A New Years Day Adventure at the Botanical Gardens

The orange path leading into the heart of the gardens reminded me of Alice’s journey through Wonderland. Coniferous and deciduous trees were wrapped in brilliant colors creating beautiful landscapes in the night. Flowers lined the paths and opened up into fields of dazzling colors. An endless current of people pushed us along through the glowing paths.

It was New Years Day. The light display at Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens in Boothbay was an exciting reason to enjoy the cold darkness of winter. It is transformative to be surrounded by the beauty of nature and such a wide variety of plant and animal sculptures. The gardens are so vast, each time I visit there’s a new path for me to travel. This winter with 750,000 LED lights across 66 miles, Gardens Aglow brought us into the New Year.

The suspense began as I made my way across the first bridge lined with shades of blue and purple lights. Colorful light forms shone ahead in the distance. The magical adventure was about to begin. The starry skies above were no match for the bright glow spread across the gardens. The weather had originally predicted rain, but the skies were clear through the evening.

I recognized the first structure on the journey immediately. When I visited the gardens in the fall, the butterfly house had closed for the season. I could see the monarch’s clinging to the side of the enclosure as I passed by outside. Now in the winter the butterfly house was reopened and glowed from within with green and blue lights strung across the length of the ceiling. Flower sculptures surrounded the house as beautifully as the dahlias that would have been there in the fall.

The smell of freshly cooked popcorn filled the air. As I traveled the winding paths well lit by the surrounding strings of light, different shapes revealed themselves as an assortment of colorful woodland creatures. I enjoyed peering through the illuminated trees to identify the various light sculptures. A great blue heron drank from a reflective pond. A beaver rested at the waters edge. My excitement grew each time I recognized a new one. My favorite of course was the blue and green hummingbird drinking from an orange flower. The glowing colors closely resembled the iridescent wings of the ruby throated hummingbird.

Turning around a bend in the path I came across a green frog suspended in a permanent leap out of the ice. The implied motion of the sculptures made them so realistic. They blended flawlessly into their colorful surroundings. In the distance a blue and purple moose was making its way through the forest.

The winding path opened into cascading blue lights mirrored across a frozen pond. I remembered this from the first year I came to Gardens Aglow, though every year it is a little different. Giant mushrooms accented the clearing with purple tree branches reaching up into the night sky.

I recognized the final path as the end when we approached the multicolored bridge across the water with a blue and purple moose wading in the center of the pond. A cluster of green lily pads reached the opposing shore. From the center of the bridge, I stood off to the side for a final look back at the colorful display.

The night had seemed warm when we first entered the gardens, but by the end of our allotted hour my face was considerably colder than when I started. I realized I was ready to warm up in the car. Walking back to the car, the next time slot of people were crowding through, and a line of cars was backed up down the road ready to get in. I left the gardens grateful that I was able to see it one last time before the gates closed for the season until spring.