This garden is a centerpiece of Cornell Botanic Gardens' native plant education program and is known for its exceptional diversity of early spring blooming wildflowers such as skunk cabbage, trout lily, marsh marigold, and trillium that take advantage of the sunlight and warmth provided by the still-bare tree canopy. It is also an excellent spot for birding.
Printable MapOutdoor Field Guide
To guide your plant discovery, there are over 200 plant labels throughout the garden and photos with up-to-date lists of the season's flowering plants near the garden entrance. Tour the garden with your cell phone using the "Pocketsights Tour Guide" app.
Garden with Native Plants
Draw inspiration for using native plants in your gardens from formal plantings at the two entrance pathways. Learn how to grow native plants from seed from a presentation created by Krissy Boys, staff horticulturist.
Education in the Garden
The Mundy Wildflower Garden is also an excellent location for school field trips, research, and field-based courses, where it provides a first-class outdoor classroom. As a partner in the Kids Discover the Trail Program, the Cornell Botanic Gardens' Wildflower Explorations Program instructs every Ithaca 3rd grade student about plant reproduction, adaptation, and wildflower identification, while fostering a better appreciation of our natural world.
Sustainability in the Wildflower Garden
Habitat Restoration in the Mundy Wildflower Garden
A lot of effort has been devoted to restoring areas overrun with invasive plant species
Native Lawn Demonstration Area
Designed to replace conventional lawn with native low-growing grasses, which only require mowing once or twice per year.
Managing Deer
Six of the garden’s fifteen acres are enclosed by a deer fence, to keep out the overabundant white-tailed deer population.
Mundy Wildflower Garden Trails
A web of trails wind through this rich floodplain forest. Find trail routes on the mobile-friendly website ithacatrails.org.
More about Mundy Wildflower Garden
Natural Heritage of the Mundy Wildflower Garden
More about the plant communities and geology.
Rules of Etiquette
Help protect our natural areas by following our rules of etiquette.
Research
Our gardens and natural areas provide opportunities for faculty and students across a wide range of disciplines.