Annual Public Event to Feature Thousands of Blooming Peonies and Free Ice Cream

FALMOUTH, Maine, June 6, 2008—From 5:30-7:30 p.m. on Wednesday, June 18, Maine Audubon will hold its annual meeting followed by its annual Peony Bloom and Ice Cream Social at Gilsland Farm Audubon Center.

“Over 1,700 people have supported Maine Audubon for 20 years and more,” said Linda Shary, Maine Audubon membership director. “We call them the Maine Audubon Peony Circle of Friends, and honor their contribution with this event every year.”

The evening will begin indoors with Maine Audubon’s annual meeting and then continue outside at 6:45 in the peony garden with a presentation of Maine Audubon’s annual awards and recognition of longtime members, volunteers and supporters.

At 7:15 there will be tours of the garden and other areas where peonies bloom at Gilsland Farm. Free ice cream will be served.

Until 1951, Gilsland Farm was owned by David Moulton, a Portland lawyer who cultivated and sold more than 400 varieties of peonies on seven acres of the property. From the 1920s through the 1940s Moulton gave blooms to grace the gowns of Portland high school graduates.

Purchased during those years by growers in the United States and abroad, the peony rootstock Moulton cultivated still blooms magnificently at Gilsland Farm, which his daughter Ruth Moulton Freeman and her husband Maurice donated to Maine Audubon in 1974.

The event is free and open to the public. Advance registration necessary to (207) 781-2332, ext. 233, or lshary@maineaudubon.org.

MAINE AUDUBON works to conserve Maine’s wildlife and wildlife habitat by engaging people of all ages in education, conservation and action. For more than 160 years, Maine Audubon has been connecting people with nature and leading science-based conservation in major projects across the state. An independent affiliate of Audubon’s national organization, Maine Audubon has seven local chapters, 11 nature centers and sanctuaries, and 11,000 members and supporters.

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