are the top performing, most disease resistant selections for the mid-Atlantic region. We also investigated the differences in nectar among the cultivars and species. Our trial included 43 species and cultivars, including some plants that are relatively unknown to the gardening public.

These Pinus strobus trees are special forms that grow from Witches’ Brooms—irregular growth patterns that result in large clusters of small shoots on woody species. Many dwarf species of woody plants come from Witches’ Brooms.

Look for this finely textured and frilly native fern on shady wooded slopes and ravines. Springtime sees the emergence of surprising pink fiddleheads.

With elegant, lacy foliage this native can be used as a beautiful ground cover growing to a height of 20 inches.

Striking rosy pink flowers, purplish-green stem and unusually shaped yellow anthers help this plant live up to its common name.

Reaching eight feet in height and sporting fiery orange-red flowers and dark green, shiny leaves, this native azalea brings delight to the summer garden.

Sweet-Scented Joe-Pye weed towers over the late-summer garden and draws swallowtail butterflies to its lightly-scented blooms.

Cardinal flower is a sure bet for gardeners anxious to have hummingbirds visit their gardens.

With its unique deeply lobed, oak-like leaves, large white flower clusters, and attractive exfoliating bark, oakleaf hydrangea is impressive when massed or used as a specimen.

A summer firecracker exploding with vivid red tubular flowers with a chartreuse yellow interior, hummingbirds can’t resist these blooms.

Joe-Pye weed is a robust summer-blooming perennial that is highly attractive to butterflies. This plant naturalizes nicely in meadows and woodland edges or can be used in the perennial border

The Moss bank offers a unique composition of mosses, shaded by the dogwood canopy above.

Because of their vertical nature, spike gayfeather has a small footprint, but makes a big statement. The thin, tall, airy floral wands create a mesmerizing “pop-up” effect that attract pollinators of all kinds.

St. John’s wort provides multi-seasonal delight. In summer a profusion of bright yellow flowers will brighten your rock garden or mixed perennial bed.

Because of their vertical nature, spike gayfeather has a small footprint, but makes a big statement. The thin, tall, airy floral wands create a mesmerizing “pop-up” effect that attract pollinators of all kinds.

Black-eyed Susan is one of our best known wildflowers, delighting us with long lasting, boldly colored golden yellow to tangerine daisy-like blooms year after year.

Big umbrella sweet-scented Joe-Pye weed is a butterfly magnet. This plant naturalizes well in meadows and woodland edges or can be used in the perennial border.

Summer sweet clethra (Clethra alnifolia) brightens up the summer garden border with its profusion of fragrant white, bottlebrush-like flowers.

Turk’s cap lily (Lilium superbum) with it’s stunning candelabra-like arrangement of bell-shaped orange to red spotted flowers is a fanciful addition to your shade garden.

Native bees love the white flowers of the nodding onion (Allium cernuum) and are frequent pollinators along with the hairstreak butterfly and hummingbirds. It will bloom through September.

A signature tree of local forests, this “king of the magnolia family” grows rapidly in youth producing straight, unbranched trunks creating cathedral-like columns.