About Brookside Gardens
Brookside Gardens is Montgomery County's incomparable, award-winning 50-acre public display garden located within Wheaton Regional Park. Included in the gardens are several distinct areas: Aquatic Garden, Azalea Garden, Butterfly Garden, Children's Garden, Rose Garden, Japanese Style Garden, Trial Garden, Rain Garden and the Woodland Walk. The Formal Gardens areas include a Perennial Garden, Yew Garden, the Maple Terrace, and Fragrance Garden. Brookside Gardens also feature two conservatories for year-round enjoyment.
Virtual garden tour
Conservatories and Surrounding Gardens
The
Formal Gardens
Visitors
Center Plantings
Conservatories and Surrounding Gardens
The glass-covered Conservatories house a large tropical plant collection as well as provide seasonal plant color displays that include spring, summer, fall, and holiday shows. They often are used for special exhibits such as the Sculpture and Butterfly Shows.
The garden surrounding the Conservatories displays a collection of unusual conifers and ground covers as well as several specimen trees. Adjacent to the Conservatories is a Rain Garden.
Aquatic Garden
This garden
features Japanese iris and many other water-loving plants
along the banks of two ponds. A gazebo, located at the edge
of the Azalea Garden, overlooks the Aquatic Garden. The Anderson
Pavilion, built in 1991, sits on a small island in the upper
pond. Thousands of daffodils grow along the creek from the
Visitors Center Garden entrance to the Conservatory Garden
entrance.
Azalea Garden
The Azalea
Garden is a semi-wooded area that features over 300 varieties
of azaleas represented by 2,000 plants. Also featured are
rhododendrons, witchhazels, hollies, Japanese andromeda, sweet-box,
skimmia, bulbs, and a large assortment of shade-tolerant perennials.
Early azaleas begin blooming in mid-April, with the others
commencing bloom near Memorial Day. This provides a longer
season of bloom than is seen in typical home landscapes. Azaleas
are planted in masses of a single variety to give maximum
impact. A network of paved and mulched paths allows access
to the plantings.
Outdoor Butterfly Garden
This warm
and sunny habitat for butterflies is the perfect setting to
learn about butterfly gardening. Beginning in May through
late fall native and cultivated plants supporting the butterfly
life cycle fill this walled retaining bed. Butterflies native
to Maryland can be viewed up-close in all the stages of the
life cycle from the eggs, to the caterpillars to the chrysalides
to the adults. The outdoor butterfly garden is located on
the west side of the conservatories.
Children's Garden
Phil
and Rhoda Dendron have planted a garden to honor Native Americans!
Come
visit the Eastern Woodland Indian garden. Have fun pretending
you are a young Indian boy or girl that lived long ago. See
how Eastern Woodland Indians lived, farmed and survived from
plants and nature's bounty.
The Rose Garden
From the
months of June through September approximately one hundred
different rose varieties interplanted with ornamental grasses,
and perennials provide a radiant profusion of color. The formal
geometric presentation of this garden invites spectators to
closely view and indulge in the fragrances of this most popular
plant. Reflecting pools, sitting nooks, and a shaded pergola
attract visitors in to stay awhile.
Examples of all types of roses can be found in this garden including hybrid tea, rugosa hybrids, grandiflora, English, miniature, floribunda, shrub, groundcover, polyantha, climber, Gallica, hybrid musk, and the garden rose. Other plants of interest in this garden are crape myrtle or Lagerstroemia x 'Apalachee', Amsonia hubrechtii or blue star, Fagus sylvatica 'Rohan Obelisk' or upright purple beech. Look for the many All-America Rose Selections awarded by the American Rose Society.
Japanese Style Garden - Gude Garden
Beginning
in 1972, the Gude Garden was created as a memorial to Adolph
Gude, Sr. who was a prominent local nurseryman. M-NCPPC landscape
architect Hans Hanses designed the Japanese-style landscape
of soft rolling hills and ponds as well as the Japanese Teahouse
overlooking the ponds. 
The Teahouse is located on an island planted with bamboo, unusual conifers, and ground covers. The Gude family donated many of the specimen trees and shrubs, including the beech trees, blue Atlas cedars, southern magnolia, and most of the conifers on the island. The Kousa dogwood collection was added in 1991. Over the years, the ponds have become home to many species of wildlife and colorful Japanese carp (koi) donated from private collections.
The Trial Garden
The Trial
Garden is located along a hillside overlooking the eastside
of the Conservatories. In spring, over 10,000 spring flowering
bulbs are featured followed by summer displays of new and
unusual plant varieties, imaginative design ideas, and changing
theme gardens. These six asymmetrically curved beds formed
by brick walls of varying heights are currently host to a
tropical display bed, a Low Maintenance Bed, and a bed featuring
annuals from the All American Selections Program. In autumn,
thousands of garden mums complete the season in blaze of color. Look for a large sundial as the focal point in this garden.
Rain Garden
A new Rain Garden was installed in the fall of 2007 and planting will be completed in the spring of 2008. It is located to the right of the entrance to the Conservatories in the area that was formerly called the Rock Garden. The rain garden was designed by Ann English of the Low Impact Development Center. Image Gallery of the Rain Garden construction. Rain Garden planting plan. For more information on Rain Gardens and Rainscapes visit the Montgomery County Department of Environmental Protection Rainscapes web site.
