Boston Flora

Tag: Asticou Azalea Garden

  • Thursday, September 6 – Sunday, September 9 – The Gardens of Bar Harbor and Mt. Desert Island

    Berkshire Botanical Garden invites you to join an exclusive tour to discover the gardens of Bar Harbor and Mt. Desert Island. Mt. Desert Island is considered one of Maine’s most revered summer resort islands where such towns as Bar Harbor, Seal Harbor and Northeast Harbor dot the area. A major aspect of Mt. Desert Island is nature and the cultivation of beautiful gardens. One person stands out for her highly talented contribution: the legendary landscape designer Beatrix Farrand, who summered at Bar Harbor for over half a century, creating over 60 gardens on the island. One of her greatest projects was the Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Garden at Seal Harbor. Collections of plants from her Reef Point home can now be seen at the Asticou Azalea Garden and Thuya Garden, both at Northeast Harbor. Another Farrand garden can be found at her last home, Garland Farm, Salisbury Cove, now maintained by the Beatrix Farrand Society.  Trip highlights may be viewed at https://www.berkshirebotanical.org/sites/default/files/BBG%20Bar%20Harbor%20Trip%20Highlights.pdf

  • Friday, March 28 – Sunday, March 30 – Doin’ the Charleston : Azalea Style

    Friday, March 28 – Sunday, March 30, 2014 are the dates of our next Azalea Society of America convention, Doin’ the Charleston – Azalea Style, in Charleston, South Carolina, hosted by the Reverend John Drayton Chapter of the ASA. The convention hotel is the Charleston Marriott Hotel, 170 Lockwood Blvd, Charleston SC 29403, where they have a special $179 rate until March 6 – mention Azalea Society of America when you call for reservations at 1-800-968-3569.

    Spend time under stately live oaks hung with Spanish moss, visit the intimate gardens of the old homes and the historic plantations. Gaze at the plethora of azaleas as the Low country seduces you. During your time in Charleston, you’ll visit Magnolia Plantation & Gardens (pictured below), Middleton Place, Cypress Gardens, historic downtown Charleston and see many beautiful displays of azaleas.

    Lecturers include Tom Johnson, Director of Magnolia Plantation; Ernest Koone from Lazy K Nursery in Pine Mountain,GA, and famed for its native azaleas; Mary Roper, Garden Director at Asticou Azalea Garden in Maine, and Robert “Buddy” Lee, inventor of the Encore Azalea. Registration fee is $85, which includes the opening reception with two drink tickets, breakfast on Friday and Saturday, a great bag of gifts, and the Friday evening meeting. The registration form may be found at http://www.nationalazaleaconvention2014.org/Registration.html.

    http://www.magnoliaplantation.com/flower_pics/pictures/azaleas_2.gif

  • Thursday, September 20, 10:00 am – Great Gardens of the Northeast

    The Garden Club of the Back Bay opens its 2012/2013 program year focused on Gardens of America on Thursday, September 20, beginning at 10 am at The College Club, 44 Commonwealth Avenue. Join Adriana O’Sullivan for a spectacular armchair garden tour from Washington, DC to Mount Desert Island in Maine. This one-hour presentation focuses on some of the finest gardens the Northeast has to offer. Dumbarton Oaks in Washington D.C., designed by Beatrix Farrand between 1921 and 1941, Wave Hill Botanic Garden in The Bronx, Kykuit, the Rockefeller estate in Sleepy Hollow, NY (pictured below), the magnificent gardens at Old Westbury on Long Island, Edith Wharton’s estate ‘The Mount’, and Naumkeag in the Berkshire hills. In New Hampshire we visit the home and studio of Augustus Saint Gaudens and on Mount Desert Island in Maine we will see the Thuya Gardens, the Asticou Azalea Garden and the famous Abby Aldridge Rockefeller Garden. All gardens are a feast for the eye and all are open to the public.  GC members will receive written notification.  The public is invited, with a requested $5 donation, and may rsvp at info@bostonflora.com.

  • Friday, August 20, 10:00 am – 1:00 pm – Northeast Harbor Gardens

    Since you already are up in Maine for the Abby Aldrich Rockefeller garden tour with Bonnie Drexler (see post below), stay a day and visit Northeast Harbor with Bonnie and The New England Wild Flower Society.  This tour, described below, is limited to 20 participants, and costs $30 for NEWFS members and $36 for nonmembers.  Register at www.newfs.org.

    The Asticou Azalea Garden and the Thuya Garden are linked by location as well as history. These complementary gardens were created by Charles Savage, a local innkeeper and self-taught landscape designer, who rescued plants from designer Beatrix Farrands’ abandoned estate in Bar Harbor to create the gardens along the north edge of Northeast Harbor. At the Asticou Azalea Garden, rhododendrons, mountain laurels, heathers and azaleas were planted to transform a swamp into a stroll garden with an Asian flavor. The water gardens of the Katsura Imperial Villa in Kyoto, Japan supplied the inspiration for Savages’s flowing Asian design.

    Farrand’s plants were also used to create Thuya Garden, where an overgrown apple orchard stood before. We climb a trail winding up the slopes of Eliot Mountain under towering spruce and cedar trees. Rustic cedar shelters provide rest stops with views of Northeast Harbor below. At the top, we enter the formal garden through a pair of carved wooden gates (below) featuring fiddlehead ferns, lady’s slipper orchids, frogs, iris, and owls among others. The two main formal borders are planted with drifts of perennials that range from warm to cool hues as you stroll by. A shallow reflecting pool, a hidden summer house, and giant garden urns punctuate the garden’s floral displays.