There’s always something to see and do at Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens, and we invite you to explore sumptuous ornamental gardens, well-groomed trails along tranquil waterfront and through pristine forest, fine sculpture, and stonework made by man and nature. After enjoying our gardens and grounds, complete your visit with a stop in the Gardens Gift Shop and Kitchen Garden Café in the Visitor Center.

Main Entry Garden: The stone walls and plantings of birches and ferns at the entrance to the property quietly announce to visitors that they have arrived at a botanical garden with a New England heritage.

Entry Walk Garden: Approach the Visitor Center via a gently curving path amid colorful mixed borders and impressive stonework and stone walls.

Burpee Kitchen Garden: Adjacent to our café, the Kitchen Garden is ornamentally planted with herbs, vegetables, edible flowers and blueberries and raspberries. The garden is surrounded by an orchard of hardy heirloom apple cultivars.

Café Terrace: A gently curving stone wall encloses this terrace area, which is used as an outdoor dining site, as well as for educational programming, especially cooking programs.

Great Lawn: A lush expanse of lawn and colorful meadow plantings highlighted by “whale rock,” a dramatic rock ledge “surfacing” like the whales seen off the coast of Maine.

Rose & Perennial Garden: Inspired by paintings of Maine landscapes by artists such as Childe Hassam and Maurice Prendergast, this garden mixes native and hardy shrub roses to educate Maine gardeners on the best rose choices for coastal areas. As in an Impressionist tapestry, bulbs and perennials meander through the roses, infusing the garden with vibrant color from spring through fall. The two-tone granite rose creates a “floor” for an openwork gazebo, which is flanked by massive twin pergolas.

Forest Pond Garden: Shell-pink water lilies float on this pond ringed by woodland shade plants and sheltered by mature pine trees. This is a lovely spot to simply relax in a tranquil setting, or to traverse the pond via broad stepping stones.

Woodland Garden: Wander a gently curving and meandering path in a natural garden area filled with a variety of native and cultivated shade plants set against natural stone and mosses.

Event Lawn: A large and open expanse of lawn used for special events and wedding receptions. Mixed borders of trees, shrubs and perennials surround the lawn.

Hillside Garden: The Hillside Garden, a gently sloping hillside path planted with trees, perennials, groundcovers and wildflowers, leads to the Meditation Garden below. This winding path offers sparkling water views; dramatic rock ledges covered in a variety of mosses and lichens; and quiet nooks with simple water features, sculpture and stone benches.

Meditation Garden: The Meditation Garden brings into pleasing harmony granite from throughout Maine in stunning patterns and shapes. The focal point is a massive stone basin that’s polished to a sheen inside and carved around the edges.

Shoreland Trail: This well-groomed walking trail along the tidal Back River is dotted with stone benches from which you can enjoy classic coastal Maine water views. A native plant garden area highlights hardy native trees, perennial flowers and groundcovers.

Fairy Village: In this enchanted, twig-fenced area, children can use their imaginations to build simple or fanciful classic-Maine fairy houses using natural materials.

Rhododendron & Perennial Garden: This one-acre garden features a pond, meandering stone walls, terraced stone steps, more than 100 kinds of hardy rhododendrons, kousa dogwood trees, and thousands of flowering perennials and bulbs.

Birch Allée: This pedestrian promenade is lined with more than 1,000 white birches of several different varieties.

Fern Trail: Hardy native ferns fill the forest floor and cover huge, mossy ledges along this verdant woodland trail.

Forest Gazebo: This charming wooden structure overlooks the water and is a perfect, out-of-the-way spot for a picnic lunch.

Some of the gardens and trails described above contain gentle slopes, steeper grades and/or steps and therefore may not be accessible or appropriate for all visitors.

Future Gardens:
The Garden of the Five Senses – Please watch our progress as we construct this new 3/4-acre garden where visitors will immerse themselves in the sights, sounds, tastes, fragrances and feel of plants, water, stone, sculpture and more. Opening in 2008.

The Children’s Garden – Designed to delight and educate our younger visitors, this garden will have charming, interactive theme gardens and natural areas inspired by classic Maine children’s authors such as Richard McCloskey, (Blueberries for Sal) E.B. White (Charlotte’s Web) and Barbara Cooney (Miss Rumphius).

The Learning Garden – Adjacent to the Children’s Garden, the Learning Garden will be a working garden area with beds in various states of planting, growing and harvesting. It will include a small greenhouse, potting shed, tool house, cold frames, hand pumps, and compost and worm bins.

Click here to download the pdf.