Garden has been growing since ’50s

The Asticou Azalea Garden got its start in the 1950s when lifelong Northeast Harbor resident Charles K. Savage, a landscape designer, came up with the idea of blending a Japanese garden with the natural Maine landscape.

With financial help from John D. Rockefeller Jr., Savage selected the site and brought in a collection of azaleas and other plants from Reef Point Gardens in Bar Harbor. The renowned gardens were being dismantled because the creator, Beatrix Jones Farrand, was unable to secure the gardens’ future.

The azalea garden is owned today by the Island Foundation, a private foundation established to maintain the garden for the public’s pleasure.

The Asticou Azalea Garden is located in Northeast Harbor with its main entrance on Route 198, just north of its intersection with Route 3. The garden is open from May 1 through Oct. 31 during daylight hours.

On the path near the entrance, a small structure is filled with guidebooks. A $1 donation is requested; 75 cents pays for the book itself, 25 cents helps the garden. The guide offers a map of the entire garden and an invaluable list of some of the prolific bloomers, their likely peak times and the plants’ origins, which include Japan, Korea, China and Maine.

The guide asks visitors to follow a few rules to keep the garden a quiet retreat. No running is allowed; neither are picnics, sunbathing, bikes or pets permitted. Children are welcome, but parents are asked to hold their hands while near sensitive areas, such as the Sand Garden, Moss Garden and stone lanterns.