Brookside Gardens

Brookside Gardens

Gude Garden teahouse in November 2018
Established	1969
Location	Wheaton, Maryland
Coordinates	39°03′29″N77°02′12″W / 39.05806°N 77.03667°W / 39.05806; -77.03667
Type	Botanical garden
Website	www.montgomeryparks.org/parks-and-trails/brookside-gardens

Brookside Gardens is a 54-acre public display garden located within Wheaton Regional Park, at 1800 Glenallan Avenue, Silver Spring, Maryland. ^[1] The gardens feature two conservatories and several distinct areas, including the Japanese inspired Gude Garden. ^[2] Brookside Gardens is operated by Montgomery Parks, part of the Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission, ^[3] and offers free admission to the public daily from sunrise to sunset. ^[4] However, certain annual events there are held that may charge a fee. The gardens host a seasonal butterfly exhibit and an annual "Garden of Lights" light display during the holiday season. ^[5]

History

The grounds of Brookside Gardens were originally the location of a nursery owned by the Stadler family. ^[6] After purchase by the Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission, development of Brookside Gardens began in 1965. ^[7] The initial landscaping and conservatory were designed by Hans Hanses and Carl Schoening, respectively. ^[8] 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." ^[9]

Brookside Gardens opened to the public on July 13, 1969, with a conservatory and 25 acres (10 ha) developed as gardens. ^[10]

More gardens have been added and refined to showcase local species over the current 54 acres (22 ha). 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.
• Azalea Garden – over 300 varieties of azaleas represented by 2,000 plants. Also rhododendrons, witchhazels, hollies, Japanese andromeda, sweet-box, skimmia, and shade-tolerant perennials.
• 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.
• a Japanese teahouse overlooking a pond stocked with koi.
• Perennial Garden – wisterias, roses, Jasmine stephanense, buddleia, and Prunus × cistena , allium, geranium, sedum, panicum, lespedeza, calamagrostis, anemones, asters, acanthus, and agastache, etc.
• Reflection Terrace – a memorial to the ten individuals killed in the October 2002 D.C. sniper attacks. ^[11]
• 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.
• Woodland Walk – forested wetland with bald cypress, tulip poplar, spicebush, and groundcover of mayapple, fern, and skunk cabbage. A native plant garden includes approximately 124 species and cultivars of Maryland native plants.
• Yew Garden – a garden room within yew hedges.

Gallery

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  Dry Stone Sphere, by artist Devin Devine, completed September 2017

  The Sniper Memorial at Brookside Gardens
• 
  Names of victims at the Sniper Memorial
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  View from the Reflection Terrace over the Aquatic Garden
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  Close-up of the inscription at the pond at the Reflection Terrace
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  Dedication Plaque at the Reflection Terrace
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  Flowers
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  Flowers
• 
  Flowers with butterfly

See also

• List of botanical gardens in the United States

References

1. "Brookside Gardens". Montgomery Parks. Retrieved September 17, 2025.
2. "Brookside Gardens". Montgomery Parks. Retrieved September 17, 2025.
3. "About Montgomery Parks". Montgomery Parks. Retrieved September 17, 2025.
4. "Brookside Gardens". Montgomery Parks. Retrieved September 17, 2025.
5. "Brookside Gardens". Montgomery County Department of Parks. Retrieved October 22, 2013.
6. "Brookside Gardens - History". Montgomery Parks. Retrieved September 17, 2025.
7. "Brookside Gardens - History". Montgomery Parks. Retrieved September 17, 2025.
8. Frank Hoy (May 8, 1969). "New Botanical Garden Planned". Washington Post. p. F10.
9. Renee Futral (September 3, 1982). "Gardening in Wheaton". Washington Times. p. 30.
10. "Brookside Gardens - History". Montgomery Parks. Retrieved September 17, 2025.
11. Adrian Higgins (March 24, 2005). "A Garden of Hope and Renewal in a Violent World". Washington Post. p. H1.

External links

• Brookside Gardens at Montgomery Parks
• Brookside Gardens at DC Gardens ^{[ usurped ]}