The Community College System of New Hampshire (CCSNH) and Granite State College (GSC) have partnered with the state’s Preschool Development Grant program to provide tuition reimbursement for qualifying students enrolled in Early Childhood Education (ECE) courses through 2023. According to a press release, the initiative aims to address workforce demands in the ECE field by covering full tuition for up to two classes per term for students enrolled in ECE courses at the state’s seven community colleges. The $500,000 award builds on an existing program at GSC, and grants are available to individuals working in licensed child care or out-of-school child care facilities in New Hampshire. Interested students can apply for the funds via the Preschool Development Tuition Assistance website, ccsnh.edu/paying-for-college/preschool-development-tuition-assistance, which includes eligibility requirements, application timelines, eligible course lists and award specifications.
Help for school nurses
The Manchester School District has announced a new partnership with the Manchester Fire Department to help address the shortage of school nurses. According to a press release, the agreement, which is in effect from now until June 30, will allow Manchester Fire Department paramedics, advanced-EMTs and EMTs to volunteer as substitute school nurses when needed. Filling nursing positions has been a persistent issue for the School District, resulting in the use of external staffing agencies to fill the gaps. “We are grateful for this continued partnership with the Manchester Fire Department,” Superintendent of Schools Jennifer Gillis said in the release. “While this agreement does not solve our long-term staffing concerns, it gives us flexibility and puts less of a strain on our staff nurses.” The agreement does not allow the substitutes to provide one-to-one nursing services to students with special needs.
Historic sites
The New Hampshire Division of Historical Resources has selected three state-owned historic sites to spotlight during May as Historic Preservation Month. According to a press release, the sites are Endicott Rock in Laconia, which features inscriptions dated 1652 and is possibly the oldest public monument in New England; Fort Dearborn at Odiorne Point State Park in Rye, part of a chain of coastal defenses that protected Portsmouth Harbor and the Naval Shipyard during World War II; and Nansen Ski Jump in Milan, the largest ski jump in the eastern U.S. for more than 50 years and the site of the first U.S. ski jump Olympic trials in 1938. Visitors are encouraged to explore the sites on a self-guided basis, with accompanying activity sheets for each site available for download on the DHR’s website, which each feature a short crossword puzzle, suggested activities and facts about the sites.
The Division of Historical Resources has also installed a New Hampshire Historical Highway Marker honoring Elizabeth Gurley Flynn, “a well-known labor, women’s rights and civil liberties activist,” according to a press release. The marker is at the corner of Court and Montgomery Streets in downtown Concord, which is near the site of her birthplace in 1890, and identifies her as “The Rebel Girl.”
Propose a highway marker for significant New Hampshire places, people or events by submitting a petition of support signed by at least 20 state residents, a draft text of the marker with footnotes and supporting documentation and a location suggestion, the release said.
Visit nh.gov/nhdhr for an interative map of all the state’s historical highway markers, the release said.
5K for Meals on Wheels
Meals on Wheels of Hillsborough County is holding its 4th annual Step up 5K Run-Walk on Saturday, May 27, at 9:30 a.m. at Mine Falls Park in Nashua to support its programs and services. According to a press release, Meals on Wheels of Hillsborough County has served more than 14.8 million meals since opening its doors in 1977 and currently provides an average of 7,000 meals a week to older and homebound adults throughout Hillsborough County. “Chances are pretty good that older adults in your community — maybe even someone in your neighborhood — is food insecure,” Jon Eriquezzo, president of Meals on Wheels of Hillsborough County, said in the release. “Beyond the delivery of healthy meals, our drivers provide vital wellness checks and social connection for our participants. For about 59 percent of those we serve, the driver is the only visitor they have in a given week.” Participants in the 5K will have the option to run or walk the course or do a shorter route. There is also an opportunity to do a virtual race. To register, visit runsignup.com/Race/NH/Nashua/HCMOW5k.
Interstate 93 road work
Starting on the evening of Sunday, May 7, there will be temporary lane and ramp closures on Interstate 93 southbound between Exit 10 in Hooksett and Exit 6 in Manchester for pavement rehabilitation. According to a press release from the New Hampshire Department of Transportation, overnight detours will be required for traffic daily, between 8 p.m. and 5 a.m., for the duration of the construction period, which is expected to last for three weeks. Real-time traffic news can be found at newengland511.org, and travelers can sign up for “My511” alerts to stay informed about incidents and construction work.
The Sacred Ally Quilt exhibition, a collection of quilts that display the last words of George Floyd, will be on view at First Parish Church in Dover (218 Central Ave.) from Wednesday, May 10, through Saturday, May 13. The exhibition was created by a coalition of nine New Hampshire United Church of Christ ministries to serve as “a visible symbol and a graphic reminder of the need for racial justice,” according to a press release. Viewing hours are 2 to 4 p.m. on Wednesday and Friday; 6 to 7 p.m., on Thursday; and 10 a.m. to noon on Saturday. An accompanying documentary by New Hampshire filmmaker Chris Owen, Stitch, Breathe, Speak: The George Floyd Quilts, will be screened on Thursday, May 11, at 7 p.m. Call 742-5664 or visit firstparishdover.org.
