Summer flora and fauna on display at Delaware Botanic Gardens in Dagsboro
/Visitors to the Delaware Botanic Gardens (DBG) are greeted by a magnificent avenue of 34 seedless red “Brandywine” maples, 12,000 perennials and more than 300 native shrubs that surround the banks of the Rhyne Garden. All these colorful native pollinator plants welcome guests and wildlife steps from the parking lot.
In late May, the Rhyne Garden is a parade of colorful baptisia (false indigo), an early flowering native perennial in the pea family, and by early summer, the spent flowers rapidly form large attractive seed pods that last until fall. Spring blooms of baptisia are quickly replaced by a carnival of colorful daisy heads in the form of echinacea (coneflower), with summer-flowering phlox and monarda (bee balm) soon to follow.
The range of native perennials was selected to provide season-long interest, as well as a welcome source of nectar, food and habitat for visiting insects and birds. While the flowers of the Rhyne Garden attract both guests and wildlife, the plant roots act as a natural filter for the rain wastewater runoff and help to combat soil erosion on the banks of the most colorful water-retention ditches in Sussex County.
The Rhyne Garden at DBG is a parade of colorful perennials, featuring echinacea, phlox and bee balm.