Asticou Azalea and Thuya Gardens on Mt. Desert Island, Maine
There is no more iconic Maine garden perennial than delphiniums in July.
My husband Michael and I recently spent four very full days on Mt. Desert Island, Maine, USA, visiting public and private gardens and Acadia National Park, which is celebrating its 100th anniversary. To see the beautiful photos in my Acadia post, Scenes from Mt. Desert Island and Acadia National Park, click here. Today’s post highlights two of those gardens: Asticou Azalea Garden and the Thuya Garden, both in Northeast Harbor.
Nursery News: Carolyn’s Shade Gardens is a retail nursery located in Bryn Mawr, PA, specializing in showy, colorful, and unusual plants for shade. The only plants that we ship are snowdrops and miniature hostas. For catalogues and announcements of events, please send your full name, location, and phone number (for back up use only) to carolyn@carolynsshadegardens.com. Click here to get to the home page of our website for catalogues and information about our nursery and to subscribe to our blog.
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Asticou Pond in Asticou Azalea Garden, Northeast Harbor, Maine.
Asticou and Thuya were both designed and built in 1956 by Charles Savage, a lifelong resident of Northeast Harbor. He was inspired by his desire to preserve the plants in the Bar Harbor garden of Beatrix Farrand, who was forced to sell her property for financial reasons. Savage moved all her larger plants to the Thuya and Asticou sites with the financial support of John D. Rockefeller, Jr.
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Asticou Azalea Garden
Beatrix Farrand is an absolutely fascinating person and figures prominently in the history of American landscape architecture. She deserves a blog post of her own, but, briefly, she was born in 1872 and began studying landscape architecture in 1895. She went on to design gardens at the White House, the National Cathedral, Dumbarton Oaks, Princeton, Yale, and dozens of other prominent locations. An early advocate for the use of native plants, Farrand was the only female member of the eleven founders of the American Society of Landscape Architects. To read more about her, click here.
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Smokebush in bloom
Charles Savage studied Japanese gardening and was a lover of Maine native plants. The garden he designed combines these two elements in a unique and interesting way. The Asticou website explains Savage’s vision:
The Azalea Garden is styled after a Japanese stroll garden with many traditional Japanese design features adapted for the natural setting and vegetation of coastal Maine. A meandering circular path leads visitors through a succession of garden rooms that inspire serenity and reflection or bring to focus a particularly lovely vista. The garden’s design creates an illusion of space, of lakes and mountains and distant horizons.
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Asticou’s gravel paths are edged with bamboo, and native moss and ferns (and low bush blueberries) provide groundcover.
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Native Canada lily in Asticou
Asticou Azalea Garden
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Thuya also has beautiful rocky outcroppings surrounded by native plants.
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A final view of the delphiniums.
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There is more to come with a visit to the amazing Abby Alrich Rockefeller Garden plus photos from the Garden Club of Mt. Desert Open Garden Day.
Carolyn
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Nursery Happenings: You can sign up to receive catalogues and emails about nursery events by sending your full name and phone number to carolynsshadegardens@verizon.net. Subscribing to my blog does not sign you up to receive this information. Please indicate if you will be shopping at the nursery or are mail order only.
Carolyn’s Shade Gardens is a local retail nursery in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania, U.S., zone 6b/7a. The only plants that we mail order are snowdrops and miniature hostas and only within the US.
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CAROLYN'S SHADE GARDENS 
August 11, 2016 at 4:06 pm
We always loved going to Maine. Thanks for the wonderful photos.
August 11, 2016 at 5:13 pm
Thanks, Diane, I love to get comments. Carolyn
August 11, 2016 at 5:38 pm
I went to the Camden House and Garden Tour this year based on your photos from last year. Many thanks!
I believe the correct spelling is ASTICOU. I visited both gardens several years ago and fell in love with them.
August 11, 2016 at 6:00 pm
Susan, I managed to get the spelling right in the title and then misspelled it every other time. It’s a tongue twister for sure. Thanks for the correction—-I fixed it! Carolyn
August 11, 2016 at 6:59 pm
Carolyn, I’m glad you enjoyed the gardens on Mt. Desert. I grew up visiting those gardens, starting when I was really young, and it’s great to see pictures of them again!
