Buckeye Butterfly on Joe Pye Weed
Buckeye Butterfly on Joe Pye Weed at Mt. Cuba, Delaware, August, 2019 by Brigitte Hartke
butterfly
VNPS
on September 2, 2019[From Nancy Vehrs] A small group of us [Prince William Wildflower Society members] visited Mt. Cuba Center in Delaware and Longwood Gardens and Chanticleer Gardens in nearby Pennsylvania in early August. What a delight! Mt. Cuba Center serves as a trial garden and research center for MidAtlantic native plants where its staff determines the best native species and their cultivars for gardens. Right now they are testing sedges (Carex sp) with a goal of finding one that would serve as a lawn substitute and ground cover. I was delighted to find fragrant native azaleas (Rhododendron arborescens) in bloom in summer. The area of the ponds offered a shady respite with cardinal flower and pickerelweed providing some of the color, and the small meadow abounded in blooms and butterflies. We also visited the newly established native plant meadow at the venerable Longwood Gardens.