du Pont

5 area du Pont gardens celebrated in new book

Betsy PriceCulture, Headlines

A new book explores the rich heritage of five Delaware-area gardens that belonged to members of the du Pont family. “Du Pont Gardens of the Brandywine Valley” (Monacelli, $60 hardcover) looks at Hagley Museum and Library, Nemours Estate, Mt. Cuba Center, Winterthur Museum, Garden & Library, and Longwood Gardens. Written by Marta McDowell and featuring photos by Larry Lederman, the …

TSD Review March 2

Town Square LIVE Weekly Review – Mar. 2, 2023

Sonja FreyTown Square Live, Weekly Review

Click on the image below to view the PDF This Week’s Top Headlines Include: Community ‘Book of Mormon’ for $25? Playhouse offers ticket lottery New history trail documents Iron Hill’s free Black families Raise those glasses! Wilmington Beer Week returns Plan for Newport considers train station, Boxwood Road Mt. Cuba: Sedges should be welcome addition to gardens Business Food Bank …

Mt. Cuba Center Trial Garden Sam Hoadley Carex Sedges

Mt. Cuba: Sedges should be welcome addition to gardens

Betsy PriceCulture, Headlines

Mt. Cuba Center’s latest plant research report offers home gardeners some options for turf grass-like plants that can be moved and work well in full shade or full sun. A five-year study of Carex plants, also known as sedges, found that many of the 70 tested were remarkably resilient. “Some of the biggest surprises were just the adaptability of these …

Mt. Cuba kestrels banded

Mt. Cuba’s 5 kestrel chicks get banded

Betsy PriceCulture, Headlines

      Mt. Cuba Center is generally known for its horticulture, but now it has good news for the avian world: A pair of its kestrels has sired five chicks. Kestrels, the smallest falcons in the U.S., have experienced as much as a 93% population decline since the 1960s, especially in the Mid-Atlantic and New England regions, according to …

Mt. Cuba Center new entry George Coombs

Mt. Cuba redesigns entrance to enhance garden experience

Betsy PriceCulture, Headlines

Mt. Cuba Center has used old spaces, 12,000 native plants and environment-friendly materials to give patrons a more charming way to enter its botanic gardens. Visitors now may park in a new well-landscaped two-level lot. It leads them to a building once used as staff housing where patrons may buy tickets on the way in and Mt. Cuba plants on …

Happy Hours at area museums and gardens

Outdoor happy hours reopen at area museums, gardens

Betsy PriceCulture, Headlines

    If you crave a drink at the end of your workday and want to have it in a lovely outdoors spot, many area museums and gardens can offer you just that. Here are some to try: Nemours Estate The former home and garden of A.I. du Pont, at 1600 Rockland Road in Wilmington, is offering Third Thursday summer …

a group of people in a garden

Want hydrangeas that bees will love? Choose a lacecap, says Mt. Cuba

Betsy PriceCulture, Headlines

  If you want to choose a native hydrangea that will attract pollinators, all you have to do is follow the buzzing. When Mt. Cuba Garden Center was studying 29 species and cultivars of native hydrangeas, the row filled with lacecap hydrangeas — particularly Hydrangea arborescens ‘Haas’ Halo’ — looked (and sounded like) like an insect version of the Starboard …

a woman standing in front of a fence

A baker’s dozen of things to look forward to in 2022

Betsy PriceCulture, Headlines

Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis visiting Winterthur’s Montmorenci foyer while she was First Lady.   From golf pros descending on Wilmington Country Club, to new shows and amenities at area theaters and cultural institutions, to the latest restaurant moves, Delaware has a lot to look forward to in 2022. With the end of the year fogged by a surge of COVID-19 testing …

a group of people in a park

Mt. Cuba studies best way to grow a forest

Ken MammarellaCulture, Headlines

This fall, 60 volunteers worked for two weeks to plant 3,000 native trees and shrubs, part of atest at Mt. Cuba Center on the best way to create a forest. Three thousand native trees and shrubs have been planted this fall as part of Mt. Cuba Center’s massive study on the best ways to bring back the region’s forests. The …

the roof of a building

Mt. Cuba to add high-tech greenhouse, welcome center and parking

Charles MegginsonCulture, Headlines

The 7,700 square foot greenhouse and 7,600 square foot head house support building will feature a passively cooled, open roof design. Hockessin’s Mt. Cuba Center is breaking ground on a new, sustainable greenhouse and plant production space. The organization plans to use the space to conduct native plant research, propagation, and production. Mt. Cuba’s current greenhouse was completed in 1962 …