–Sarah
August 12, 2016 at 10:17 am
Sarah, they are both a great size for children to visit. You must have loved Asticou especially with all its twists and turns and hidden places. Carolyn
August 11, 2016 at 7:46 pm
Thanks for sharing! Acadia National Park has always been on my list of places to visit and now Mt. Desert Island is too!
August 12, 2016 at 10:21 am
Dorothy, luckily they all come as a package. All parts of Mt. Desert are beautiful, inside and outside the park. Carolyn
August 11, 2016 at 9:15 pm
Hi Carolyn,
My husband and I visited Thuya and Asticou years ago and loved it. Your lovely photos brought back happy memories…..Thank you!
August 12, 2016 at 10:25 am
Starr, glad you could reminisce when you saw the photos. Both gardens are immaculately kept so they probably look pretty much the same. Carolyn
August 11, 2016 at 10:30 pm
What a beautiful place! My daughter has been spending the summer in Maine, and she loves it. Thuya seems like a warm and accessible property–impressive in a calming sort of way. I grew Delphiniums for years, but I think our summers are now to hot for them. They don’t seem to want to come back the next year.
August 12, 2016 at 10:27 am
Beth, I still think you should visit your daughter. Definitely too hot in Pennsylvania, I am sweltering down here. Carolyn
August 13, 2016 at 9:16 am
Hello Caroline… I love your photos and comments and would really appreciate your catalogue, availability dates for visitors/customers to see your garden and nursery and any other information you can include. Thanks so much for sharing with all of us. Gardening is very satisfying but it can be daunting too and I need all the help I can get as a fairly new but definitely determined shade gardener. Vicki
On Aug 11, 2016 3:55 PM, “CAROLYNS SHADE GARDENS” wrote:
> Carolyn @ Carolyns Shade Gardens posted: ” There is no more iconic Maine > garden perennial than delphiniums in July. My husband Michael and I > recently spent four very full days on Mt. Desert Island, Maine, USA, > visiting public and private gardens and Acadia National Park, which is > celebrating ” >
August 14, 2016 at 1:09 pm
Vicki, Glad you are enjoying the blog. To get customer information about my nursery, please email your full name and phone number for back up to carolynshadegardens@verizon.net. Please indicate if you are local or mail order only. Thanks, Carolyn
August 13, 2016 at 8:50 pm
I’ve always visited these gardens in June (when the azaleas and rhododendrons are blooming), so it is a treat to see them here in a different season.
August 14, 2016 at 1:06 pm
Jean, some of the summer blooming native azaleas were flowering but I did wonder what Asticou looked like with all the azaleas in bloom. Both gardens would be beautiful any time of year. Carolyn
August 20, 2016 at 6:30 pm
Very pretty gardens there. Everything looks so fresh and green too. Looks like you are having a nice summer.
August 21, 2016 at 12:29 pm
Donna, Maine is dry but really doesn’t have drought conditions where these gardens are. PA is not having a drought either so I was thrilled to find everything green and fresh at home too. Carolyn
August 29, 2016 at 6:30 pm
Sadly I don’t live near you but I devour your blog. You are a great source of inspiration and I want to thank you and tell you that you are greatly appreciated by this master gardener. I live in zone 5 Iowa and sometimes in South Carolina, although I have only a small garden there. I love reading about and seeing the photos from gardens you tour that I may not ever have the opportunity to see first hand. Thank you for what you do.
August 30, 2016 at 9:47 am
Gayle, Comments like yours are always inspirational. The blog is so much work that positive comments really keep me going. Carolyn
December 10, 2016 at 8:48 am
The Thuya gates were carved by Augustus Phillips, my grandfather. He and Charles Savage worked closely together during the creation of Thuya.
December 10, 2016 at 11:49 am
Hi Cathy, Thanks for that clarification. I just rechecked the Thuya site and it does say that your grandfather and Charles Savage carved the gates. I did as much research as I could on the garden and must have left out your grandfather’s contribution based on another source that mentioned only Savage. I will change the information in the post. Carolyn