Maine Gardens

 Asticou Azalea Garden: Seal Harbor and Peabody Drive, Northeast Harbor, Mt. Desert

 Island, ME 04662.

This 2.3 acre garden, created by a self-taught landscape designer and owner of the Asticou Inn to preserve for Mt. Desert Island the plants from the Beatrix Farrand estate, displays over 20 varieties of azaleas in a setting that includes a stream, an iris-bordered pond and a Japanese meditation garden.

 Bartlett Maine Estate Winery Gardens: Off Route 1, Box 598, Gouldsboro, ME 04607

 (207)546-2408.

This winery, creating wines from regional fruits such as pears, apples, blueberries and raspberries, also features gardens.

 Beatrix Farrand Garden at College of the Atlantic: Near Kaelber Hall, Route 3, Bar

 Harbor, ME 04609(207)288-5015.

A garden with a view of Frenchman's Bay has been recreated from a rose garden designed by Beatrix Farrand. Completed in 1929, the now restored garden features a geometric parterre and a border of trees and hedges.

 Blaine House Gardens: Governor's Mansion, Corner of State and Capitol Streets, Augusta,

 ME (207)662-6363.

This garden at the Governor's Mansion was designed in 1920 and has recently been completed.

 Castine Inn Garden: Main Street, Castine, ME 04421 (207)326-4365. An operating inn.

This operating inn features lovely gardens, including a rose crescent.

 Celia Thaxter's Garden: Appledore Island, Isle of Shoals, ME 03908 (607)255-3717 (Shoals Marine Laboratory).

This 19th century colorful cottage garden has been recreated using Celia Thaxter's book, an Island Garden, and its Childe Hassam illustrations.

 Christina's Garden at the Olson House: Hathorn Point Road, Cushing, ME (207)354-0102.

The Olson house is pictured in Andrew Wyeth's famous painting "Christina's World".

 Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens: Barters Island Road, P.O. Box 234, Boothbay, ME

 04537 (207)633-4333.

Spectacular shoreline on a tidal river and a beautiful, bold landscape create this unique place of beauty.  A Shoreland Garden with native plantings, a Wetland Garden, a Rhododendron collection, a vernal pool, the northernmost stand of Tupelo trees in the US, and two miles of walks/trails are featured in this 128 acre setting.

 Colonel Black Mansion Formal Gardens: Route 172 (Surry Road), Ellsworth, ME

 (207)667-8671.

The 300 acre former estate features a white pillared brick mansion and formal gardens nestled between the house and the carriage barn. Planted in 1903, the gardens were restored in the 1920s and 1930s with the assistance of Beatrix Farrand. A clipped lilac hedge encloses the tea lawn and formal garden.

 Ecotat: Route 2 and Annis Road, Hermon, ME (207)848-3485.

Ecotat, located on 91 acres, features 55 gardens, 280 varieties of trees, 1500 varieties of perennials, and abundant birds and wildlife.

 Gardens of Vesper Hill-Children's Chapel: Off Calderwood Lane, Rockport, ME.

This open air chapel with a spectacular view of Penobscot Bay is surrounded by lawns and formal gardens.

 Guild Victorian Garden at the Farnsworth Art Museum: 19 Elm Street, Rockland, ME

 04841 (207)596-6457.

The Farnsworth Homestead, with its Greek Revival exterior and lavish high Victorian interior, features a Victorian Garden.

 Hamilton House Grounds: 40 Vaughan's Lane, South Berwick, ME 03908 (207)384-2454.

The 1787 Hamilton House 33 acres of grounds overlook the Salmon Falls River and include remnants of an early 20th-century garden, now renovated.

 Harraseeket Inn Gardens: 162 Main Street, Freeport , ME (207)865-9377 or (800)342-6423.

Perennial gardens ornament the grounds of this operating inn.

 Historic Conway Homestead and Museum: Route 1 and Conway Road, Camden, ME

 (207)236-2257.

The Camden Garden Club landscaped the grounds of this 1770 house with native plant materials common in New England before 1860. The farmstead buildings surround an historic herb garden.

 Lyle E. Littlefield Ornamentals Trial Garden and Research Center : University of Maine,

 5772 Deering Hall, Orono, ME 04469-5722 (207)581-2948.

This 6.5 hectare facility houses a research center and the Littlefield Garden. The Garden displays over 2,500 woody and herbaceous plants with special collections of crabapples (210 varieties), lilacs (180 varieties), rhododendrons (150 varieties), and magnolias (35 varieties). The garden has been renovated over the past 10 years.

 Maine Cottage Garden: RR 1, Box 295, Fredericks Rd., Strong, ME 04983 (207)684-3400.

