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Adkins Arboretum Grounds

Adkins Arboretum’s 400 acres of woodlands, meadows, wetlands, and gardens offer visitors a beautiful setting in which to enjoy the Eastern Shore's native landscape, walk, jog, bike, and view birds and wildlife. The gardens display plants native to the Delmarva Peninsula in combinations designed to inspire the home gardener. Shrubs, grasses, vines, ferns, and flowering perennials provide interest all through the year. The gardens border a restored wetland adjacent to the Arboretum Visitor’s Center.

Arboretum Paths: Four miles of paths wind through the grounds. The Blockston Branch path offers a self-guided nature walk through mature bottomland hardwood forest and is handicap accessible. Paths lead around the Arboretum’s meadows, where many creatures, including bluebirds, deer, fox, and turkeys, forage for food. A mix of mature upland and bottomland hardwood forests and younger pine forests provide a wealth of habitat for flora and fauna. Native azaleas and thickets of laurel bloom in May, and woodland wildflowers bloom through the summer. Look for wood ducks and beaver along Tuckahoe Creek and Piney Branch. The Arboretum’s Tuckahoe Valley trail connects to Tuckahoe State Park’s trail system for longer hikes. Please view or print the map of Arboretum paths.

Native Plant Garden: This garden is filled with grasses, shrubs, ferns, and flowers and holds appeal through every season. In the spring, ferns unfurl and chokeberry, elderberry, dogwood, and viburnum flower. In summer, the grasses stand tall with hues of blue and green, summersweet shrubs flower, and perennials like Joe-pye (Eupatorium fistulosum), swamp milkweed (Asclepias incarnata), thoroughwort (Eupatorium hyssopifolium), and blue-eyed grass (Sisyrinchium angustifolium) provide vibrant color. Late summer brings the yellow-gold of goldenrods (Solidago spp.), the white to purple flowers of asters, and the deep magenta ironweed flowers (Vernonia noveboracensis). In fall, shining sumac’s leaves turn scarlet, the grasses turn red and brown, and groundsel bush (Baccharis halimifolia) is covered in clouds of white seeds. Winter in the garden is a time for displaying the textures of the grasses, the forms of Southern wax myrtle (Morella cerifera), and the color of sumac berries.

Butterfly Garden: The butterfly garden displays plants that provide food and nectar for butterfly caterpillars and adults. Flowers rich in nectar bloom throughout the growing season – columbines (Aquilegia canadensis), beebalm (Monarda fistulosa), butterfly milkweed (Asclepias tuberosa), goldenrods, and asters. These plants, along with grasses and shrubs, provide host plants for caterpillars to feed on. The flowers of trumpet honeysuckle (Lonicera sempervirens), columbine, and beebalm attract hummingbirds, and in winter birds seek seeds and shelter here.

Wetland: The marsh in front of the Visitor’s Center was created in 2000, converting a farm pond built in 1980 into habitat for many plant and animal species. Aquatic plants like arrow arum or Tuckahoe (Peltandra virginica) and pickerelweed (Pontederia cordata) grow in the water. Rice cut grass (Leersia oryzoides), reeds, and sedges grow over the islands and banks of the marsh. Cardinal flower (Lobelia cardinalis) and blue flag iris (Iris versicolor) provide brilliant spots of color. Fringe trees (Chionanthus virginicus), sweet bay magnolia (Magnolia virginica), black willow (Salix nigra), and bald cypress (Taxodium distichum) are also beginning to mature.

To experience the wetland, take a walk on the wetland boardwalk and discover painted turtles, small fish, frogs, red wing blackbirds, great blue herons, egrets, kingfishers, dragonflies, and many other creatures.

Pitcher plant being planted in the bog garden

Bog Garden: A new addition to the gardens is a bog garden featuring plants typically found in bogs on the Delmarva Peninsula. Bog habitats are rare and harbor a unique assemblage of plants. Plants that grow in bogs must be able to tolerate wet soils most of the year and low nutrient conditions. Some plants, such as pitcher plants, adapt by capturing insects to obtain enough nutrition. Other plants to look for in the bog garden include swamp azalea, highbush blueberry, cranberries, and sphagnum moss. The bog garden was funded by the Waterfowl Festival, www.waterfowlfestival.org.

Meadows: There are two large meadows at the Arboretum: the South Meadow behind the Visitor’s Center and the North Meadow along Eveland Road at the north end of the property. These were both agricultural fields for many years. The North Meadow has become a field filled with swaths of goldenrod, aster, and native grasses. It is maintained as a meadow by mowing sections each year. The South Meadow was seeded with native grasses and wildflowers and is maintained by burning a section each year. These meadows serve as wildlife habitat for bobwhite quail, bluebirds, turkeys, foxes, deer, and field mice, among other animals. A third smaller meadow near the Visitor’s Center is being developed with a greater diversity of flowering plants, which will provide color throughout the seasons.

Children’s Garden: Children attending the Arboretum’s summer camps and summer preschool programs in 2005 created a colorful children’s garden located near the Native Plant Nursery. The kids planted the garden with flowers, herbs, and vegetables and painted the bean poles and picket fence.