Boston Flora

Tag: Seal Harbor

  • Saturday, July 27, 10:00 am – 4:00 pm – Garden Club of Mount Desert Open Garden Day 2024

    The Garden Club of Mount Desert invites you to Open Garden Day 2024 on July 27 from 10 – 4. Six private gardens will be featured: details HERE. $50 per guest. Stay as long as you like, but please let the sponsor know if you plan to arrive morning or afternoon. Tickets are non-refundable. Event is held rain or shine. Note this is a shuttle-only tour, no private car access. Signs and volunteers will direct you to parking on east Cooksey Drive. Free bus access to Seal Harbor from Northeast Harbor and Bar Harbor via Island Explorer. Most gardens have uneven terrain, stairs or narrow paths so are not handicap or stroller accessible. Houses are NOT open. Restroom available at Seal Harbor Village Green. No video cameras, dogs, or smoking. Cell phone photography only. For more information visit https://www.gardenclubofmountdesert.org/open-garden-day

  • 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

  • Thursday, March 15, 4:00 pm – 6:00 pm – 177th Annual Meeting of the Worcester County Horticultural Society

    The 177th Annual Meeting of the Worcester County Horticultural Society and Tower Hill Botanic Garden will be held at Tower Hill on Thursday, March 15, 4-6pm. Admission is free; pre-registration required. Members are welcome to bring guests. However, only Tower Hill members may vote at the Business Meeting.

    Please register at www.towerhillbg.org or by calling 508.869.6111 x102

    Business Meeting – 4pm – The 177th Annual Meeting of the Worcester County Horticultural Society will include a presentation of the Society’s business over the past year, a vote on candidates for the Board of Trustees, as well as any resolutions proposed. Amendments to the Bylaws will be presented for consideration and vote. Proposed changes may be viewed on the Annual Meeting page of our website  or be requested by calling the telephone number above. The Business Meeting will be followed by a presentation by Rodney Eason.

    Please join us for a reception in the Great Hall immediately following the presentation.

    RODNEY EASON – Rodney is the CEO of the Land & Garden Preserve which stretches from Northeast Harbor to Seal Harbor on Mount Desert Island, Maine. Prior to joining the Preserve in 2015, Rodney was director of horticulture at Coastal Maine Botanical Garden and display division leader at Longwood Gardens in Pennsylvania. Besides gardening and just an overall love of plants, his hobbies include bicycling, reading, and finding different ways to stay warm in the winter (he is a native Southerner). He and his wife, Carrie, feel extremely fortunate to be able to raise their two teens and two “tweens” in and around Acadia National Park.

  • Through September 7 – Groundbreakers: Great American Gardens and the Women Who Designed Them

    Those of us who enjoyed the speakers during The Garden Club of the Back Bay’s program theme a few years ago, Women in the Garden, should travel to the New York Botanical Garden now through September 7.  It is hosting Groundbreakers: Great American Gardens and the Women Who Designed Them, an exhibition that focuses on the accomplishments of prominent women whose work influenced landscape architecture and garden design, garden photography, and garden writing in the first three decades of the 20th century.

    Included in the exhibit is Mrs. Rockefeller’s Garden, a reconstruction of the Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Garden in Seal Harbor, Maine.  The garden, designed by Beatrix Farrand in 1926, was at the summer home of philanthropist John D. Rockefeller and his wife Abby.  Also featured is Gardens for a Beautiful America: The Women Who Photographed Them,  a display in the Garden’s LuEsther T. Mertz Library of vintage photographs and illustrated books highlighting the work of female photographers.  An outdoor poetry walk will feature the work of Edna St. Vincent Millay.

    During the exhibition, visitors can also enjoy live musical performances featuring pieces by American composers of the time period, hands-on programs for children, public lectures, and a downloadable app that offers additional information about the exhibition.  Visit www.nybg.org or call 718-817-8700 for further details.

  • Thursday, August 19, 9:00 am – 2:30 pm – Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Garden and Wild Gardens of Acadia

    Advance notice: a spectacular day field trip has been planned by The New England Wild Flower Society in Seal Harbor and Bar Harbor, Maine on Thursday, August 19, from 9 – 2:30, led by Bonnie Drexler.  Participation is limited to twenty, so register quickly at www.newfs.org.  The cost  is $60 for NEWFS members and $72 for nonmembers, and this event is sure to sell out.

    Two of Mt. Desert Island’s most evocative gardens open their gates  this day.

    Noted garden designer Beatrix Farrand designed a stunning garden for David and Abby Alrich Rockefeller in the late 1920’s. Today, this garden (pictured below) continues to weave an enchanting spell over its visitors, combining Asian art and architecture with vibrant displays of annuals and perennials. Enter another world as you pass through the circular Moon Gate to come upon a sunken lawn, surrounded by lavish English border gardens at their peak of summer color. Stroll the woodland “Spirit Path,” flanked by Korean tombstone figures, all the while enclosed by a rose-colored serpentine wall, capped with yellow tiles from China’s Forbidden City. Native shrubs, groundcovers, mosses and ferns shine alongside the ancient stone sculptures, some from the 14th century. Meet with the horticulture staff for a behind the scenes understanding of the Garden.

    Following lunch (on your own at the nearby Jordan Pond House),  you will tour the Wild Gardens of Acadia, where we explore a microcosm of Mount Desert Island’s natural habitats. Only plants indigenous to Mt. Desert Island find a home here on this small, but intensely planted site. Over 300 native plant species are arranged by habitat setting. The plant communities include mixed woods, roadside, meadow, mountain, heath, seaside, brookside, bird thicket, coniferous woods, bog, marsh, and pond with corresponding native plants and birdlife. Maintained by the Bar Harbor Garden Club, this jewel of a native plant garden won the Homer Lucas Landscape Award from New England Wild Flower Society in 1998.