Conserving a plant collection that enriches the Asticou Azalea Garden
- Mary Roper
- 3 days ago
- 7 min read
Updated: 3 hours ago
At a time when conventional wisdom held that many of the world’s finest rhododendrons would never truly thrive in Maine’s climate, Mark Stavish quietly proved otherwise. Through decades of careful observation, hybridizing, and uncompromising horticultural vision at Eastern Plant Specialties (EPS) in Georgetown, Maine, Mark expanded what was thought possible in northern gardens, cultivating a remarkable palette of plants uniquely adapted to this place.
Mark’s legacy now takes root at the Asticou Azalea Garden through Mary Roper’s inspired acquisition of portions of his collection, additions whose significance complements the historic transfer of Beatrix Farrand’s Reef Point plants in the 1950s. Together, these two moments have shaped what Asticou is today and will continue to influence how the garden grows in the years ahead.
My first visit to Mark’s nursery was about 1995, arriving late in the afternoon. He said we could have a little tour, but that we would need to run. Run? Yes, run because the mosquitoes were vicious that time of day. So, I had my first tour of Mark’s rhododendrons, with Mark pointing and calling out names while sprinting the trails. Memorable.
I think I came home with ‘Goldfort,’ and we planted it at the Asticou Azalea Garden. These were the early days, when soft yellow was much sought after but rarely successful, as the yellow rhodies typically prefer locations south of Maine. But we have warmed now, and both Mark’s ‘Goldfort’ and David Leach’s ‘Hong Kong’ bloom prolifically, one after the other, anchoring soft yellow firmly at Asticou.
Mark’s EPS catalog from that year listed 60 rhododendron hybrids, including 19 species of rhodies, and 31 azaleas, along with 75 trees and 64 shrubs, some heaths and heathers, mountain laurels, and copious wildflowers. Looking back, these were all the species and rare selections you would ever want, here on the east coast, were you to follow gardener William Robinson’s advice to weave exotics into a native matrix, allowing all to feel natural and spontaneous rather than designed, for a beautifully engaging “wild garden.” I wish I had planted them all, somewhere nearby, to serve as a palette of plants to study and draw from when needed, all perfectly suited to Asticou. We lacked the foresight and the land.
The end of an era
Last spring, Mark’s property became a centering experience, as I visited repeatedly to document the collection and select plants to bring to the Preserve. There are now thousands of rhododendrons at EPS, over about six planted acres, and many are his own personally crafted hybrids. The naturalized abundance of his creation offers an awareness of deeper potentials. The trees were brimming with birdsong and the terrain itself still so strongly expressive.
I experienced it as a sort of masterpiece in its cultivated wildness, a collector’s dream, with a high canopy of oak and exotics, retaining its Maine character while offering the world.
Mark passed away in August of 2024, with a sudden and extreme heart attack. We assembled a small memorial on his land, sitting on the granite ledges and telling stories but still struggling to accept his absence. How could a place so vibrant and essential go on without him?
Just below was his “inner sanctum,” the mysterious originating collection of exotic rhododendrons that really shouldn’t be so prolific in Maine. The ledges formed a natural shelter, and a hidden flow of groundwater kept this select group well cared for even during a decade of drought.
Irrigation challenges
The unrelenting lack of rain on his property and in nearby Georgetown, Maine have pressed the need for irrigation from about 2015 onward, with a slim respite year of near normal rain in 2023. For the first 27 years, the nursery was damp and coastal, protected from harsh temperature swings, and graced with routine rain. These early years made all his expansions, woodland plantings, and development possible.
But now it is in a rain shadow, a predicted feature of climate change, where drought persists year after year in defined, strange pockets, without any rain-intercepting mountains nearby. These shadows are particularly present along the immediate coast. Fifteen minutes north, the town of Bath can receive an absolute downpour while Mark’s nursery remains bone dry. Along with this, Mark’s ground water is too rich in iron for an automatic irrigation system, at least without compromises, so his work to quench the thirst of a plant collection dependent on regular rain was daily, personal, and unrelenting.
