THE WILD GARDENS OF ACADIA A PROJECT OF THE BAR HARBOR GARDEN CLUB RS ACADIA NATIONAL PARK SIEUR DE MONTS SPRING BAR HARBOR, MAINE -1- -7- On the left, as you enter the Wild Gardens of Acadia A small seaside habitat has been constructed beside the from the parking lot, is the DECIDUOUS area. The Bulletin brook. Here grow two native irises - the common blue entrance path is bordered by an identified display of Board flag and the rare Arctic beachhead iris, rose-root (the the native ferns. Inner paths contain most of the only native sedum), beach-pea, the spreading silver and hardwood trees and a few of the conifers. Here are gold potentilla, sea-lavender, sea-milkwort, seaside birches, - yellow and gray; the maples, - moosewood, goldenrod and plantain. These compose our "BEACH," red, mountain and sugar; beech, ashes, poplars, cherries and shadbush. Beside the damp brook-bed are ferns and mosses, violets, -8- boneset and Joe-Pye-weed, meadow-rue, turtlehead and a cluster of cardinal flowers which burst into bloom in August. For the latter, The DRY HEATH contains plants which grow in barren we are indebted to the special propagating skill of one of our places, although not confined to them: rhodora (both members. Also along the paths are such shrubs as highbush 5 rosy and the rare white), highbush blueberry, blueberries, elders, alders, potentilla, viburnums, aralia, clethra, 10 huckleberry, Labrador tea, lambkill, pale corydalis, dogwoods. Flowers in their seasons are Canada lilies, lady s-slippers, 4 ladies -tresses and a large patch of partridge-berry. trillium, blue flag, coltsfoot, saxifrage, red and white baneberries (bright but poisonous), herb-Robert, plus many small groundcovers. -9- To 3 Spring and Here are found bunchberry (a true miniature dogwood), -2- - Abbe Museum Clintonia, wild lily-of-the-valley, trillium, Solomon's-seal wild-oats, Indian cucumber-root, On the right of the entrance, an area still to be 2 wood-betony, purple fringed orchis, wood and Canada developed, are some less usual HARDWOOD trees: the To lily, and twisted-stalk. Here, too, is a bench from which beaked hazelnut, the related American hop-hornbeam, Nature Center the startling cardinal flower in the brook may be the pagoda dogwood and the Jones hawthorn, named enjoyed. for Beatrix Jones Farrand, the distinguished landscape 10 architect and former Bar Harbor resident. Farther to the right are many large ferns, black chokeberry, groundnut and the sweet grass Parking area The native trees, shrubs, ground covers and flowers that used by the Indians to make fragrant baskets. are attractive to BIRDS have been collected here: hawthorns, cherries, mountain-ash, viburnums, red and purple elderberries, sumac, clethra, shadbush, jewelweed and various low-growing berries. See the -3- Nothing is static in any garden. There are always new Bulletin Board for a bird chart, a contribution from the local Bird This small triangular section is primarily for viewing developments. Descriptions are limited, as conditions may vary from Club. birds and mountain climbers from the bench. year to year, from drought to flooding. Various plants are not - 11 - always successful, nor is a wild garden ever a blaze of bloom. We hope you find here some new or old acquaintances that will give you This will some day be a real evergreen forest! Here pleasure and a desire to walk the trails of Acadia National Park to ancient red maples shade the CONIFERS which will find these plants in their natural environment. eventually replace them. Beneath are lady's-slippers, trillium, Jack-in-the-pulpit, Clintonia, mayflower, -4- checkerberry, bunchberry, twinflower, creeping The area nearest to the Nature Center is given over to snowberry, partridge-berry, polygala, pyrola, the wild plants of the ROADSIDE. The edible berries club-mosses and mountain laurel. are grouped together: blackberry, raspberry, strawberry and blueberry. Here too are the spreading 12 dogbane, field juniper, the tiny eyebright, the two -6- - This area was built to resemble a natural bog, but the spireas hardhack and meadowsweet, asters, goldenrods and fine ecology is proving it to be, instead, a MARSH, with clumps of the larger ferns beside the brook. The problem of growing alpine and rock-loving plants in greater success in growing such plants as showy an area devoid of elevation or stones was solved by the lady's-slipper, leather leaf, rhodora, northern calla and creation of a "MOUNTAIN" designed and assembled buckbean than sundews, baked-apple-berry, -5- under the direction of Harold A. Hubler, a former Park bladderwort, pitcher-plant, bog-rosemary, and