Area Gardens

The work of some of America’s most renowned landscape architects; Frederick Law Olmstead, Fletcher Steele, Warren Manning & Charles Eliot are represented in places like Camden’s beautiful Harbor Park and Bok Amphitheater. In early Spring, lawns full of crocuses give way to drifts of daffodils, tulips, and Lilac bushes, from pale to deep purple, seem to grace & scent every antique dooryard.

Then follows a procession of perennials…peonies, hydrangeas, fox-glove, and fields of nodding daisies. But the true star of Maine’s garden season and one of Maine’s best-kept secrets is Lupine season! This is a magical two to three-week span in mid-June when every meadow, roadside ditch, and hill-side is covered in the iconic blue, pink and white spires that turns every bend in the road into a scene from an Impressionist painting! Even Maine’s most breath-taking vistas are improved by a stand of these dazzling flowers. So beloved are these plants that thrive in our cool, sea and pine-scented air, and acidic soil, that farmers will not mow their fields until the Lupines have set their seed!

To see Maine in the first three weeks of June is to see Maine at one the prettiest times of the year. In a word…unforgettable! July and August continue to deliver with a dazzling array of wild Rugosa Roses, daylilies, stands of lavender, and mallow. Be sure not to miss the ever-popular Camden Garden Club House and Garden Tour held annually on the third Thursday of July, just before the weekend of Harbor Arts Festival. It is not unusual to see artist’s set up with easels to capture someone’s paint-worth cottage garden. In the cooler days of Fall, Black-Eyed Susans dot the meadows, and asters, mums, and sunflowers compliment the colors of the turning leaves.

Some of the great places to see Maine gardens at their best are: