The Brookside Gardens are public gardens located within Wheaton Regional Park, at 1800 Glenallan Avenue, Silver Spring, Maryland. The gardens are open daily without charge. However, certain annual events there are held that may charge a fee. The gardens hosts a "Garden of Lights" exhibit that features a light display during the holiday season.[1]
History
The garden grounds were originally part of a landscaping and garden center on a small farm owned by Stadler Nurseries.[2] Brookside was the first botanical gardens in the State of Maryland.
Brookside Gardens opened to the public on July 13, 1969, with a conservatory and 25 acres (10 ha) developed as gardens. The landscaping and conservatory were designed by Hans Hanses and Carl Schoening, respectively.[3] More gardens have been added and refined to showcase local species over the current 54 acres (22 ha). Hans remarked "the main idea for the garden was to supply the average homeowner with ideas for his own use. Everything you see here is not exotic, but something which grows well in the metropolitan area and which one can buy in any garden center.".[4]
A donation from Elizabeth Turner made possible the construction of a Visitors Center, opening in June 1998, with classroom and meeting space.
Features
Aquatic Garden – water-loving plants with two ponds and gazebo.
Butterfly Garden – Seasonal in summer only. Admission fee.
Children's “School's Outside” Garden
Conservatories – seasonal displays and special exhibits. The surrounding garden contains a collection of unusual conifers and groundcovers.
Dry Stone Sphere—A stacked stone sculpture, by stone artist Devin Devine.
Fragrance Garden
Gude Garden – a Japanese-style landscape with bamboo, beech, unusual conifers, dogwood, and groundcovers, as well as an island teahouse overlooking the ponds.
Maple Terrace – raised beds within a planting of ‘Suminagashi’ Japanese maples.
Reflection Terrace – a memorial to the ten individuals killed in the October 2002 D.C. sniper attacks.[5]
Rock Garden – spring flowering bulbs with grasses and conifers.
Rose Garden – all types of roses, including hybrid tea, rugosa hybrids, grandiflora, English, miniature, floribunda, shrub, groundcover, polyantha, climber, Gallica, hybrid musk, and the garden rose.
Trial Garden – spring flowering bulbs, then summer displays of new and unusual plant varieties.