Yet his inner sanctum, behind the house, stays actively damp, offering a profound experience of Mark’s best and showcasing his formal, originating collection. Here is the stunning ‘Babylon’ and nearby a mature ‘Spellbinder,’ along with five Macabeanum hybrids, ‘Flava’, ‘Hardgrove’s Deepest Yellow’, the Chinese R. sutchuenense, ‘Misty Sunrise’, a complex Rex Hybrid, ‘Ramsey Tinsel,’ and nestled in the ledges is ‘Serenity,’ and finally, topping the ledge, an impossibly happy R. calophytum, the first to bloom, starting the sequence every year in April. These are all large leaf rhodies, mature, gracious, rare, and typically not hardy enough in listings, yet offering full bloom consistently in April and May, rather than the commonplace June blooming R. catawbiense sold locally as ‘Roseum Elegans’ or ‘English Roseum’ and nearly blighting the Maine landscape with vivid pink bloom.
Defying expectations
Rhododendron ‘Babylon’ defies all expectations of the rhodie class at Mark’s, commanding a broad space of 17’, with branches outstretched and inviting, and humming with a soft pink bloom upon opening, slowly fading to an equally enchanting white one week later. I’ve had no similar experience of rhododendron enchantment beyond this ‘Babylon,’ and would suggest that it deserves its own garden, where the offering can be fully received. Nearby this botanical matriarch was a young ‘Babylon,’ awaiting its new home. I brought this four-foot youngster to Asticou and now am contemplating where she might receive the protected 20 years of development needed for maturity. The location could possibly be a sort of seasonal wing, where an annual pilgrimage of enthusiasts can gather, for the joyous gaiety of her bloom.
‘Flava,’ a yakushimanum hybrid, sited adjacent to the ledge at Asticou has had perfect growing conditions for 30 years and now offers a subtle and effective yellow bloom, contrast with the dark green yaku leaves.
It’s an old German cultivar that likely has led many plant breeders astray, suggesting that yellow color can survive a cross with yakushimanum. It rarely does. Most of these crosses result in white, but crossed with R. wardii, a high elevation Chinese species, the soft yellow is retained.
Mark’s imprint on the Asticou Azalea Garden
I visited Mark in July of 2023 and came home with a promising new hybrid of R. yuefengense, known for low, spreading growth and handsome foliage. There are now four more R. yuefengense near the entrance lantern, our local “Plantsman’s Corner,” since it contains hybrids from both Mark and Lubec plant breeder Radcliff Pike on either side of the stone lantern.
There are countless selections that have come to Asticou, from fall 2024 to mid-summer 2025, ranging in size from three inches to five feet, with a strong presence of calophytum hybrids to enhance early bloom as the garden opens each year. The cuttings sent to be rooted will capture the venerable old varieties and Mark’s hybrids, producing exact copies of the original plants over time and offering wonderful plants for replacements or expansions.
The seedlings and youngsters will offer new creations, unnamed and therefore waiting to be named by the staff of the Preserve as they reveal their talents. Some of what we saved still has no name, even though they are surely wonderful old cultivars. So, for example, Field Number EPS #61 becomes “Exquisite” by local name, until it is properly identified. The foliage is so exceptional for this rhodie, especially for Maine, that it would be worthy for garden use even if it never bloomed.
Bloom times and colors are easily planned into existing spaces with the collection nearby. Situated along the back woods connector path at Asticou, increasing space to grow will have to be established within a couple of years for optimum development. The field data and tagging process at EPS resulted in 400 plant entries of plants needing identification or labeling, for tracking photos, seed, and cuttings; for form at maturity and mapped for locations. The lion’s share of the work on site at EPS is done. Now we set our goals toward growing to a larger size the many plants temporarily sited and conserved.
Complementary legacies
When referencing the plants coming from Reef Point Garden in Bar Harbor, Charles Savage wrote a passage to John D Rockefeller, Jr. in 1958, that is of much interest now:
“It is probable that the introduction of this mass of important plant material, with its noteworthy background, will cause a persistent and permanent horticultural and botanical interest in this neighborhood. Should this prove to be true, there will be a continuing interest in the securing of new introductions, both in connection with the Asticou Terraces Trust and also over the general territory. Indeed, it is probable that over a long period of time the actual plants from Reef Point will become but a small segment of a much expanded influence.”
From The Asticou Azalea Garden, a Report by Charles K. Savage, inscribed with appreciation to Mr. John D Rockefeller, Jr. August 1958
The conservation of Mark’s collection is thus a fulfillment of an earlier dream, and an homage to the creative horticultural work of Maine’s residents, open for discovery by Maine’s many visitors and guests each summer. The mission continues.
Article and photos by Mary Roper, Asticou Azalea Garden Manager