The Hooksett Chamber of Commerce announced in a newsletter that it will host an inaugural Cornhole Tournament on Saturday, June 10, to raise funds for its scholarship program. More information and registration will be announced soon, according to the newsletter. Visit hooksettchamber.org or watch the Chamber’s Facebook page for updates.
Riley’s Place in Milford (29 Mount Vernon St.) will host a fundraiser in honor of Bob Dylan’s 82nd birthday on Wednesday, May 24, at 7 p.m., to benefit the Hidden Battles Foundation, a nonprofit that provides mental health support to military, veterans and first responders. According to a press release, the event will feature a number of local musicians, with Jeff Lawrence of Boston’s WMEX 1510 serving as Master of Ceremonies. Funds will be raised through a suggested donation at the door and throughout the evening. Email [email protected] for more information.
On their latest album, Low Lily, the rootsy trio of married couple Liz Simmons and Flynn Cohen and fiddler Natalie Padilla, decided to be bold. Angels in the Wreckage runs an expansive 14 tracks and is full of forthright songs. An a capella anthem, “What’ll You Do” is punchy, political, ready-made for a protest march; “One Wild World” covers similar territory more tenderly. Neither song, however, shies away from their core beliefs.
“We feel a little bit more comfortable being ourselves and speaking our mind and just kind of putting it all out there, because we’re not in our 20s anymore,” Simmons said in a recent interview. “Making a 14-track album would have felt almost gratuitous when we were younger, but at this point, we just don’t care; we had a lot to say.”
The album is their first with Padilla, as former fiddler Lissa Schneckenburger departed last year. “Travel was really too much for her at this stage in her life; it was an amicable parting,” Simmons explained. In fact, Schneckenburger contributed four songs to the new LP, one a co-write with Simmons, and plays on the opening track, a cover of Shawn Colvin’s “Round of Blues.”
“It feels like she’s still kind of present in the music, in that back of the curtain way,” Simmons concluded.
Cohen met Padilla at a fiddle camp, run by Brian Wicklund, where they’d both taught for several years. Initially he thought she’d be a good accompanist for his solo gigs. “She had a lot of the same taste in multiple styles,” Simmons said. Faced with a lineup change, they realized “someone like her, with all this versatility, would be the best fit.”
Padilla was living in Montana when she joined the band, but she recently relocated to Northampton, Mass., a short drive from Cohen and Simmons’s home in Brattleboro, Vermont. “We were ready to continue to fly her out for every tour, but she actually decided of her own volition to move,” Simmons said. “Now she’s a local.”
Born into a musical family, Padilla is also a singer, songwriter and guitarist. All three talents are on display in her lilting ballad “Captivate Me,” one of the album’s best tracks. An ode to her medicine man great-grandfather, it includes a gorgeous three-part harmony, and lovely acoustic interplay between her, Cohen and multi-instrumentalist/producer Dirk Powell.
Powell mastered their 2018 album 10,000 Days Like These and was the right choice to produce this time around.
“Especially because Natalie brings some of that old-time fiddle, and Dirk is so familiar with that particular style,” Simmons said, adding, “in terms of the American roots music, him being such a kind of legend in that world, it seemed like such a natural pairing.”
Throughout the project, they worked virtually with Powell, emailing tracks to him in Louisiana. “He would pick up what we were putting down,” Simmons said. He played banjo, double bass, electric guitar and, on the superb “Lonely,” piano, triangle and button accordion. “He brings a little of that Bayou flavor, that Cajun sound, which I think works so nicely on that track.”
There are two Cohen instrumentals on the record. “Keep the Pachysandra Flying” is a full group romp. He performs solo on “Bastard Plantagenet Blues,” a tribute to his time with English guitar master Davey Graham early in his playing days.
“Flynn went to school in England in Devon for three years and had the amazing opportunity to study with him, he also even had an all-day lesson with Burt Jansch” — a gift, as it turned out, Simmons said. “Burt was like, ‘Oh, you don’t owe me anything.’ Rolling with those guys, they were just so nice. None of them are alive anymore, so he enjoys little tributes when he can to those folks.”
The record ends as it began, with a cover — Jethro Tull’s “Wond’ring Again.” Simmons considers the song apocalyptic, a reflection of the album’s overall mood. “That’s kind of where that Angels in The Wreckage title comes from,” she said. “I’m struck by how beauty and destruction can live side by side.”
For a CD release tour that stops at Concord’s Bank of New Hampshire Stage on April 28, Low Lily will perform as a five-piece, with a rhythm section of double bass player Hazel Royer and Stefan Amidon on drums. They will perform the new LP from start to finish.
“We’re really excited to go on the road and represent the album sound live in this fuller way,” Simmons said.
Low Lily CD Release Show w/ Green Heron When: Friday, April 28, 8 p.m. Where: Bank of NH Stage, 16 S. Main St., Concord Tickets: $23.75 at ccanh.com
A teen just can’t not open the obviously evil Book of the Dead, thus releasing demons or whatever and leading to a tsunami of gore, in Evil Dead Rise.