This two acre privately-owned but generously shared cottage-style garden features Zone 4 perennials and shrubs that survive (and thrive) in -30 degree winter temperatures. This "Garden of Survivors" is arranged in islands, borders, courtyard, and naturalistic settings extending from the house, throughout an old apple orchard, to the forest's edge.

 Marrett House Garden: Route 25, Standish, ME 04084 (207)642-3032.

An extensive perennial garden created by the Marrett sisters in the 1920s and 1930s has been restored at this historic home.

 McLaughlin Garden: 97 Main Street, P.O. Box 16, South Paris , ME 04281 (207)743-8820.

A sixty year labor of love by the "Dean of Maine Gardeners", this Garden features collections of hostas, daylilies, astilbes, iris, phlox, sedum, cimicifuga, sempervivums and over 200 lilacs, as well as Maine wildflowers and ferns.  The setting is a century old farmstead with massive stone walls and a barn.

 Merryspring Nature Park:  Merryspring Park, end of Conway Rd. (off U.S. Hwy. 1), P.O. Box

 893 Camden, ME 04843, (207)236-2239.

This 66 acre nature preserve features indigenous plants in herb, lily, hosta, Bird and Bees/Winter Color, rose and perennial gardens, as well as fields of wildflowers, the 10 acre Kitty Todd Arboretum, and walkways and trails.

 Nickels-Sortwell House Gardens and Sunken Garden: Main Street, Wiscasset, ME.

The grounds this historic home, landscaped in 1926 with period gardens, are being restored. The Sunken Garden was created by Frances Sortwell on the foundation of a burned house.

 Perkins Arboretum: Colby College, Mayflower Hill Drive, Waterville, ME 04901

 (207)872-3000.

Named after a professor who was so enthusiastic he would sprint to the outdoor classroom, leaving students gasping behind, the Arboretum is a designated national wildlife refuge.

 Pine Tree State Arboretum: 153 Hospital Street, P.O. Box 344, Augusta, ME 04332-0344

 (207)621-0031.

This 224 acre Arboretum displays over 200 labeled species of trees and shrubs with special plantings of Hosta, Azaleas and Rhododendrons, Lilacs, Green Ash, Urban & Community Forests, the Governor's Grove White Pine, an Antique Maine Apple Orchard, "Space Trees" (from seed that traveled on the Space Shuttle), and a Rock Garden.

 Roger Clapp Greenhouse: University of Maine, Orono, ME

This 10,000 square foot glass greenhouse maintains a permanent teaching collection of over 200 species of tropical and desert plant species from throughout the world, including a extensive collection of cacti and succulents.

 Rogers Farm: University of Maine Research Farm, Bennoch Rd., Stillwater, ME 04468

 (207) 942-7396 or (800) 287-1485 (in Maine).

The 1 acre Master Gardener Demonstration Garden includes extensive plantings of annual flowers, vegetables and herbs as well as special plantings such as the Blooms of Bressingham (English perennials), Proven Winners, an All-America Selections Display Garden, trial gardens of geraniums and impatiens, a white garden, a children's garden, a small fruits garden and a perennial border.

 The Rose Circle, Deering Oaks Park: State Street, Portland, ME (207)874-8793.

This 51 acre city park includes an award-winning rose garden with more than 600 species of roses.

 St. Anthony's Monastery Grounds and Gardens: Beach Ave., Kennebunkport, ME

 (207)967-2011.

This former estate with an elegant Tudor House, purchased by Lithuanian Franciscans, features an English park ornamented with gardens and shrines.

 The Stone House: 642 Wolfe's Neck Road, Freeport, Maine 04032 (207)780-5961.

The Wolfe's Neck Botanical Society maintains the flower beds and Stone House gardens in this former estate, how a University of Southern Maine conference center and demonstration center for organic gardening.

 Thuya Lodge and Gardens/Asticou Terraces: Peabody Drive, Northeast Harbor, Mount

 Desert Island, ME 04662 (207)276-5130.

This 1.5 acre garden, also having received plants from Beatrix Farrand's estate (see Asticou Azalea Garden above), is arranged as two long, color arranged, perennial borders surrounded by woodland. 110 varieties are displayed over the 128 foot length.

 Wadsworth Longfellow House: 485 Congress Street, Portland, ME 04101 (207)774-1822.

Headquarters of the Center for Maine History, this historic home was the childhood home of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. The grounds include the Colonial Revival Longfellow Garden.

 Wild Gardens of Acadia: Sieur de Monts Spring, Park Loop Road, P.O. Box 177, Acadia

 National Park, ME 04609 (207)288-3338.

The 3/4 acre Wild Gardens of Acadia has more than 300 plants indigenous to the area’s forests, mountains and shores labeled and grouped in thirteen sections: Mixed Woods, Roadside, Meadow, Mountain, Heath, Beach, Brookside/Damp Thicket, Bird Thicket, Coniferous Woods, Bog, Marsh and Pond. Azalea Garden