Sit for a while in the solitude of the gardens. The wild refers not to the nature of the garden, but to the fact that only plants indigenous to Acadia National Park are planted here. You won't find daisies, yarrow, lupine, rosa rugosa, purple loosestrife and clover, which though abundant on Mount Desert Island, are not native. The island, of which Acadia is part, was created by glacial collisions. This left it with flora from both the cold north and the warmer south.
Lilies reach toward the sun from the shady pond's shore.
The carnivorous pitcher plant thrives in the bog garden. In 1909, Charles W. Eliot and George B. Door recognized the unique environment and bought a section of land in the Sieur de Monts Spring area. They named it the Wild Gardens of Acadia, and deeded it to the U.S. Government. The land sat unattended until 1961, when Bar Harbor Garden Club members asked for land to plant a public exhibit of native wildflowers. The goal of the garden was to stimulate interest in conservation.