The movie actually starts at an A-frame cabin of devilry out in the woods. After some creepy voice work and R-rated violence, we jump back one day and meet Beth (Lily Sullivan), some kind of tech worker for a rock band. When Beth realizes she is unexpectedly pregnant, she rushes to visit her older sister Ellie (Alyssa Sutherland). But Ellie has problems of her own: her husband (and the father of her three kids) has taken off, and the building where they live in a someteenth floor apartment is being torn down, necessitating a stressful move. Teens Bridget (Gabrielle Echols) and Danny (Morgan Davies) and younger sister Kassie (Nell Fisher) are further traumatized when they’re caught in the building’s parking garage during a large earthquake. The supports shake, the ground cracks — so naturally when Danny spots a hole leading below the unstable structure into an old bank vault, why not climb down? And why not take the veiny, fang-having book he finds down there along with accompanying record albums — hey, the kids love vinyl!
Danny and Bridget argue over what to do with the book; Danny thinks their mom could sell it for big money (to whom?) and Bridget is like “go put it back.” Danny says, sure, tomorrow, after I flip through these pages full of disturbing imagery and play the records full of incantations. Even though Danny did the summoning, it’s Ellie who is the first to become possessed — all cadaver-ish skin and unnerving vocal changes. The last thing she says before the real Ellie is overtaken by the possessor is a plea to Beth to take care of her babies, a task that would be easier if the cell phones weren’t down and the building’s stairs hadn’t collapsed.
This movie is not terribly made — there is a respectable ocean of stage blood and the slightest dusting of evil-demon sass. But its most stand-out images are largely riffs on similar images or scenes from other movies — previous Evil Deads but also The Shining, maybe Fargo. It has that odd time-out-of-time quality that some recent horror movies have, where cars and clothes could have you thinking you’re watching something set in the late 1970s but also there are cell phones. The final fight scene has its charms.
It’s all fine, I guess, if this is your thing, but it doesn’t have any staying power beyond the moment you’re watching the movie. This is not a movie I will be thinking about for weeks. This is likely not a movie I’ll still be thinking about by the time you read this review. There’s a pokiness about the film — even when the “Evil”-ing had begun, I still felt like things hadn’t really gotten going, like the motor hadn’t fully kicked on in this movie. C, maybe a C+ for not really doing anything wrong and for having Bruce Campbell and Sam Raimi credited as executive producers.
Rated R for strong bloody horror violence and gore, and some language, according to the MPA at filmratings.com. Written and directed by Lee Cronin, Evil Dead Rise is an hour and 37 minutes long and is distributed in theaters by New Line Cinema.
After a successful revival year in 2022, Taco Tour returns on Thursday, May 4, and will feature its largest roster of participating vendors yet, along with two stages of live local music acts throughout the evening.
The Greater Manchester Chamber took the reins of Taco Tour last year, the first to take place since 2019.
“The crowd size was huge,” event director Cole Riel said of last year’s Taco Tour. “To have such a crowd in downtown Manchester, something we just didn’t see happening a lot since Covid, was a big win for the city and it has brought a lot of momentum for us into this year.”
Of about 1,000 of last year’s attendees surveyed by the Chamber, Riel said 73 percent reported discovering a new restaurant that had opened in the area, and 83 percent said they planned to come back to downtown Manchester in the near future. Collected data and feedback from last year’s Taco Tour among restaurants and attendees, Riel said, has aided the Chamber in making several key improvements to the event this time around.
“Everyone has to sign up to do a minimum of 1,000 tacos to be involved, which was not a parameter for participation in the past,” he said. “For most folks that we talked to, it’s between 1,500 and 2,500 tacos, and then some will continue to sell a little bit after. … So everyone now has a better sense of the scale that they will need going forward, and having that in place is going to be huge for everyone to prep.”
He added that the Chamber will also take active steps to manage long lines that form.
“There were a number of lines that kind of zig-zagged all over, and so we’ll have volunteers,” he said, adding that “end of the line” markers will be in place. “Folks can go online to sign up to volunteer and help us keep the lines organized.”
Around 90 restaurants, food trucks and other businesses have signed up to serve tacos this year. They’ll be set up all along Elm Street, which will be closed to vehicular traffic between Bridge and Granite streets. As in previous years, no price of admission is required — taco lovers are invited to simply come down to Elm Street any time during the event’s four-hour period and eat as many tacos as they can for $3 apiece.
“Attendees should expect everyone to be cash only,” Riel said. “That’s the easiest way that we found for speed of processing, and then at the same time too, obviously, cellular issues with so many people in a tight area … can always cause some hang-ups.”
Tacos won’t just be served on Elm either — eateries and other businesses will be set up along many connecting side streets, some of which will have some closures of their own.
“I’m excited for our friends who will be over on Hanover Street,” Riel said. “We have Industry East, who I’ve been told is coming from the trophy this year. Then we also have City Hall Pub, which wasn’t open when we had the event this time last year, so we’re excited to welcome them. … We also have The Potato Concept coming, and they’ll be doing a ‘PoTaco.’”
