Happy Friday GPODers!
Last Friday we featured a guest post from our website editor, Christine Alexander, showcasing some sensational scenes she captured at Coastal Maine Botanic Garden during a video shoot with CMBG’s Horticultural Director Andy Brand (If you missed it, check Part 1 out here). Today we get to dive into her second batch of photos, revealing more gorgeous plant combinations as well as some truly incredible sculptures on display. Here’s a snippet of Christine’s description of this incredible public garden from last week:
The gardens were lush, colorful, and gorgeous – even in late October. There are various areas of the botanic gardens, and I daresay you could spend a few days exploring the extensive property. Andy ended up giving us an overview of a few of the most popular gardens, including the garden of the five senses, the children’s garden, and the garden on the slope. The insights into how each of these gardens were designed and maintained were many. Andy also offered ideas for how to bring some of what makes these gardens so special to your own garden and home. Aside from the gardens themselves, there are many programs for kids and adults alike, a yearly native plant sale, and there are amazing statues including the huge trolls- the Guardians of the Seeds – designed by Danish artist Thomas Dambo, which are so fun to search for. Each troll has an accompanying story and message that kids and adults alike will appreciate!
Starting us off, another bed absolutely bursting with late-season color and interest, but not an orange or yellow plant in sight! While the season is known for its more fiery-colored plants, there are plenty of flowers and foliage in berry colors that are just as exciting.
Vanishing edges are a popular feature on high-end pools, but you don’t see them as often in the garden. What an interesting feature.
Yet, from another angle, this pond looks as wild and natural as any water feature with a small bubbling fountain can! Mixing interesting design elements with dense, naturalistic plantings is a theme you’ll see throughout CMBG.
You can’t have a pond garden of this magnitude without a fair share of aquatic plants. A large cluster of lotus makes this pond even more lush.
A closer look at the green roof in the Bibby and Harold Alfond Children’s Garden that we saw in Part 1 last week.
While we’ve seen a lot of flowers from the display’s Christine captured, there was also plenty of funky foliage to take in. This leopard plant foliage (Ligularia dentata, Zones 3–8) is showing off all kinds of shades and tones in the late season.
As I mentioned last week, art can be found around every corner at CMBG. Christine mentions the famous Guardians of the Seeds troll sculptures in her description on the top of the post, but several other sculptures are on permanent display throughout the various gardens. ‘Chiseled Glass Orb’ by Henry Richardson can be seen above, which can look animated due to refracted light bouncing off of each plate of glass.
Another continuation of what we saw last week, the endless flowers that were still in bloom. While some were surprising to see thriving so late in the season, others like this Japanese anemone (Anemone hupehensis var. japonica, Zones 3–9) were a familiar sight to see in the cooler weather.
And last, but certainly not least, one of Thomas Dambo’s incredible troll sculptures that are their own draw to this amazing botanical garden. Each troll has a name and represents a different part of a tree, telling of the vital importance each component has to the tree as a whole and to the rest of the forest. The sculpture above is the “youngest” of the trolls, Lilja represents flowers and tells of the importance of the color and scent of flowers to attract bees and butterflies. Learn more about the five troll statues at CMBG here: Meet Our Trolls.
Coastal Maine Botanic Garden is one of countless beautiful, inspiring, and educational public gardens across the US. While it would take one person a lifetime (and a whole lot of money) to visit every one, we have the benefit of being able to vicariously visit these incredible institutions via members of our community. If you made a trip to a public garden last year, it would warm up our winter to get a sampling of what you saw on your trip. Consider sharing your photos with GPOD by following the directions below to submit photos via email, or send me a DM on Instagram: @agirlherdogandtheroad. Have a fabulous weekend, everyone!
Have a garden you’d like to share?
Have photos to share? We’d love to see your garden, a particular collection of plants you love, or a wonderful garden you had the chance to visit!
To submit, send 5-10 photos to [email protected] along with some information about the plants in the pictures and where you took the photos. We’d love to hear where you are located, how long you’ve been gardening, successes you are proud of, failures you learned from, hopes for the future, favorite plants, or funny stories from your garden.
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