The Thuya properties cover nearly 140 acres on the eastern slope of the Eliot Mountain in Northeast Harbor in Maine and includes the Thuya Garden. Joseph H. Curtis, a Bostonian landscape architect who summered in Northeast Harbor, gifted this beautiful garden and his home site to the residents of Mount Desert. The garden is named after the area’s abundant white cedar, Thuja occidentalis.
You have a choice when visiting the Thuya Garden – to walk up several granite stone stairs to the garden, with several viewing sites of the harbor along the way, or to drive up to a small parking lot if the hike is too much. (I recommend the beautiful stairs and experience of walking to take in the views, not to mention the exercise).
The gardens are intimate and formal, including a rectangular, formal english border, small pathways, a couple of resting areas to take in the view, native shade plants, a small pond and on my particular visit, gorgeous white and pink peonies in full bloom. The lodge where Mr. Curtis lived is still there, although it doesn’t appear to be open to the public. As with its sister garden, the Asticou Azalea Garden, many of the plants are from Beatrix Ferrand‘s garden that was dismantled in the mid 1950s. Fortunately both of these gardens are preserved today by the local Land & Garden Preserve.