Other participants this year include bluAqua Restrobar, serving an alligator and andouille taco with steak chimichurri; The Wild Rover Pub, which will have a shepherd’s pie taco; and the newly opened Alas de Frida Mexican Restaurant & Bar, offering chipotle chicken tacos with grilled onions. Several vegan and vegetarian options are also expected — The Sleazy Vegan food truck, for instance, will serve a jackfruit taco with a mango-jalapeño salsa, while The Green Beautiful Vegan Cafe plans to have a “meaty” mushroom taco with red cabbage slaw, pickled peppers and an avocado crema, alongside a side of vegan street corn.
A downloadable map is expected to be available online at TacoTourManchester.com soon. Free shuttle buses will be making regular stops at several key points around the city, including Murphy’s Taproom, the Restoration Cafe and the Currier Museum of Art.
“That’s kind of a different path that people can take that won’t be busy,” Riel said. “It’ll be sort of like a ‘Choose your own adventure’ Taco Tour, just to help people out with planning in advance and making the map easier to understand.”
New to this year’s Taco Tour is live entertainment, including a concert stage at Veterans Memorial Park that will feature Jeffrey Gaines, Frank Viele and local rock group Best Not Broken. On a bandstand by the intersection of Bridge and Elm streets, performers will include Colleen Green, Manchester power pop band Donaher, and reggae rock group Supernothing.
Similar to last year, attendees can go to the event website to cast their vote for the best taco. The winning vendor will receive $1,000 to give to a nonprofit of their choice, in addition to a “Golden Taco” trophy. The “Most Creative Taco” will also be awarded this year — that winner will get a glass taco trophy created by StudioVerne of Manchester.
“We’ll keep voting open through Friday [May 5], … and then we’ll alert the winner sometime that weekend,” Riel said.
Taco Tour Manchester When: Thursday, May 4, 4 to 8 p.m. Where: Participating businesses stationed on Elm Street and various connecting side streets in downtown Manchester Cost: $3 per taco (cash only) Visit: tacotourmanchester.com Event is rain or shine and is dog-friendly. Elm Street will be shut down to vehicular traffic between Bridge and Granite streets for the duration of the event, as will a few side streets.
Featured photo: Downtown Manchester’s Taco Tour returns on Thursday, May 4. Photo by Ethos & Able Creative.
Symphony New Hampshire is celebrating its centennial
For a century, Symphony New Hampshire has been bringing classical music to the Granite State. On its 100th birthday, the symphony will perform a concert featuring music from the first performance in 1923 and will host a gala celebrating the landmark anniversary.
“All of this has been daunting and exciting at the same time to celebrate 100 years,” said Deanna Hoying, the executive director of the symphony. “This whole season has been about that.”
The symphony will perform Antonin Dvořák’s Cello Concerto in B minor, Op. 104, featuring internationally renowned cellist Amit Peled, and Franz Schubert’s Symphony No. 8 in B minor ‘Unfinished,’ both of which were performed during its very first concert. The program will be rounded out with ‘On the Beautiful Blue Danube’ by J. Strauss Jr. and Johannes Brahms Hungarian Dance No. 5.
Hoying said it was important for the symphony to celebrate the music and its legacy, which was a main reason it partnered with Peled for this concert. She added that this concert is just as important to the local arts community in New Hampshire as it is to the music world.
“This is a celebration of the arts in New Hampshire … and that they’re alive and well in the state,” Hoying said. “Maybe this is the end of the first chapter [for the symphony], but we’re going to open the book, turn the page to the next chapter.”
The gala following the reception will be opened by a poem written and read especially for the event by New Hampshire’s Poet Laureate Alexandria Peary. The symphony also partnered with artist William Mitchel, who made custom prints commemorating the event. Hoying said that, due to board members’ reserving prints in advance, there will be fewer than 100 copies for the public to snatch up.
To Hoying, this event is about giving thanks to the directors of the symphony, the musicians, the patrons of the arts, and the music lovers who came before.
“One hundred years of patrons and musicians and artists that struggled to keep Symphony New Hampshire going — we owe a large debt of gratitude to all of them when they struggled and weren’t sure what would come next,” said Hoying. “We stand on their shoulders and say thank you.”
Even with the symphony standing tall now, Hoying remembers the fear during the pandemic. She and members of the symphony’s board remember worrying over the future of live music in New Hampshire. The symphony is in a much more comfortable position since the first show after the pandemic’s end in 2021, which Hoying said only inspires them to do more.
“We’re really excited for the next 100 years; that’s why we called this concert ‘Momentum,’” Hoying said. “When we started thinking about this, momentum felt right. The momentum from the last 100 years will carry us to what we look like in year 101, 105 and 110.”
Symphony NH: Momentum! 100 Year Anniversary Concert Where: Nashua Center for the Arts, 201 Main St. When: Saturday, April 29, at 4 p.m. Price: Adult tickets start at $39, senior tickets at $34, student and youth tickets at $12 Visit: nashuacenterforthearts.com
Featured photo: Symphony NH’s full orchestra. Courtesy photo.
Plants to attract birds, bees and other pollinators
By Matt Ingersoll, Angie Sykeny and Katelyn Sahagian [email protected]
A gorgeous garden isn’t just about creating the perfect landscape. Choosing the right plants helps to foster an environment where native bees, hummingbirds, butterflies and other key pollinators can thrive.
