Mr. Lammot du Pont Copeland
Mrs. Lammot du Pont Copeland
Mt. Cuba Center is dedicated to the study, conservation, and appreciation of plants native to the Appalachian Piedmont region through garden display, education, and research.
The Appalachian Piedmont region includes the gently rolling hills that lie between the Atlantic Coastal Plain and the Appalachian Mountains of the eastern United States.
Mt. Cuba Center is the former home and family estate of Mr. and Mrs. Lammot du Pont Copeland. In 1935, the Copelands built a stately Colonial Revival manor house near the village of Mt. Cuba, near Wilmington, Delaware. The Copelands were prominent members of the community. Mr. Copeland served as President and Chairman of the Du Pont Company, while Mrs. Copeland was a leader in many community and cultural organizations.
Mr. and Mrs. Copeland both shared an interest and enthusiasm for plants and gardening. Shortly after completing their house, they embarked on a mission to design and develop a series of garden spaces on their estate.
The Copelands called upon well-known Philadelphia landscape architect, Thomas W. Sears, to plan the formal gardens and terraces around the house. In the 1950s, the Copelands selected noted landscape designer, Marian C. Coffin, to design the Round Garden. Later, in the 1960s, the Copelands hired landscape architect Seth Kelsey, who helped them develop the woodland wildflower gardens with native plants, design their ponds, and plan many woodland garden paths.
Today, the Copelands’ legacy lives on, elegantly portrayed in the formal gardens, woodland landscapes, pastures, and fields that are now a part of Mt. Cuba Center. Their estate is a treasure of beauty and inspiration as well as a message of steadfast commitment to ecologically sound gardening practices, and responsible land stewardship.
Founded in 1940 as the American Association of Botanical Gardens and Arboreta (AABGA), the American Public Gardens Association (APGA) adopted a new name in 2006. Over the last six decades, the APGA has emerged as the premiere association for public gardens in North America.
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The Philadelphia region is rich in public gardens, arboreta and historic houses with gardens. In 1989, many of them banded together to jointly promote the gardens and encourage visitors. That collaboration, one of the first of its kind in the country, has evolved into Greater Philadelphia Gardens, whose member gardens attract more than two million visitors each year.