Mill Pond Garden Open Day, Sunday, August 11th, 2024, 9:30 AM to 12:00 PM

The local botanical garden, Mill Pond Garden, welcomes visitors to celebrate the peak of pollinator abundance on Sunday, August 18, 2024 from 9:30 AM to Noon.

One $18 Ticket admits one vehicle with up to 6 passengers. No refunds | Rain or Shine | Ticket may be given as a gift.

The botanical garden will be abundant with flowers and butterflies as well as scores of other kinds of pollinators of all sizes and many species. Because the many Salvia will be in bloom one may also see hummingbirds. Of special note is the native Jeanna Tall Phlox which blooms from late June to late September and was declared the best of tall phlox species for disease resistance, abundance, and as an attractor for pollinators by Delaware’s Mount Cuba Center, an outstanding public garden emphasizing native plants of the eastern piedmont. Mt Cuba spent ten years trialing many different cultivars of tall phlox (a native plant to Eastern North America) and found the one semi-wild one, named ‘Jeanna’, to be the most successful, disease-free, performer and the best attractor of butterflies and many other pollinators. Jeanna was released to the market just a few years ago, still hard to find, but has been available in this region at Pepper’s Greenhouses in Milton, when available.

Mill Pond Garden’s late summer displays will include many kinds of showy Hibiscus including native winter hardy ones like moshuetos and coccinea, water lilies, daylilies, Coreopsis, Joe Pye Weed, Giant Meadow Rue, Coleus,  Colocassia, evergreen and deciduous native and non-native ornamental ferns, an edible mushroom garden (so visitors can see how it’s done to grow your own), Zinnias, Dahlias, Petunias, Herbs (allowed to bolt and flower for benefit to pollinators), the disease-proof Beacon Impatience (the only reliable survival kind local gardeners should buy), Golden Rod, Roses, Vitex, Liriope in bloom including the rare Royal Purple cultivar, Sedum Spectabile ‘Neon’, Diamond Grass with its huge diamond sparkling inflorescence, Agastache, and more. The most exceptional display and rarest is the collection of epiphytic plants in the Epiphyte Garden and the Spanish moss dripping from the new Folly around its lovely ornate classical fountain, a great place for a portrait photo. Note to see Water Lilies with open blooms, visitors should come after 10:30 am and before noon.