“When we say pollination, what we’re referring to is essentially the fertilization of these plants to be able to reproduce, so part of it is maintaining and increasing that genetic diversity for these plants so that they can continue to survive,” said Stephanie Sosinski, program manager for home horticulture at the University of New Hampshire Cooperative Extension’s Education Center in Goffstown. “Pollinators are such an important part of the greater ecosystem, and even birds who aren’t necessarily pollinators are also part of that. They eat the larvae of the insects that pollinate the plant.”
Most pollinators are not generalists. In fact, Sosinski noted that “a pretty high percentage” of them are attracted to very specific species of plants, sometimes even just by their color.
“For bees, it would be white, blue, purple and yellow flowers,” she said. “If we’re thinking about hummingbirds, they tend to be attracted to reds. … The quality of the flower will also sometimes give you a hint. The coneflower is easy for bees to land on to get the pollen.”
Pollinator-friendly plants include everything from perennials (which come back year after year) and annuals (which only live for one growing season) to herbs, shrubs and some trees, all with a wide range of blooming stages, from early spring to late fall. Choosing the right ones for your garden, Sosinski said, may come down to its overall layout.
“You definitely want to think about which plants fit the site that you have,” she said. “Look at what amount of light it gets, whether it’s full sun or partial shade, and you definitely also want to think about moisture. Is it a well-draining area, is it really sandy or is it wet more often? Those are all things to consider. … You want to give your plant the full ability to succeed, so you want to make sure you give them all the right stuff.”
When visiting a nursery or garden center, it’s important to understand the difference between a New England native plant and a nativar or cultivar — some are OK for pollinators and others are not, said Donna Miller, of Petals in the Pines in Canterbury.
“A nativar or a cultivar is a native plant that’s been bred for some reason,” she said. “A rule of thumb that we use is to strive for about 70 percent natives and 30 percent cultivars in your garden. … It’s OK to have cultivars, but you don’t want them to dominate your landscape.”
Cultivars are more likely to have a prettier bloom or nicer look, said Becky Stoughton, a master gardener for UNH. While the beauty is enhanced, it can take away from the benefits. Stoughton said there are coneflowers that have been cultivated to have double blossoms, but those flowers are sterile, meaning they don’t produce pollen, so they are useless to pollinators.
Stoughton said planting and cultivating plants for aesthetics alone is a habit that she and some of her gardening friends are still unlearning.
“Our dependence on plants for not just their beauty [but] for other things … we lost it for a while, we got focused on the aesthetic,” she said. “It’s not just us that has to benefit from [the plant].”
The big question becomes, when looking for pollinators, how do you recognize cultivars and nativars? Miller recommends reading the tag on the plant.
“It should have the scientific name for plants, the genus and species. It’s usually in italic print,” she said, “and following that, if there’s another name and it has single quote marks around it. If you see something that has a name like that, then you know it’s a nativar. There are some that are good for pollinators, but it’s one of those things where you’ve got to kind of do your research and know which ones are fine and which ones aren’t.”
Miller is part of the Pollinator Garden Certification Committee, a joint effort between UNH and UMaine Cooperative Extensions that encourages growers to get their gardens certified as pollinator-friendly. Gardeners can apply online through UMaine Cooperative Extension’s website.
“Most people, if they just fill it out with all the different required criteria, pass pretty easily,” Miller said. “The thing that’s significant is that it’s all straight native species, so nativars and cultivars are not included whatsoever. … Once you pass, then you can order a sign that says you’re certified, and you can put it in your garden or yard. It’s a great conversation-starter.”
Here’s a list of several pollinator-friendly plants as suggested by local gardening and horticulture experts. We’ve included details on the conditions they prefer, as well as the types of pollinators they will attract.
American cranberrybush
Viburnum trilobum
American cranberrybush. Photo by John Hixson.
Life facts: Deciduous shrub that can grow up to 8 to 12 feet tall and wide, with multiple stems
How it comes: Available as a potted shrub at local nurseries and garden centers, likely in a 1-gallon or slightly larger pot
Care: According to Amy Papineau, landscape and greenhouse horticulture field specialist for UNH Cooperative Extension, this shrub naturally grows in boggy areas but also grows nicely in gardens.
“It has nice clusters of bright, red berries that are edible. They just have a hard seed in the middle and are a bit sour,” she said.
While a great option for pollinators, the American cranberrybush is one of several viburnums vulnerable to the viburnum leaf beetle, which can be a problem pest in some landscapes.
Who likes it: Blooming in the spring, the American cranberrybush does best in medium to moist soil and full sun to part shade.
“It’s a really valuable food source for those early-season native bees, and also butterflies,” Papineau said. “Those berries also persist into the fall, so they are a good food source for birds.”
Arrowwood viburnum
Viburnum dentatum
Life facts: Deciduous shrub that grows about 6 to 10 feet tall and wide, with multiple stems
How it comes: Available as a potted shrub at local nurseries and garden centers, likely in a 1-gallon or slightly larger pot
Care: According to Papineau, the arrowwood viburnum blooms in mid-summer and is very easy to care for, due to its adaptability.
