HORThappenings

Photo by Doug Wolters—TimePoints Photography.

A Friend Indeed

Staunch Supporters of Brookside Gardens

By Jaime Breeden

When you step out of the parking lot and off the arched, wooden bridge at the entrance of Brookside Gardens in Wheaton, MD, what’s the first thing you notice? Are your eyes drawn to the dazzling, multicolored displays of flowers that dot the 50-acre estate, or the picturesque views from the top of the tea garden’s walking path? Could it be that the architecture pulls you into the visitor center, or that the many, fluorescent flamingo cut-outs lead you to the conservatory? Or are you, like dozens of others, pulled into the gaggle of gardeners grouped at the garden’s southside terrace to bring home a little piece of Brookside’s beauty? The Friends of Brookside Gardens (FOBG), a not-for-profit group dedicated to funding and assisting the garden’s facilities, held their annual plant sale Saturday, September 10, drawing in visitors like bees to a meadow. The sale, featuring nearly 100 varieties of perennials, shrubs, and evergreens, is one of the main events in FOBG’s fundraising efforts. According to FOBG president and marketing committee chair Anne Roland, the organization brought in 1,370 plants, including perennials, shrubs, and evergreens. They sold about 95 percent of them. The rest were donated to Brookside Gardens for their plantings, as well as the Healing Garden at Walter Reed National Medical Center in Bethesda, MD. “We’re really amazed at people’s interest in plants and planting,” Roland said. “It’s amazing how interested and committed people are to that.” Brookside Gardens themselves have been around since 1969; in fact, the original conservatory, built a year before the opening, is still in use today. Stephanie Oberle, director of Brookside, described the grounds’ founding as a commitment to teach and inspire aspiring gardeners in the community to start sowing their own seeds, which has sprouted into over a million visitors to the garden each year. “I think we’re one of the most amazing spaces in Montgomery County. We’re open seven days a week, from sunrise to sunset, with no admission,” Oberle said. “That creates a very different atmosphere from some of some other public gardens, that have a fee and are only open 9 to 5.” With nearly 1,000 members, the FOBG is no stranger to commitment, having thus far donated over $1.6 million to Brookside Gardens since the booster organization’s establishment 26 years ago. Those funds don’t just go toward plant cuttings and watering cans, either, FOBG also sponsors events on the garden’s grounds like Children’s Day, featuring parent and child yoga, as well as a “Drag Queen Story Hour” on the lawn outside the visitor’s center, causing a fairly peaceful garden to become a hyperactive hive, abuzz with activity. Despite the hustle and bustle of the annual plant sale, a few people found respite in the ruckus. Among them was FOBG’s 91-year-old founder, Joan O’Rourke. “When we first started, we didn’t have a lot of people coming. I took the presidency for 12 years,” O’Rourke said, watching over the sale from her camping chair. “After that, I said, ‘Come on, please!’ And then I was able to get

people, you know, our organization has grown. Everybody has been wonderful.” Although O’Rourke doesn’t run the organization any more, she’s still

involved in Brookside’s affairs, working in the garden’s new greenhouse and personally managing the FOBG’s annual plant sale, where she hand-picks all the plants for it, knowing they’ll make for beautiful blooms and foliage in the next growing season. “Everyone kept saying, ‘Why do you wanna do it in the fall?’ I said, ‘That’s because nobody else has [such an event] in the fall,’” she said with a smile. “Some plants in here, if you get them in the ground now, they’ll develop good roots over the winter and, come spring, they’ll start growing and be gorgeous.” Aside from the plant sale and event sponsorships, FOBG is active in promoting the gardens in a myriad of ways. “They are very outspoken advocates for Brookside Gardens during the budget season,” Oberle said. “As an example, we are scheduled to build a new conservatory to replace our 53-year-old conservatory and FOBG has been advocating for full funding for our conservatory and other projects.” On the horizon, in addition to its usual events, Brookside is featuring a more recent addition called “Strolls for Well-being,” which Oberle pitches as a way to bolster one’s mental health with self-reflection exercises and journaling while walking the gardens for their physical health. “This is a program that we offer based on a program that another public garden developed to encourage people to use the garden as a therapist to help them work through any kind of issues or concerns they might have.” In the meantime, the Friends of Brookside Gardens will continue to organize, recruit, and raise funds for the park, and O’Rourke is looking to push the envelope in the years to come. “Last year, we had a complete sell-off before lunch. This morning, every table was up. I mean, this place was loaded. And for next year, we’ll do it even bigger and better.” o

Jaime Breeden is a fourth-year journalism student at the University of Maryland, College Park and an intern this fall session with Washington Gardener. Visit DCGardens.com for Photos of the 16 Major Local Public Gardens in the Washington, DC Region shown in each month of the year.

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