CAMDEN — The Camden Garden Club's 76th Annual Garden Tour will take place, rain or shine, Thursday, July 18, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.

This year, the Tour will feature the extraordinary interior and gardens of the 1887 summer “Castle by the Sea”, which became The Norumbega Inn. In addition, there will be other Camden gardens featuring lush perennial borders, unique color combinations for the garden, and sustainable horticulture with native plantings. For the first time, the 66-acre Merryspring Nature Center will be a part of the Tour with its beautiful display gardens and arboretum of native trees.

To complement the visual beauty of the Tour, a selection of immersive exhibits and demonstrations will be presented throughout the day. Sample presentations include Framed Flower Art, Hypertufa Demonstration, Dahlia Workshop, Active Native Plant Growing, and From Seed to Bottle; Making Salve from an Organic Maine Garden. 

The Club will welcome a roster of new and returning musicians. Performance locations and exhibit times will be announced before Tour Day. 

We are pleased to announce that en plein air painter, Cassie Sarno – a contemporary, realist painter will be our featured artist. Further detailed information about our artists and exhibitors will be featured in the coming weeks.

Since its beginning in 1948, the Tour has been the highlight of the Camden summer season. Proceeds from the Tour support the maintenance of Camden public gardens, including the Camden-Rockport Archway flower boxes, The Village Green, The Main Street Bridge flower boxes, Laite Beach Children's Amphitheatre, downtown lamppost baskets, the Public Landing perennial beds, Traffic Islands (Main Street and High Street and Mountain Street intersection) the Commercial Street barrels and the barrels at The Public Landing, and Penobscot Chamber of Commerce flower beds, In 2024, this summer, the Club will add three new gardens: Postage Stamp Native Garden, the new Mural Garden on Mechanic Street, and the new Shade Garden near the Public Landing and a significantly increased scholarship program for college students pursuing a horticulturally-related program of study.

Further detailed information about the artists will be featured in the coming weeks.

Tickets are available online at www.camdengardenclub.org on May 1.

The tour sponsor is DECORMaine Magazine.

The Camden Garden Club is a registered 501c(3) nonprofit and a member of the Garden Club Federation of Maine and National Garden Clubs, Inc. The oldest garden club in Maine, the Camden Garden Club cultivates the art of gardening to its fullest sense, develops and preserves beauty in and around Camden, and promotes civic improvements, education, and conservation of natural resources.