“It grows in a variety of soils and full sun to part shade,” she said. “It can look really kind of tidy and nice, and in the fall it has some really nice red or yellow foliage, so it’s something that people really like to plant for that fall color.”
Who likes it: The arrowwood viburnum has large clusters of lacy white flowers that are very attractive to native bees.
“This is one that honey bees are also particularly attracted to, because it has a lot of nectar,” Papineau said. “Butterflies also really like this plant.”
Bergamot
Monarda fistulosa
Bergamot. Photo courtesy of Donna Miller.
Life facts: This perennial grows 4 to 5 feet tall and yields pink blossoms in July and August.
How it comes: Well-established potted plants, available where plants are sold, or by seed, which can be ordered online.
“It can spread easily, but also can be edited if it gets too aggressive,” Miller said.
Care: Bergamot can tolerate dry soil, enjoys full to part sun and grows well in meadows and old fields, but can also find its place in a perennial back border, according to Miller. When planting, be sure to give each plant space to grow for good airflow between them.
Who likes it: Miller said bergamot’s blooms are “one of the top pollinator attractants,” and that bergamot is one of the best plant choices for bumble bees.
Black-eyed susan
Rudbeckia hirta
Life facts: This annual is a forgiving flower to beginner gardeners. The 2- to 4-foot-high plant blooms later in the season, from June to September.
How it comes: Usually, black-eyed Susans are available in pots at nurseries and garden centers.
Care: These flowers prefer full sun, six to eight hours a day, and are very durable.
Who likes it: Because of their late-season blooms, Stoughton said, black-eyed susans are popular with many different pollinators.
“It’s a nice late bloomer, which is good at that time of the year,” she said. “There’s not a lot blooming [then] and it really catches your eyes and must catch pollinators’ eyes, too.”
Blazing star
Liatris
Life facts: This perennial flowering plant grows in clustered groupings and can be 2 to 5 feet tall. It needs full sun to thrive.
How it comes: While there are a few nurseries that sell it as a potted plant, Stoughton said she hasn’t come across many that way. “It’s easy to order online,” Stoughton said. “Liatris is [received] more often that way, and you plant it as a bulb.”
Care: Like other drought-friendly plants, blazing stars need to be watered well until they are established in the garden. After it’s healthy and thriving, it can survive on very little water and maintenance.
Who likes it: Stoughton said blazing stars are enjoyed by a variety of pollinators, including different types of bees, hummingbirds and butterflies.
Common buttonbush
Cephalanthus occidentalis
Common buttonbush. Photo by Lee Page.
Life facts: Deciduous shrub, can grow anywhere from 6 to 12 feet tall, with multiple stems
How it comes: Available as a potted shrub at local nurseries and garden centers, likely in a 1-gallon or slightly larger pot
Care: Papineau said the common buttonbush blooms from early to mid-summer, and thrives best when placed on a garden’s woodland border.
“It’s not something you’d put in the middle of a landscape, but it does really well kind of on the edge,” she said. “It really likes rich, moist soil. It can take shade but really needs some good soil to do well.”
Who likes it: The common buttonbush is characterized by its ball-shaped white flowers, resembling little pincushions.
“They’re a little bit smaller than a ping pong ball,” Papineau said. “Bees really love them, so lots of native bees, honey bees and also butterflies will all just cover this plant when it’s blooming.”
Coneflowers
Echinacea
Life facts: These perennial flowers are part of the daisy family and can grow up to 4 feet tall. They do best in full sunlight. “[It’s] a good reliable garden plant,” Stoughton said. “They make a nice cut flower, too.”
How it comes: These plants are most often bought at nurseries and should be planted while still small.
Care: These flowers are remarkably sturdy and don’t need much attending once they’re established. The stems do need to be cut back in the late fall, after they wither or at the first frost. These flowers are also self-seeding, so once planted, it’s possible for them to grow into a large patch.
Who likes it: Coneflowers are extremely popular with bees and butterflies because of the bright colors, and birds, especially finches, are known to use the wide seed heads as a resting spot.
Golden alexander
Zizia aurea
Golden alexander. Photo courtesy of Donna Miller.
Life facts: This perennial “brings a ray of sunshine to your garden in early summer,” Miller said. A member of the carrot family, it will grow to about 2 feet tall, with a 3- to 4-inch-wide bright yellow umbel-shaped flower that will bloom in May and June.
How it comes: Well-established potted plants, available where plants are sold, or by seed, which can be ordered online.
“Seeds are easy to collect at the end of the season for propagating more plants,” Miller said.
Care: Miller said this “very low-maintenance and deer-resistant” plant prefers to live in average soil in part sun to part shade.
Who likes it: Black swallowtail butterflies find this one hard to resist, Miller said.
Goldenrod
Solidago
Life facts: This perennial flowering plant can grow up to 3 feet tall. It’s an aggressive spreader, but not considered an invasive species, Stoughton said, because it is native to New Hampshire.
How it comes: It can come in seeds or as a plant at nurseries.
Care: This plant needs very little watering, as it is drought-tolerant, and does best in full sunlight.
