Brookside Gardens - It was all about the butterflies

Brookside Gardens in Wheaton, Maryland was our third stop on the morning round of the second full day of the Garden Bloggers' Fling.  We were allotted approximately 90 minutes there but that included lunch at the Visitor's Center and presentations by three of the Fling's sponsors.  Having been told that there was a butterfly conservatory on-site, I high-tailed it out the door in that direction while others queued up at the restroom.  There was a short wait in line to enter the conservatory even then but the exhibit didn't disappoint - there were butterflies of myriad kinds flitting about everywhere.  The biggest problem was capturing them on camera.  I came nowhere near catching photos of all of them but I offer a sampler of the least fuzzy photos.  (Note: My butterfly identifications are all best guesses based on a review of the conservatory's poster and a few on-line searches.)

I believe this beauty is Idea leuconoe

Eueides isabella

Siproeta stelenes

Papilio nephelus

Heliconius melpomeme (maybe)

Heliconius charithonia (maybe)

Catonephele numilia

Pterourus palamedes

I've absolutely no clue but he's a handsome fellow

My main quarry in the conservatory was the blue Morpho butterfly.  They were everywhere but catching them with their iridescent wings open wide proved difficult, although they were fairly easy to find in wings closed positions.

The elusive Morpho peleides with wings closed and open

However, when I sorted through my photos upon my return to California, I discovered I'd actually caught them in flight at one point while taking a photo of a butterfly identification poster.

You can see a Morpho in flight just above the grouping of butterflies in the lower right quadrant of the poster.  Yet another one can be seen further to the right near the poster's frame.

I'm not sure how much time I spent in the conservatory but, including the walk there and the wait time, it was well in excess of 30 minutes.  As we were expected back at the Visitor's Center for lunch and presentations, I hurried about, snapping photos for a short time before running into Sue of Idyll Haven and heading back to the center to collect our box lunches.  Given that Brookside is a 50-acre property, I can't say I covered much of it but here's some of what I saw.

I believe this is part of the Rain Garden, which sits just outside the butterfly conservatory.  After-the-fact, when reviewing my photos, I noticed several of the Solanum quitoense I'd admired the previous day at the Mary Livingston Ripley Garden in DC (planted near the red-colored canna lilies).  For the record, I ordered one of these plants from my favorite mail-order nursery last week.  (Hey, it just so happened that they had it available AND they were having a 20% off sale.)

This is the Formal Garden, captured from 2 different angles.  I like the mass planting of Verbena bonariensis here, as well as the use of grass at its base to hide the sometimes ugly base of the Verbena.

This may be the garden's Wedding Gazebo, which as I recall was just beyond the Formal Garden

A pretty pathway near the gazebo

Bridge into the Woodland Garden

This is the Trial Garden, which is reportedly changed out regularly to provide ideas for local gardeners.  The summer version contained a scarecrow beekeeper, dressed in succulents.

And this is the Children's Garden, which sits outside the Visitor's Garden

Brookside deserved more time.  I missed the Aquatic Garden, the Outside Butterfly Garden, the Rose garden and the Gude Garden with its Japanese tea house, among other things.  Hopefully, I'll get back there someday for a more thorough tour.


All material © 2012-2017 by Kris Peterson for Late to the Garden Party