Garden variety Public landscapes blooming popular among horticulture fans

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As you walk around Merryspring Nature Park in Camden, you see all the usual garden-type things: day lilies and sweet peas, poppies and roses, a potting shed and greenhouse, a few benches here and there. Then there’s the remnants of an old, rusty boiler, its top open like a mouth to show a blooming succulent and a daisy topiary inside.

It makes an eye-catching planter to be sure, but the boiler, once used to heat a wood-drying kiln, serves another purpose: It is a small reminder of the plot’s previous life as a lumberyard. Today, flowers and shrubs flourish where workers once sawed and planed trees. In the nearly 30 years that have passed since a group of local supporters acquired the property, two of the park’s 66 acres have been transformed into a series of gardens that showcases Maine’s common and rare plants.

The cultivated area at Merryspring is one of the state’s hidden treasures, tucked away at the end of a side street in this bustling seaside town. In the three-month blur that is summer in Maine, public gardens such as Merryspring provide an oasis of calm. Whether they lure you in with a brilliant flash of color, a beckoning stone path, or the enticing scent of roses, these gardens provide a vacation for the senses. And this is a vacation planner, focusing on several gardens just a bit off the beaten path.

So just sit back, relax, and stop to smell the roses – they’re only here for a short while.

Merryspring Nature Park

Conway Road, off Route 1, Camden, 236-2239 or www.merryspring.org, open dawn to dusk year-round.

This 66-acre parcel is home to nature trails, a 10-acre arboretum, and a wide, open garden area. Merryspring’s mission is “to practice, teach and advocate sound principles of horticulture, ecology and conservation in order to protect our natural environment.” As such, the park provides an educational brown-bag lunch lecture every Tuesday.

“It’s always been sort of a two-headed monster out here – nature and horticulture. … Horticulture is improving and imposing order, but it’s nature’s way to be messy,” Kerry Hardy, the park’s director, said.

The two coexist well at Merryspring, with cultivated areas gently transitioning into woods and meadows. Don’t miss the herb garden, planted in the shape of two fish, and the rose garden, a wildly fragrant plot planted in front of a quaint cottage. Hardy bushes ring the boundary of the garden, and tender blooms, many of which are thought to be too delicate for Maine’s winters, thrive in a sheltered area in the middle.

The children’s garden, once used as part of the park’s summer camps, now serves as an example for ways to introduce youngsters to gardening. It includes kid favorites such as radishes and carrots, fragrant sweet peas, cherry tomatoes, and a fence to keep deer out. The perennial beds are starting to fade, but the colorful annuals will peak in mid-August.

Vesper Hill

Calderwood Drive, Rockport.

Vesper Hill isn’t easy to find – it lies near the end of a residential road in Rockport, and it is marked by a small monument that could pass for a roadside boulder – but it is well worth the search. Established in the 1960s by local philanthropist Helene Bok, the small park is meant to be a spiritual refuge for children and their parents. Vesper Hill’s children’s chapel, an open-air chalet that overlooks the ocean and serves as one of the state’s most picturesque wedding spots. Thus, it is best to visit on weekdays.

The grounds are meticulously maintained and include a biblical herb garden, perennial beds, mountain laurel and rhododendron, but the real allure of Vesper Hill are the hidden spots – a tiny lily pond tucked in a corner or a stone path that winds up a terrace. If you go, bring the kids, and plan to spend an afternoon there.

Ecotat Gardens

Route 2, Hermon.

A evergreen corridor marks the transition between busy Route 2 and the peaceful gardens at Ecotat. It is the first of many transitions in the 91-acre parcel, which boasts a series of garden “rooms” and trails that span the property. Established in 1995 by the Ecotat Trust, the gardens contain nearly 1,500 varieties of perennials in 55 gardens.

A map at the information kiosk near the park entrance points out what’s in bloom each month and leads visitors on a self-guided tour through the well-marked grounds. Among the highlights are the formal English garden, fragrant with thyme and lavender, as well as the maze. An iris and azalea bed is past its peak, but it blooms with vibrant color earlier in the summer. If you go, plan to spend a while roaming through the trails – it’s a haven for the curious, because something new lies around each corner.

Rogers Farm

Bennoch Road, Stillwater

Operated by the University of Maine, the farm is home to the Penobscot County Master Gardener Demonstration Garden, which is packed with great ideas for the home gardener. It also includes trial gardens for the previous year’s All-America Selections winners and Blooms of Bressingham’s English perennials, so you can see which plants thrive in this region.

You don’t need to have a green thumb to enjoy Rogers Farm, however. In the daytime, one garden explodes in shocking colors – brilliant crimson, vibrant orange, black and acid green flowers and foliage line well-maintained paths. A table and chairs painted in tropical colors invites you to stay awhile, but the neighboring garden of “Freaky and Fearsome Flowers” may lure you away. Filled with creepy-sounding plants such as cat’s claw, baby’s fingers (an ornamental corn), peek-a-boo eyeball, and love-lies-bleeding, the plot is frighteningly fun.

Lyle E. Littlefield Ornamentals Trial Garden

University of Maine campus, Orono

It’s easy to lose track of time as you wander through the Littlefield garden. The landscape unfolds gracefully – an orchard gives way to a formal garden, lined with a bright border of perennials and annuals. Deeper in, frogs leap around a grassy pond, and the sound of chirping birds fills the air.

The garden is an integral part of the university’s landscape horticulture program and it serves as a base for research, teaching and demonstration. The facility’s mission is “to obtain, plant, and evaluate as wide a range as possible of ornamental plants with potential for use in the northern landscape,” and it accomplishes that mission in style – the grounds are impeccable.

The garden, which covers 6.5 hectares (more than 16 acres) is larger than it appears from the road and much more tranquil than one would expect. A recently constructed fence looks a little intimidating, but it is meant to keep the plants safe from hungry deer and other wildlife. Visitors enter through a revolving gate near the University Credit Union.

Woodlawn Museum/The Black House

Route 172, Ellsworth,

667-8671, www.woodlawnmuseum.org.

A sense of anticipation takes over as you wind your way up the long, tree-lined driveway at the Col. Black Mansion in Ellsworth. The mansion, now a museum, is one Ellsworth’s most beautiful properties, and the gardens are a special treat. Established in 1903 and restored under the consultation of Beatrix Farrand in 1930, the formal gardens are planted with colorful flower beds, a hedge of lilac, horse chestnut and hemlock trees.

The grounds are open year-round as a public park and include walking trails, sweeping meadows and a lily pond.

Maine gardens

The following is a partial listing of the state’s public gardens. For a more complete listing, visit www.mainenurseries.com/public.htm.

Asticou Azalea Garden, Peabody Drive, Northeast harbor, 276-5130, www.asticou.com/gardens.

Cottage Garden, North Lubec Road, Lubec, 733-2902

Coastal Maine Botanical Garden, Barter Island Road, Boothbay, 633-4333.

Perkins Arboretum, Colby College, Waterville, 872-3000.

Pine Tree State Arboretum, 153 Hospital Street, Augusta, 621-0031.

Thuya Garden, Peabody Drive, Northeast Harbor, 276-5130, www.asticou.com/gardens.

Wild Gardens of Acadia, Acadia National Park, Bar Harbor, for information visit www.acadiamagic.com/WildGardens.html.

Wolfe’s Neck Farm, Freeport, flower beds and heather garden, 865-3428.