Brookside Gardens

It was good to see Brookside Gardens in Wheaton, Maryland, after many years. I was Educational Horticulturist and then Director of the Gardens from 1973-1979. One of the most enjoyable things at the garden was introducing new plants and fund raising for plant exploration overseas. Brookside Gardens introduced many Asian plants through the plant exploration efforts of Barry Yinger in various Asian countries. I visited southern gardens and one of the plants still at the garden from those trips is the Needle Palm. The palm has done very well and the gardens are warmer than in the 1970’s. I remember 8 degrees below zero during the 1970’s at the conservatory.

Phil Normandy has been at the gardens since 1979 and is a Longwood Gardens graduate. He gave us a wonderful tour of the gardens and seeing all the changes over the years. Some of the gardens were similar to the old days including the Rose, Gude, Trial, Azalea, and Formal Gardens were similar in scope to the old days except with better plant selections. The Formal Gardens were broken up into individual rooms including Yew, Maple Terrace, and Perennial with the Wedding Gazebo at the top of the walk. Some plant improvements include replacing the short lived Purple leaf Plum with long lived Japanese Red maples on the Maple Terrace. The vertical growing Junipers broken up by snow were replaced with long term Foster’s Holly. The ‘Appalachee’ Crape Myrtles are a great addition to the Rose Garden.

We were pressed for time and did not see the whole 50 acres of gardens. We did see the new Children’s Garden and the Visitors Center which features large meeting rooms, library, and other facilities. I did not remember the Viburnum, and Camellia collections but we did have a Winter Garden. The Winter Garden had the Ghost Rubus with white stems which still was there.

We did see some Yinger plant introductions including the Weeping Japanese Silverbell and the purple foliaged Albizzia.

This very quick but enjoyable tour should be a must for all visitors to the Washington D.C. area. The gardens are located at 1800 Glenallan Avenue in Wheaton, Md., 20902. Phone is 301-962-1400. Check out the website at http://www.brooksidegardens.org/