Immerse yourself in an Eden of butterflies, bees

The community of Southwest Harbor created a sanctuary for butterflies. It sneaks up on you as you travel Route 102, and first appears as a sign on the left as you round the curve into town: Charlotte Rhoades Park Butterfly Garden. Go there with time to stand quietly, to watch and learn about butterflies.

One of two town parks, Charlotte Rhoades Park was established in 1973 on the shore of Somes Sound, a quiet place for children to play and families to picnic. The Butterfly Garden was established within the park in 1998 to promote conservation education and gardening instruction in the community. The town of Southwest Harbor provided the initial startup funds and the town’s Conservation Commission is responsible for the garden’s stewardship.

The garden beds, formed in a pattern suggestive of butterfly wings, were designed by Bar Harbor landscape architect Bruce Riddell. In 2000, the garden received a national design award from the Boston Society of Landscape Architects.

Local resident and Master Gardener Ann Judd, leader of the garden’s development as an ongoing University of Maine Extension Master Gardener Volunteer project, attributes the garden’s success to “partnerships of many generous groups of people.” Included among the patrons are U.S. Coast Guard personnel who help out with annual Earth Day garden cleanup, local Girl Scouts who volunteer time, the Garden Club of Mount Desert Island, the Bar Harbor Garden Club, Friends of Acadia and Downeast Audubon.

Few community gardens can boast of as many ongoing connections with their community. The garden is used for photography classes and by artists. Classes in gardening, including garden design, pruning and organic gardening, are offered free to the community.

UM Extension Master Gardener Volunteers from the local community serve as docents and teachers who offer lessons to visiting schoolchildren and adults about butterfly biology and habitat. Each year, from early May until the middle of June, they conduct free Thursday morning classes in gardening and garden design.

No pesticides are used in the garden and so it is a haven for pollinators and insects of all kinds. From dawn to dusk, hordes of bumblebees forage for nectar in catnip (Nepeta) blossoms, while small solitary bees, their pollen sacs packed, forage across the sulfur-yellow flower heads of yarrow. Hummingbird hawk moths, often mistaken for their namesake, sip nectar in midflight. Hoverflies dart in and out of view, looking for aphids or other suitable prey.

But butterflies are the calling card of this garden. During a recent visit I watched monarch caterpillars as they munched the leaves of an annual milkweed planted specifically for the early season larvae. Later in the summer, perennial species of milkweed will take over as host plants for this butterfly. Before the afternoon was over, I spotted an adult monarch weaving through the garden.

During the same visit, I saw a white admiral butterfly on the wing, a pearl crescent butterfly basking in the sun, and two other species that I am still trying to identify from photographs.

The Butterfly Garden will celebrate its 10th anniversary from 4 to 5:30 p.m. July 31, during the annual Butterfly Release. The rain date is Aug. 1. Garden friends and supporters of all ages will release 200 American painted lady butterflies to forage for nectar among the garden’s zinnias and thistles and lay their eggs on mallows, the larval host plant. Reservations are required to participate in the release and can be made by calling the Southwest Harbor Chamber of Commerce at 244-9264.

Let this event be your introduction to this enchanting garden. Then return alone, on a sunny late summer afternoon when there are more butterflies than people in the garden.

Walk along the garden paths, stopping often to stand quietly and watch the butterflies and bees at work. There is something new to see at every turn, under every leaf. You may find it hard to leave.

Send queries to Gardening Questions, P.O. Box 418, Ellsworth 04605, or to rmanley@ptc-me.net. Include name, address and telephone number.