The Asticou Azalea Garden in

Northeast Harbor Northeast Harbor is a village on Mount Desert Island, located in the town of Mount Desert in Hancock County, Maine, United States. The village has a significant summer population, and has long been a quiet enclave of the rich and famous. Su ...

Maine Maine ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the United States, and the northeasternmost state in the Contiguous United States. It borders New Hampshire to the west, the Gulf of Maine to the southeast, and the Provinces and ...

, United States, is a popular visitor attraction. It was created by lifelong resident of the village, Charles Kenneth Savage, in 1956. Much of the initial plant collection originated at

Reef Point Estate Reef Point Estate was located in Bar Harbor, Maine, United States, on Mount Desert Island. Reef Point was the coastal “cottage” of Mary Cadwalder Rawle and Frederic Rhinelander Jones, the parents of landscape architect, Beatrix Farrand (1872–1 ...

in nearby

Bar Harbor Bar Harbor () is a resort town on Mount Desert Island in Hancock County, Maine, United States. As of the 2020 census, its population is 5,089. The town is home to the College of the Atlantic, Jackson Laboratory, and MDI Biological Laboratory. ...

, the summer residence of renowned landscape architect

Beatrix Farrand Beatrix Cadwalader Farrand (née Jones; June 19, 1872 – February 28, 1959) was an American landscape gardener and landscape architect. Her career included commissions to design about 110 gardens for private residences, estates and country hom ...

. The

collection Collection or Collections may refer to: Computing * Collection (abstract data type), the abstract concept of collections in computer science * Collection (linking), the act of linkage editing in computing * Garbage collection (computing), autom ...

was moved with the financial assistance of

John D. Rockefeller Jr. John Davison Rockefeller Jr. (January 29, 1874 – May 11, 1960) was an American financier and philanthropist. Rockefeller was the fifth child and only son of Standard Oil co-founder John D. Rockefeller. He was involved in the development of th ...

, including the weeping hemlock, just north of the main bridge. Located at the intersection of Route 198 and Route 3 (Peabody Drive), the garden and its pond are open to the public during daylight hours from May 1 to October 31. It features a selection of

rhododendron ''Rhododendron'' (; : ''rhododendra'') is a very large genus of about 1,024 species of woody plants in the Ericaceae, heath family (Ericaceae). They can be either evergreen or deciduous. Most species are native to eastern Asia and the Himalayan ...

s and

azalea Azaleas ( ) are flowering shrubs in the genus ''Rhododendron'', particularly the former sections ''Rhododendron sect. Tsutsusi, Tsutsusi'' (evergreen) and ''Pentanthera'' (deciduous). Azaleas bloom in the spring (April and May in the temperate ...

s, including the ''

Rhododendron canadense ''Rhododendron canadense'', the rhodora or Canada rosebay, is a deciduous flowering shrub that is native to northeastern North America. Classification Today's botanists consider the rhodora to be a distant relative of the other North American ...

'', Maine's native azalea. Styled after a Japanese stroll garden, the fine-

gravel Gravel () is a loose aggregation of rock fragments. Gravel occurs naturally on Earth as a result of sedimentation, sedimentary and erosion, erosive geological processes; it is also produced in large quantities commercially as crushed stone. Gr ...

paths are raked regularly in a manner that suggests flowing water. There is also a sand garden, where this effect is repeated but with the addition of stones, which are meant to represent islands. Savage was also the owner of the Asticou Inn, which is located on the opposite side of Peabody Drive."History of the Asticou Inn"
- Asticou Inn website Prior to the establishment of the garden, the Savage children and grandchildren had made a

treehouse A tree house, tree fort or treeshed, is a platform or building constructed around, next to or among the trunk or branches of one or more mature trees while above ground level. Tree houses can be used for recreation, work space, habitation, a ha ...

and rope swing in the

white pine ''Pinus'', the pines, is a genus of approximately 111 extant tree and shrub species. The genus is currently split into two subgenera: subgenus ''Pinus'' (hard pines), and subgenus ''Strobus'' (soft pines). Each of the subgenera have been further ...

still standing today. The present-day pond was formerly surrounded by an

alder Alders are trees of the genus ''Alnus'' in the birch family Betulaceae. The genus includes about 35 species of monoecious trees and shrubs, a few reaching a large size, distributed throughout the north temperate zone with a few species ex ...

swamp A swamp is a forested wetland.Keddy, P.A. 2010. Wetland Ecology: Principles and Conservation (2nd edition). Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK. 497 p. Swamps are considered to be transition zones because both land and water play a role in ...

.Interview: Rick Savage, Asticou
– Coastal Walk Project, 2017 Group photographs for weddings at the inn are often taken in the Garden.

Gallery

File:Asticou Azalea Garden 2006 1.jpg, A sign at the entrance from the Routes 3/198 parking lot near the northeast corner of the Garden File:Asticou Azalea Garden 2003 4.jpg,

Concentric circles In geometry, two or more objects are said to be ''concentric'' when they share the same center. Any pair of (possibly unalike) objects with well-defined centers can be concentric, including circles, spheres, regular polygons, regular polyhe ...

in the sand garden File:Asticou Azalea Garden 2003 3.jpg, An example of the Japanese influence File:Asticou Azalea Garden 2003 2.jpg, More raking effects File:Asticou Azalea Garden 2006 2.jpg, A 2006 view from just inside the Peabody Drive entrance

Notes

References

#Mount Desert Land & Garden Preserve. "Asticou Azalea Garden"

External links

Asticou Azalea Garden at the Mount Desert Land & Garden Preserve's website
{{Coord, 44.305, N, 68.284, W, display=title Northeast Harbor, Maine Mount Desert Island Gardens in Maine Tourist attractions in Hancock County, Maine 1956 establishments in Maine Japanese gardens in the United States Japanese strolling gardens Protected areas of Hancock County, Maine