The Birchwood opens to the public Friday, June 12 to Friday, June 19, when its sweeps of nearly 700 large-leaf rhododendrons will be blooming.
Courtesy Photo
MONTGOMERY CENTER — The Birchwood, Vermont’s newest public garden, opens Friday through Thursday, June 12 through 18, when almost 700 of its more than 1,200 rhododendrons will be in bloom.
Named for its hundreds of white birches, the naturalistic seven-acre garden also offers stunning close views of the northernmost Green Mountains.
Open from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. each day, the Birchwood will be described by interpretive signs along a half-mile of paths.
The Birchwood was created by the landscape designer Robert Gillmore, who donated it to the non-profit Evergreen Foundation four years ago.
Gillmore is the author of “The Woodland Garden” and “Beauty All Around You: How to Create Large Private Low-Maintenance Gardens, Even on Small Lots and Small Budgets.”
His first large woodland garden was Evergreen, in Goffstown, N.H., which Gillmore also donated to the Evergreen Foundation. It opens to the public every year on the first weekend in June, when its 220 Catawba rhododendrons are flowering.
The Birchwood’s opening benefits the non-profit Friends of the Montgomery Town Library. Admission is $7 per person; children 12 and under will be admitted without charge.
Because plants along its paths can be easily damaged, dogs or other pets cannot be admitted.
The garden is not wheelchair accessible but its paths are gently graded.
The Birchwood is on the Hazen’s Notch Road (Route 58), 3.2 miles from Montgomery Center.
Detailed information about both the Birchwood and Evergreen—plus beautiful photographs of the gardens—are on the Evergreen Foundation’s extensive website, evergreenfoundationnh.org/Birchwood Woodland Garden/ Evergreen Woodland Garden. You can also email the Foundation at evergreenfoundationnh@gmail.com or call 603-497-8020.
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