Who likes it: The plant is native and is good for all pollinators and local wildlife. Stoughton did say that it grows incredibly quickly and might need to be cut back.
Highbush blueberry
Vaccinium corymbosum
Life facts: Deciduous shrub, grows about 6 to 12 feet high but can be pruned to a manageable 3 to 5 feet high
How it comes: Available as a potted shrub at local nurseries and garden centers, likely in a 1-gallon or slightly larger pot
Care: According to Papineau, this is the native blueberry you’ll find growing in the woods, especially around lakes and ponds, and in local pick-your-own blueberry farms.
“Lots of people like to have a blueberry plant or several in their yard,” she said. “The flowers on blueberries … are like a bell-shaped flower that comes out in the late spring, early summer.”
Who likes it: The highbush blueberry, Papineau said, is a particularly valuable plant to our native bumble bees.
“You’ll see lots of very small native bees on the blueberry, but also bumble bees. It’s one of their favorite plants,” she said.
Hydrangea
Hydrangea paniculata
Life facts: Deciduous shrub that grows anywhere from 3 to 14 feet tall.
How it comes: The shrub is sold in 1- or 3-gallon planters.
Care: Stoughton said hydrangeas are easy to care for and do best in a full-sun environment.
Who likes it: What people think of as each hydrangea flower is actually made of dozens of individual blooms. This gives bees and other pollinators the perfect place to swarm and eat.
“It will be filled with several hundred pollinators when in bloom. It’s amazing,” Stoughton said of the shrub in her own garden.
Mountain mint
Pycnanthemum muticum
Life facts: The distinctive silver and green foliage of this perennial “makes it a very worthy choice for a meadow or perennial border,” Miller said. It grows 3 to 5 feet tall, and its button-like white and light purple flowers bloom in July and August.
How it comes: Well-established potted plants, available where plants are sold, or by seed, which can be ordered online.
“As with all mints, it will spread, but not as quickly as peppermint or spearmint,” Miller said. “Pick a few stems to add interesting texture and color to a flower bouquet, but leave the rest for the pollinators.”
Care: Mountain mint prefers full to part sun and succeeds in most soil types, Miller said.
Who likes it: A wide range of bees and pollinators are attracted to mountain mint, according to Miller.
New England aster
Aster novae-angliae, also known as Symphyotrichum novae-angliae
New England aster. Photo courtesy of Donna Miller.
Life facts: This perennial is “perhaps the best-known aster,” Miller said. It will grow 3 to 6 feet tall and sprout bright purple flowers.
“When you see these blooming, it’s a sure sign of fall,” Miller said.
How it comes: Well-established potted plants, available where plants are sold, or by seed, which can be ordered online.
Care: According to Miller, New England asters prefer full sun to light shade and do well in loamy soils but will tolerate most other soil types, except for dry soils. If you want to avoid having to stake them, cut the plants back by mid-July to keep them at a more manageable height.
Who likes it:New England aster is the host plant for the pearl crescent butterfly, and is an important nectar source for bees and other pollinators as well.
“You’ll likely find monarch butterflies feeding from it, fueling up for their migration to Mexico,” Miller said.
New Jersey tea
Ceanothus americanus
Life facts: Deciduous shrub, grows fairly low to about 3 feet tall and 3 to 4 feet wide
How it comes: Available as a potted shrub at local nurseries and garden centers, likely in a 1-gallon or slightly larger pot
Care: The New Jersey tea, Papineau said, is adaptable to lots of different situations, whether it’s moist or dry soil or full sun to part shade.
“It blooms early in the season, so kind of like late spring, early summer, and it’s just a really easy plant to grow,” Papineau said.
Who likes it: New Jersey teas feature clusters of delicate white flowers, making them very attractive to all kinds of species of native bees.
“Hummingbirds will even take some nectar from these,” Papineau said. “It’s not the hummingbirds’ favorite plant, but they will eat from it. But mostly, lots of different bees, butterflies and moths all really like this plant.”
Pussy willow
Salix discolor
Pussy willow. Photo by R.W. Smith.
Life facts: Deciduous shrub, can grow up to 20 to 25 feet high with multiple stems, but can also be cut back all the way to the ground every two to three years to keep smaller
How it comes: Available as a potted shrub at local nurseries and garden centers, likely in a 1-gallon or slightly larger pot
Care: According to Papineau, pussy willows prefer moist soil and overall sunny conditions.
“This is one that doesn’t tolerate very dry soil,” she said. “Typically how it’s grown in a landscape is you let it grow for a few years and then chop it down to the ground and let it re-grow, and you can do that over and over.”
Who likes it: Pussy willows, Papineau said, grow small oval-shaped clusters of flowers with silky soft hairs on them called catkins.
“The ones with the male flowers, those catkins are bigger, and as they open up the stamens … get covered in pollen,” she said. “They open in very early spring. So this is a plant that the bees are out foraging pollen [from] right now to get their spring protein.”
Raspberry and blackberry shrubs
Rubus idaeus
Life facts: These fruit-bearing shrubs grow between 5 and 8 feet tall, with flowers showing in the late spring and fruit coming in the summer and early fall.
How it comes: They are sold as seedlings at garden centers.
