Mt. Cuba has some spectacular plants

Fred Case, mentioned offhandedly, in his presentation that his garden contains 44 selections of double Trilium grandiflorum. That is an overwhelming statistic. This double Bloodroot at Mt. Cuba is an overwhelming sight.

Because they have a large auditorium, Winterthur hosted the lecturers. Offered as an alternate session, was the chance to wander the grounds at Mt. Cuba for an afternoon with docents and gardeners stationed throughout the gardens answering questions and volunteering to us specimens we could easily have overlooked. What an opportunity. The temperature pushed up past 80 F as if some omnipotent conspirator was forcing flower buds open just for us. Well...maybe not, but it was wonderful.

Helonias bullata,the Swamp Pink,with its curious banksian inflorescence combining pink petals and blue anthers, was flowering around the pond. Numerous Trilliums had opened and more were budded. We saw rare beauties like Shortia and Epigaea, double-flowered and variegated forms of a variety of native wildflowers, and dozens of taxa curious and beautiful. One of my favorite plants, Fraser's Sedge, Cymophyllus fraserianus, was flowering. Theres just something about the flower. I changed camera batteries twice.