the more delicate Many weedy plants appear in MEADOWS and so here Superintendent. Here you see three-toothed cinquefoil, orchids arethusa, calapogon and rose pogonia. may be found such types as evening-primrose, harebell, red columbine - now rare on this Island, true Across the brook a memorial bench, placed among ferns and yellow-rattle, toadflax, pussy s-toes, pennyroyal, self and false crowberry, gold-heather, saxifrage, bearberry, bayberry, young hemlocks, gives the visitor an opportunity to enjoy the heal, fireweed, sarsaparillas, pearly everlasting, mountain cranberry, ladies'-tresses, mountain sandwort, Bar Harbor Garden. Beyond this is a small BOG, more suitable for those plants sweet-fern, more asters and goldenrods. juniper, polypody fern, jack and pitch pines. listed above. BACKGROUND George B. Dorr, Founder of Acadia National Park, first named this area "Wild Gardens of Acadia" in 1916 and incorporated it "for educational and scientific purposes". But it did not become a reality until 1960, when the idea was revived by Harold A. Hubler, then Superintendent of the Park, who invited the Bar Harbor Garden Club to undertake a project "to display and label native plant varieties for the benefit of Park visitors" within this Park's boundaries. Such a challenge was met as a unique opportunity for local people to add to Acadia National Park. This flat three-fourths of an acre was an unprepossessing tangle of blackberry bushes and old red maples damaged by the fire of 1947 which swept through this entire area. Its only assets were a wealth of fine large ferns and a winding brook fed partly by the Sieur de Monts Spring itself. The first objective was to consider the ecological needs of the plants of Mt. Desert Island and to contrive suitable habitats for them. By 1970, over 200 indigenous species of plants, shrubs and trees have been planted in ten habitats. Since collection of plant material is not permitted within the Park, specimens have been obtained from other sources, with due regard to the principles of conservation. The basic guide for the project has been Edgar T. Wherry's book "Wild Flowers of Mt. Desert Island", a publication sponsored by the summer Garden Club of Mt. Desert in 1928. Forty years later, Dr. Wherry celebrated his 80th birthday by making the trip to Mt. Desert to see the Wild Gardens a reality. His valued and continued observations keep the local committee on their toes. As Dr. Wherry pointed out, the fact that Mt. Desert is the northernmost limit of many southern plants and the southernmost limit for a number of arctic species, lends interest to ecologists and botanists. The work of planning, organizing, studying, collecting, propagating, planting, labeling and fund raising has been accomplished` by volunteers, with generous assistance from other garden clubs and interested individuals, as well as close cooperation with the Park. Over the years, the only paid assistance has been to a gardener for one-half day a week during the growing season. In addition, the Park has made available each summer a student, sponsored either by the Student Conservation program or the University of Maine Work and Study program. The modest cost of maintaining the Gardens has been met, so far, by plant sales each May and September, and by occasional gifts. This, briefly is the story of how and why this unique project of local and federal participation to conserve, progagate and display the native flora of Mt. Desert Island, came about. It is for your enjoyment, study and peaceful relaxation. "ESCAPES" Visitors ask why they do not see here such plants, common on the Island, as lupine, rugosa rose, daisy, tansy, valerian, clover, Indian paintbrush, day-lily; or ninebark, lilac, crabapple and laburnum. It is because they are not native on Mt. Desert Island. HELPFUL BOOKS On Cultivation: - Taylor and Hamblin, "Handbook of Wild Flower Cultivation" Aiken, "Pioneering with Wild Flowers" Birdseye, C & E, "Growing Woodland Plants" Steffek, E. F., "Wild Flowers and How to Grow Them" On Identification: - Wherry, Edgar, "Wild Flower Guide" Gray's "Manual of Botany" Peterson & McKenny, "A Field Guide to Wildflowers" Dana, Mrs. W.S., "How to Know the Wild Flowers" Sharpe, G & W, "101 Wild Flowers of Acadia National Park" Peterson, R.T., "A Field Guide to the Birds" Bond, James, "Native Birds of Mt. Desert Island" USEFUL NURSERIES Gardens of the Blue Ridge, Ashford, North Carolina Putney Nurseries, Putney, Vermont Sky-cleft Gardens, Barre, Vermont Mountain Valley Nursery, Jefferson, New Hampshire Illustrated by Ruth Soper Printed July 1970