CAROLYN'S SHADE GARDENS

For the third year in a row, Michael and I traveled to Camden, Maine, to attend the Camden Garden Club’s House and Garden Tour.  My last two posts covered all the beautiful containers displayed through out the town.  To read them click here and here.  This post will show highlights of the tour itself.

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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The Alden House, an 1855 Queen Anne Victorian, was just one of the seven historic houses on the tour.  The first president of the Camden Garden Club lived there when the club was founded 100 years ago.

2015 marks the 100th anniversary of the Camden Garden Club.  To celebrate, all the houses on the tour were historic.  The oldest was built in 1806 and the newest in the early 1900s.  It was fun to see all the beautiful architecture and the amazing ocean views that often accompanied it.  However, only two houses had gardens worth visiting, which was disappointing and didn’t result in many garden photos.  Nevertheless, I thought you would enjoy seeing the buildings and views.

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Alden House barn.  Unfortunately, no photos were allowed inside the houses because I would love to show you how well preserved this home was.

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This Georgian-style brick home called Red Chimneys built in 1825 was the site of the first meeting of the club in 1915.

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Lovely stonework found at Tranquility Garden in downtown Camden.

A close up of the unusual “paving” shown in the photo above.  The owners traveled all over the world for 30 years collecting ideas and objects for their garden.

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Tranquility Garden had lovely sun and shade borders.  The bright sunlight and shadows made the gardens very difficult to photograph.

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The combination of unusual textures was quite creative in this garden.

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Although it had no gardens to speak of, this property on a prominent point in Camden Harbor had almost 360 degree views of the ocean.

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One of its views was of this little island.

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Another view was of this beach.

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Gray Lodge is a shingle-style summer “cottage” built in the mid-1890s.

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The view at the start of the post was from this porch and is of Curtis Island Light.

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So-called Spite House was the prettiest building on the tour.  It was built in Phippsburg, Maine, in 1806 and floated on a barge to its current site in Rockport in 1925.  I never found out the origin of its name.

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Spite House gardens

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I discovered one new plant on the tour: Digitalis ‘Illumination Flame’.  Although it is only hardy in zone 8 and above, the color and habit is so beautiful that I may have to grow it next year.

The Camden-Rockport-Rockland area is such a gorgeous place to visit, but after three years Michael and I plan to attend the Bar Harbor Garden Club’s tour in 2016.

Carolyn