
Fort Williams Park
Maine Gardens: Portland Area/Western Region
Please e-mail listings, preferably in the format below, to: [email protected].
Daily, YEAR ROUND, dawn to dusk
Fort Williams Park
1000 Shore Road, Cape Elizabeth
Naturalistic cliff-top gardens on a former military reservation overlooking the Atlantic, now owned by the town of Cape Elizabeth. In an ongoing restoration program led by the Friends of Fort Williams Park, thickets of Japanese knotweed and other invasive exotic plants have been removed, thereby revealing native plants and picturesque ledges and opening up dramatic views of Casco Bay and Portland Head Lighthouse. Graceful plantings of native trees, shrubs, perennials, and ground covers are being added. Free.
207-767-3707
www.fortwilliams.org
Daily, YEAR ROUND, gardens open dawn to dusk; hourly house tours Thursday-Sunday, JUNE-OCTOBER 13
Hamilton House
40 Vaughan’s Lane, South Berwick
Impressive 1785 Georgian mansion overlooking the Salmon Falls River with formal shrub and perennial gardens and fountains. Gardens free. House tours $15.
207-384-2454
www.historicnewengland.org
Daily, YEAR ROUND, dawn to dusk
University of Maine Gardens at Tidewater Farm
Farm Gate Road, Falmouth
Large plots of vegetables and perennials, including All America selections, plus orchards and wildflower gardens, with views of the Presumpscot River. Free but donations welcome.
800-287-1471 (in Maine), 207-781-6099
www.extension.umaine.edu
Daily, APRIL 18-NOVEMBER 16, 10-5
Ogunquit Museum of American Art
543 Shore Road, Ogunquit
A collection of outdoor sculpture is displayed in a 3-acre seaside garden of mixed perennials, shrubs, and trees. $15.
207-646-4909
www.ogunquitmuseum.org
Daily, MAY-OCTOBER, 10-5
Longfellow House
489 Congress Street, Portland
Long, narrow garden of perennials, shrubs, and deciduous trees beside an early-19th-century brick townhouse that was the childhood home of the poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow and is now the headquarters of the Maine Historical Society. The garden is maintained by the Longfellow Garden Club. Free.
207-774-1822 (Maine Historical Society)
www.longfellowgardenclub.org
Daily, MAY 10 (Mother’s Day weekend)-NOVEMBER 1, dawn to dusk
McLaughlin Garden & Homestead
97 Main Street (Route 26), South Paris
A 3½-acre collection of perennials, trees, and shrubs, including one of New England’s largest collections of lilacs, planted by the late Bernard McLaughlin at his former home. $10 suggested donation.
207-743-8820
www.mclaughlingarden.org
Saturday, JUNE 7, 1-4; rain date: Sunday, JUNE 8
5th Annual Woodfords Corner Garden Tour
Portland
A tour of private gardens in Portland’s Woodfords Corner neighborhood, organized by the Friends of Woodfords Corner. Suggested donation: $20.
www.woodfordscorner.org
Saturday, JUNE 28, 1-4
Beckett Castle Rose Garden
Cape Elizabeth
More than 50 varieties of heirloom roses grow beside a picturesque Gothic Revival fieldstone mansion with a 50-foot tower, built in 1871 by Portland native Sylvester Beckett. Like Fort Williams Park, the site has dramatic views of Casco Bay, Portland Head Light and four other lighthouses. It’s now a non-profit artist’s retreat (www.hogfish.org) and open to the public as part of the Garden Conservancy’s annual nationwide Open Days program. Admission is $10 per person per garden and by pre-registration only at www.gardenconservancy.org.