Care: These bushes need to be pruned twice a year, need six to eight hours of sunlight, and need regular watering.
Who likes it: Any pollinator will use the flowers from raspberry and blackberry shrubs, Stoughton said.
“Pollinators are necessary to get the parts we like,” Stoughton added about the bushes. “There’s a nice symbiotic relationship, because we don’t get the berries unless they pollinate the flowers.”
Swamp milkweed
Asclepias incarnata
Swamp milkweed. Photo courtesy of Donna Miller.
Life facts: This perennial tends to get a bad rap as it’s often associated with common milkweed, also known as asclepias syriaca.
“[Common milkweed] is often seen growing aggressively in old fields and along roadsides, and if it has found its way into your yard, it has likely spread by vigorous underground rhizomes,” Miller said.
The difference, she said, is that swamp milkweed has a fibrous root system and won’t spread like the common variety, making it “a better-behaved alternative.”
Growing 4 to 5 feet tall, swamp milkweed is “a great back border plant,” Miller said, and will sprout pink and white blossoms in July and August.
How it comes: Well-established potted plants, available where plants are sold, or by seed, which can be ordered online.
Care: You don’t need a swamp to grow this plant, Miller said, but it does prefer moist soil, so keep it well-watered in dry spells. Plant it in full sun for best results.
Who likes it:Milkweed is best known as the monarch butterfly’s host plant — you can expect its leaves to be covered with monarch caterpillars — but its blooms will also attract all kinds of bees and other pollinators, Miller said.
White wood aster
Aster divaricatus, also known as eurybia divaricata
Life facts: This perennial grows about 1 to 2 feet in height and “is a good candidate for ground cover under trees,” Miller said.
“Covered with white daisy-like flowers with yellow to purple centers, it will offer a nice pop of color in the early fall,” she said.
How it comes: Well-established potted plants, available where plants are sold, or by seed, which can be ordered online. After its first season, it can spread by seed and rhizomes, without being “overly aggressive,” Miller said.
Care: This particular aster is very easy to grow, according to Miller, and is adaptable to most soil types and part shade.
Who likes it: Asters, along with goldenrods, make up the largest food source for pollinators in the fall, according to Miller.
“Bees will depend on it for food when fewer flowers are available, and birds will eat the seeds in the winter,” she said.
Wild cherry tree
Prunus avium
Life facts: This deciduous tree can grow to be 105 feet tall, with a trunk 5 feet in diameter.
How it comes: Unlike most of the plants on this list, the easiest way to get access to the wild cherry tree is through the New Hampshire State Forest Nursery, Stoughton said. “Every year, in January and February, they take orders for plants and master gardeners take cuttings and divisions and prep them to be provided to the people that want them,” Stoughton said, adding that she’ll be bringing a sapling to a garden sale soon.
Care: Stoughton said wild cherry trees are some of the easiest to care for. She said that, since planting hers, she’s done practically nothing for it and it’s still thriving.
Who likes it: Stoughton said that, because the tree blooms so early in the year (hers are getting ready to bloom now), almost all pollinators like the flowers. Wild cherry trees give the pollinators a good source of food for the beginning of the season.
Wild columbine
Aquilegia canadensis
Life facts: This perennial woodland flower, with a red bell shape and yellow center, will bloom in May and June and is “a great choice for the early season,” Miller said.
“The 12- to 18-inch flower stems come up out of the center of a beautiful mound of green foliage,” she said.
How it comes: Well-established potted plants, available where plants are sold, or by seed, which can be ordered online. After the plant’s first season in your garden, let the flowers dry on the stem after blooming.
“You will be able to hear the seeds rattle inside by the end of the summer,” Miller said. “They can self-sow near the mother plant, or you can cut the stem and sprinkle the seeds where you would like them to grow. This is a fun activity to do with kids.”
Care: Easy to grow, wild columbine will thrive in part sun and part shade in well-drained soils, Miller said.
Who likes it: This nectar-rich flower is a favorite among hummingbirds and long-tongued bees, according to Miller.
Deer-resistant plants While considering which pollinator-friendly plants to add to your garden, you may also be thinking about what can possibly keep the deer away. Deer-resistant plants are those that deer are known for being much less likely to eat. “The key word is ‘resistant,’ but not ‘deer-proof,’” said Stephanie Sosinski, program manager for home horticulture at the UNH Cooperative Extension’s Education Center in Goffstown. “Deer will eat just about anything if they’re hungry enough.” Despite this, Sosinski said there are several plants deer are less likely to gravitate toward, whether it’s because of their unattractive taste, texture or smell. Joe Pye weed (eutrochium purpureum), beebalm (monarda didyma) and common milkweed (asclepias syriaca), she said, are a few examples of well-known deer-resistant plants for these reasons, as is lamb’s-ear (stachys byzantina). “If you’re familiar with lamb’s-ear, it’s a very fuzzy leaf and the deer don’t really want to eat that,” Sosinski said, “but it is a pretty addition to your garden’s aesthetic. … Part of it, I would say, is all about observing what’s in your own backyard and seeing what’s growing there already and creating a balance. You can certainly plant things that they won’t go after and put those around what they would go after.”
