Mill Pond Garden Open Day Sunday, August 2nd, 10:00 AM to 12:00 PM

Mill Pond Garden celebrates the mid-summer peak of pollinators and flowers with a public Garden Open Day on Sunday, August 2, 10 am to noon at 31401 Melloy Court, Lewes, DE 19958. The ticket is $25/car, admitting up to six passengers, available on the website millpondgarden.com, or cash only at the entrance, with free parking, no refunds, wheelchair accessible with a pusher, rain or shine, closed only if lightning or high winds.

If Lightning and/or high winds occur, the rain date will be Monday, August 3, 2026.

The garden, the Cape region’s only certified non-profit public botanical garden, will offer an abundance of pollinators, possessing large beds of native pollinator plants attracting many types of small to large butterflies in quantity, an aerial ballet, and a score of species of bees and other pollinators.

Plants in bloom, many at peak of their bloom now, include Hibiscus, Crape myrtle, Tall Phlox (paniculata) including the best choices for disease resistance pollinator attraction, and performance, native Lobelia cardinalis (Cardinal Flower) and the lesser known blue cardinal flower,  Angelonia, Cosmos, lilies, daylilies, Pelargonium, Lythrum, Monarda, waterlilies, morning glories, Pennisetum rubrum, Liriope (including rare great purple), Loropetalum in 3 cultivars, hardy and non-hardy begonia, Oxalis triangularis (purple shamrock), Boltonia, Rudbeckia, Veronica, Salvia (many species), Hydrangea, Hosta, and more, a huge collection to offer ideas to the visitor for what does well in our region.  It is the peak of the flowering year and the peak of the butterfly and pollinator year at the same time, wonderfully fragrant, quoting the Garden Grader, ‘not to be missed.’

The Garden also features abundant wildlife as a National Wildlife Association Certified Wildlife Habitat, two thousand feet of pathways through acclaimed sun and shade garden rooms, five fountains, stream, waterfalls,  koi pond with Gazebo and deck, and with wonderful vistas on the area’s largest, 158-acre private Red Mill Pond (not elsewhere accessible to the public, offering many sites of birds and turtles on basking logs.

Woody plants are labeled as per the definition of a botanical garden. A Horticulturist will be on duty to answer questions. The Mill Pond Garden mission is to provide an enjoyable and informative resource for horticulture and gardening to the Cape region. Also offered are venue rentals for private uses and events, classes, and workshops. For email notice of Mill Pond Garden events and Garden Open Days with no advertising, no sharing of emails, one may subscribe for free on the website.

The Garden’s motto is to be ‘the Gem in the Crown of the Cape!’