The Woodland Walk
This one-acre
garden highlights the existing forested wetland with its bald
cypress, canopy of tulip poplar, understory of spicebush,
and groundcover of mayapple, fern and skunk cabbage. A newly
planted native plant garden expands the palette of plants,
with approximately 124 species and cultivars of Maryland native
plants.
A boardwalk running the length of the garden provides an observation
deck and two overlook areas for garden viewing and also serves
as an accessible pathway between Brookside Gardens and Brookside
Nature Center. It is located at the far-east end of the gardens
across from the Conservatory Parking Lot.
The Formal Gardens
The formal
gardens are a series of distinct rooms that include the Perennial
Garden, the Yew Garden, the Maple Terrace and the Fragrance Garden linked by a flagstone
walk with a focused view up to the Wedding Gazebo.
The Perennial Garden
The
Perennial Garden consists of the walled space closest to the
conservatory building, with planted beds inside the perimeter
wall and a pool in the center. The beds contain tree Wisterias,
roses, Jasmine stephanense, Buddleia, and Prunus
x cistena for structural interest behind the seasonal
progression of Alliums and other herbaceous perennials, including
Geraniums, Sedums, Panicum, Lespedeza, Calamagrostis, Anemones,
Asters, Acanthus and Agastache, among many others. The plantings
display a variety of plants that are adapted to hot, humid
summers and cold, wet winters. The color scheme consists mostly
of cool tones and pastels that compliment the granite wall.
In summer, the central pool is transformed by the addition
of tropical water lilies and other aquatic plants.
The Yew Garden
The Yew
Garden is a distinct room created within clipped yew hedges.
The plantings are more varied than in the Perennial Garden,
with annuals, tropicals, and other tender plants added in
season for a mixed border or cottage garden impression. The
color scheme includes more bright, bold colors to contrast
against the dark background hedge.
The Maple Terrace
Also called
the Round Garden, this garden best illustrates the idea of
interplanting. The curved, raised beds come alive in earliest
spring with a succession of flowering bulbs beginning with
Eranthis, Galanthus, and Iris reticulata cultivars
and moving into summer with Triteleia (Brodiaea) 'Queen
Fabiola'. The groundcover of Ceratostigma plumbaginoides or Blue Leadwort covers the fading bulb foliage and flowers
throughout the summer, finishing the season in scarlet brilliance,
complimentary to the 'Suminagashi' Japanese maples. The bed
encircles an intimate sitting area of benches accented by
colorful containers of tropicals and annuals.
The Fragrance Garden
The Fragrance
Garden displays plants which posses a fragrance at some time
in their yearly growth cycle. The fragrance may reside in
the leaves, stems, roots or flowers. Many bulbs and perennials
are permanently displayed in the perimeter areas along with
fragrant tress, shrubs, vines, and roses. The central beds
change seasonally from mass plantings of bulbs and spring
flowers to designs for the summer that showcase heat tolerant
fragrant plants including lotus cultivars.
Perennials in the permanent collection include may fragrant members of the mint family, Lamiaceae, the Apiaceae (Umbelliferae) or celery family, Lily family members, as well as cultivars of Dianthus, Geranium, Phlox, Helianthus, Filipendula, Paeonia, Acorus, and others.
Visitors Center Plantings
(from Brookside Garden's Plant Introduction Program)
Beginning
in 1976, Brookside Gardens sponsored several plant collecting
trips to Japan and Korea to bring back plants of potential
garden merit. Barry Yinger, a noted plantsman, amassed plant
collections to evaluate by gathering plants in the wild and
from nurseries. After the last trip in 1982, selected plants
from the entire collection were sent out for formal observation
by evaluators at approximately 10 test sites throughout North
America. Those found to have superior garden merit, to be
pest resistant, and to be suited to commercial production
have been introduced into the trade.
Although the plant introduction program is completed, many of the plants from the program can be seen in plantings around the Visitors Center and elsewhere at Brookside Gardens. Below is a partial list of plants that Brookside Gardens has introduced.
Partial list of Brookside plant introductions
- Callicarpa dichotoma 'Issai' Purple Beautyberry
- Carex phyllocephala 'Sparkler' Variegated Sedge
- Cephalotaxus haringtonia 'Korean Gold' Golden Upright Plum-Yew
- Daphne odora 'Zuiko Nishiki' Bicolored Winter Daphne
- Euonymus fortunei radicans 'Harlequin' Variegated Creeping Euonymus
- Forsythia koreana 'Ilwang' Golden Korean Forsythia
- Juniperus conferta 'Silver Mist' Shore Juniper
- Juniperus conferta 'Sunsplash' Variegated Shore Juniper
- Osmanthus heterophyllus 'Goshiki' Variegated Hollyleaf Osmanthus
- Osmanthus heterophyllus 'Sasaba' Bambooleaf Hollyleaf Osmanthus
- Pieris japonica 'Whitewater' Japanese Pieris
- Schizophragma hydrangeoides 'Moonlight' Japanese Hydrangea Vine
- Spiraea japonica 'Neon Flash' Japanese Spirea
- Styrax japonicus 'Carillon' Weeping Japanese Snowbell
- Styrax japonicus 'Pink Chimes' Pink Japanese Snowbell
- Zelkova serrata 'Green Veil' Pendant Japanese Zelkova
