A message from our CEO

Dear Friends,

If you’re like me, during the cold and dark months of winter you may spend quite a bit of time dreaming of the ebullient spirit of a garden in midsummer, alive with color, fragrance, and energy. You are receiving this message right around the winter solstice, marking the return of light. Every morning, even on frigid, blustery days, I walk with my dog Opal at the Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Garden and its surrounding lands. It’s amazing to see the garden in December, all wrapped up for the winter, quietly awaiting the promises of another summer. There’s something deeply peaceful about the scene—and hopeful. I often find myself overcome with optimism that the garden will inevitably return, a slightly altered but no less exquisite version of itself. It’s hard not to also feel overwhelmed with gratitude at the privilege of experiencing this special place throughout the year.

While memories and dreams of beautiful gardens carry us through the winter, at the Preserve we spend quite a bit of our time thinking about far more than next season’s border designs or the rigorous schedule that will lead us there. On a deeper level, we think about what our gardens and lands represent, both to this island and to the wider world. These places are deeply cherished here on Mount Desert Island, woven into the daily rhythms of our community. At the same time, they are recognized far beyond Maine as exceptional works of landscape art and horticulture, part of a global conversation about gardens as cultural resources worthy of study, investment, and the highest level of care.

As you will read throughout this newsletter, the Land & Garden Preserve stands at an important moment of evolution in which we are stepping fully into our role as a professional stewardship organization. This means moving beyond care and maintenance alone, toward cultural and environmental stewardship guided by rigorous scholarship. A central expression of this shift is the forthcoming authorship of Cultural Landscape Reports for the Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Garden, the Asticou Azalea Garden, Thuya Garden, and Little Long Pond. These are comprehensive studies that document the history, design intent, and ongoing life of our gardens and landscapes. These reports will allow us to care for these places with deep allegiance to their original vision, while also positioning the Preserve in active dialogue with our global peers—other great gardens of the world that, like ours, carry especially rich cultural and historic stories.

It is especially meaningful that this important next chapter is being advanced by the extraordinary generosity of Eileen Rockefeller Growald, who has committed a transformational gift of $1 million in support of cultural stewardship at the Preserve. Eileen’s gift will fund Cultural Landscape Reports, advance the conservation of sculpture at the Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Garden, and strengthen the scholarly and preservation practices that guide our work. Read Eileen's story here.

Eileen’s connection to these landscapes is deeply personal. Her grandparents built the Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Garden with renowned garden designer Beatrix Farrand. Her father provided the founding support that established the Preserve to benefit all. Through her remarkable act of philanthropy, Eileen now carries that legacy forward in her own powerful way, affirming that these gardens are not only places of beauty, but cultural assets worthy of enduring care.

Moments like this, when an organization steps more fully into its purpose, are rare. They invite us to reflect not only on how we tend these places today, but on how we ensure their meaning, beauty, and relevance endure for generations. I am profoundly grateful to Eileen for helping lead us into that future, and to all of you who walk alongside us as stewards of these extraordinary places.

With gratitude, 

Patrick MacRae

Chief Executive Officer

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