Thuya Garden – Northeast Harbor – Maine – Part 8

After the glowing recommendation from the ladies in Part 7, we drove a short way up the road and parked in a small parking area. We followed the signs and headed…

up the hill to Thuya Garden. The walk was a bit of a climb but the path was paved and the forest was cool with some great views of the harbor below.

We came out of the forest near a small parking area (only a few cars will fit) so we were glad we parked below! There was a small building (office& lodge) and a very ornate gate.

Details from Wikipedia

Thuya Garden is a semi-formal herbaceous garden, in the style of Gertrude Jekyll, located at 15 Thuya Drive, Northeast Harbor, Maine. It is open daily from May through October.

The garden is located on the grounds of Thuya Lodge, built between 1912 and 1916 for Boston landscape architect Joseph Henry Curtis. At that time, today’s garden was an orchard. After Curtis’ death in 1928, Thuya Lodge and its grounds were placed in a trust directed by his friend Charles K. Savage, an heir of the nearby Asticou Inn and creator of the Asticou Azalea Garden. Today’s greatly-expanded garden was originally conceived in 1933 by Savage, and built from 1956 to 1961 with plants from Beatrix Farrand’s Reef Point Garden in Bar Harbor when that estate was dismantled in 1956, and with financial help from John D. Rockefeller Jr. It opened to the public in 1962.

The garden is laid out as a narrow lawn axis with cross-axes, edged by a rustic pavilion to its north and a shallow reflecting pool to the south. Flower beds contain about half perennials and half annuals, with plantings of rhododendrons and mountain laurels.

The Garden

The minute I walked through that gate I was enthralled! The gardens were beautiful! I could not make images fast enough. I had my 105mm macro lens on my camera so I could shoot from the front to the back of the beds. Most of the beds were open on both sides which allowed me to get even more shots!

The light was not great, as it was early afternoon, but I was going to make the best of it! I was looking for flowers in the shade and suddenly I heard a very distinctive sound! There was a hummingbird nearby. I pulled my eyes away from the gorgeous flowers and realized the hummingbird was just a few feet away. It was so intent on feeding that it did not even seem aware that I was so close. So, I proceeded to make bird images with my macro lens! As long as I moved slowly, the hummer was not concerned with me at all. It even stopped and sat on a stem a few times.

The hummer only left when another one, I believe it was a male, suddenly came flying in and they both took off!

So I went back to shooting the various flowers around me. The Dahlias were so colorful and huge! We don’t have much in the way of dahlias in Florida so this was a treat for me!

There were plenty of other flowers, as well!

I wandered around and around the gardens looking for the flowers that were not in the full sun! As the time went by I realized my friends had gotten into shooting the flowers also. Even my friend who “hated” flower photography could not stay away from all the gorgeousness that was around us.

Our group of intent photographers always draws the attention of the people around us. We found that many of the folks visiting Thuya Garden that day were also from Florida. They all said they had come to Maine to get away from the humidity and heat that Florida was suffering at that time and also as a respite from the stress of hurricane season, after the 2 weeks of “is it or isn’t it” of Hurricane Dorian.

I had walked over to a shady part of the gardens and as I returned I once again heard that hummer sound! This one was a bit further away but the 105mm macro lens worked just fine!

The butterflies were also plentiful but since it was pretty warm they were not alighting on the flowers for very long. I did catch one!

As the sun started to go lower I rushed around to shoot as many flowers as I could in that much better light!

As the place was about to close I gathered up my friends and we made our way back “down”, thankfully, through the forest to the car! Our last afternoon in Maine had been so full of colors, sounds and smells!

We were ready to head back to the rental house, do our final download of our images and pack up for the trip home!

Thuya Garden is a must-see if you are in the area. As with everything else in the area it is a short trip from Bar Harbor.

For larger versions of these images and many more, please click an image or check out my Gallery!

This is my final post about our Maine adventures! Please check out the previous posts!

The next adventure is in New Mexico!

That is all for now!

Lynn