Hydrangeas: You always win

Choose the variety that works best for your garden

Unlike the games of chance at our local fair, you always win when you buy a hydrangea. They generally bloom their fool heads off every year, even if you have poor soil and a poor track record in the garden. When I was a boy I noticed that every cemetery had hydrangeas, so I called them cemetery bushes (my parents knew few names of plants). Now is the time they are blooming, so it is time to go to your local, family-owned garden center and buy one — or more than one.

If you want a tall plant with instant curb appeal, buy what is called a hydrangea “standard.” A standard is a shrub that has been grafted onto a tall stem, usually about 5 feet tall. Hydrangeas start out low and often wide, but if you get a standard, you get something that looks a bit like a lollipop — or an instant small tree.

I have six different hydrangeas, each differing in bloom time, color, size of blossom and shape of blossom. Two of mine are standards and are about 25 years old. Each is 15 to 20 feet tall and wide.

The first standard I planted is what’s called a “PeeGee” hydrangea. PeeGee is shortened from the Latin name, Hydrangea paniculata grandiflora (which means large flower head). This is the classic cemetery plant, one that has been around since it was imported from Japan in 1862.

My PeeGee hydrangea has blossoms of various sizes, from 5 inches across to 8 inches or more across. Most blossoms are roughly globular, but some are a bit elongated, especially toward the top of the plant. The panicles are a mixture of fertile and showy infertile florets. The blossoms start out a green-tinged white, transforming to white, then pinkish and finally brown after frost. If you pick the blossoms before frost and put them in a dry vase, they will stay looking pinkish all winter and beyond.

I love my “Pink Diamond” hydrangea; it is also a H. paniculata grandiflora, and lives up to its name even better than a PeeGee. Its uppermost flower panicles can reach 12 inches long and 8 inches wide. The woody stems are thicker and stronger than on most hydrangeas, so they do not flop the way some others do when wet from rain. The pink panicles are a delight to behold.

There is one native hydrangea, called smooth hydrangea (Hydrangea arborescens). It stays small, only 3 to 6 feet tall and wide. It does well in partial shade but is intolerant of dry soils. It will tolerate full sun only if the soil stays moist. ‘Annabelle’ is commonly sold in the nursery trade but I can’t imagine why. Yes, it does have huge panicles, but it has flimsy stems so the panicles droop or flop onto the ground.

According to the Mt. Cuba research station, the best hydrangea for pollinators is the smooth hydrangea called ‘Haas Halo,’ a native one. I planted several for a client one fall and they were immediately consumed by deer. But they came back the following spring and I surrounded them with wire fencing to keep the deer away. In Year 3 they are blooming nicely. The center of each flat flower head is full of small, fertile flowers surrounded by larger white flat, infertile florets.

Another favorite of mine is called ‘Quick Fire.’ Now in Year 5 for me, it is a shrub about 4 feet tall and wide; it is loaded with 4- to 5-inch flower heads. It opens greenish white, then turns white, then pink. The pink color comes on earlier than most others, hence the name. What I like about it is that it keeps a nice mix of white and pink panicles. I am now pruning it yearly to keep it at its current size. It blooms on new wood, so I won’t lose any blossoms if I prune it now or even in the early spring.

Many New England gardeners would like to be able to grow blue hydrangeas, so they buy them and find they really only perform well for one year. A variety called ‘Endless Summer’ came out in the ’90s with much fanfare, claiming it would do as well here as it does in the mid-Atlantic region. But it didn’t do well. Most buds are set the year before, and winter tends to kill them.

Readers often write me asking how to get the numerous blue panicles in years 2, 3 and beyond. I tell them to treat them as expensive annuals. Dig them up and throw them on the compost if they don’t succeed. Instead of Endless Summer, I call them Endless Disappointment. There are now other blue hydrangeas sold, and some may be OK for our climate.

My favorite hydrangea is the climbing hydrangea, H. anomola subspecies petiolaris. Climbing hydrangea is usually sold as a small vine in a one-gallon pot. It takes a long time to get to blooming size — often five or six years. Then it takes off and grows rapidly. The great thing about this vine is that it will bloom in full shade — I have it on the north side of my barn. It will attach to stone or brick surfaces but not wood, though it can climb trees. As it started growing it up my barn I attached it to the barn with a special plastic chain designed for staking young trees. Then later it grew through cracks in the boards and now needs no support — and usually blooms inside my barn! Like all hydrangeas, its flowers stay on and look interesting most of the winter.

So if you like the look of hydrangeas, go get one. I think most are wonderful.

You may email Henry at [email protected]. He is a garden consultant and the author of four gardening books. He lives in Cornish, N.H.

Featured photo: My PeeGee Hydrangea always puts on a good show. Photo by Henry Homeyer.

Kiddie Pool 23/08/31

Family fun for the weekend

High-flying story time

• The picture book Paper Planes by Jim Helmore and Richard Jones is the focus of the storytime Saturday, Sept. 2, at Bookery (844 Elm St. in Manchester; bookerymht.com, 836-6600). The storytime and craft start at 11:30 a.m. and are free; register online.

Museum weekend

McAuliffe-Shepard Discovery Center (2 Institute Drive in Concord; starhop.com, 271-7827) is open daily through Monday from 10:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. (After Labor Day, the center returns to its Wednesday through Sunday schedule). The outdoor Science Playground can be accessed from inside the Discovery Center and is open through October from 11 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. and is included in admission to the center, which costs $12 for adults, $9 for ages 3 to 12 and $11 for ages 13 through college and for seniors, according the the website. Planetarium shows cost an additional $6 per person.

• The SEE Science Center (200 Bedford St. in Manchester; see-sciencecenter.org, 669-0400) is open daily through Labor Day — 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday and 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday. (The center will be closed Mondays starting Sept. 11.) Admission costs $12 for ages 3 and up. Register now for an event on Thursday, Oct. 5, when admission to the museum is free from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. (registration is required), according to the website. At this family fun event, guests can explore the exhibits, view demonstrations and participate in science drop-in activities, the website said.

• The Children’s Museum of New Hampshire (6 Washington St. in Dover; childrens-museum.org, 742-2002) is open daily through Saturday, Sept. 2, with sessions from 9 a.m. to noon or 1 to 4 p.m. and then Sunday, Sept. 3, from 9 a.m. to noon, and then the museum will be closed for its annual 13-day maintenance period. The museum (which is closed Mondays as well as for afternoon sessions on Sundays and Tuesdays) will reopen Saturday, Sept. 16, and will hold Toddlerfest, its annual celebration of the littlest museum-goers featuring special activities and events, Tuesday, Sept. 19, through Saturday, Sept. 30, including a reading of Eric Carle’s A Very Hungry Caterpillar with a visit from the Caterpillar (Sept. 29 and Sept. 30), a celebration of the museum’s 40th birthday on Sept. 23 and a Frozen dance party on Sept. 22.

All things extraterrestrial

Annual UFO Festival celebrates the “Incident at Exeter”

It has been 58 years since the Incident at Exeter, when 18-year-old Norman Muscarello saw an unidentified flying object, described as being about the size of the car with flashing red lights, on his way home one night in Kensington. The incident has been celebrated for the past 14 years with the annual Exeter UFO Festival. This year’s event will be held from Saturday, Sept. 2, to Sunday, Sept. 3.

The Exeter Kiwanis Club took over the event as a fundraiser from Dean Merchant in 2014, according to Bob Cox, the president of the organization. All of the profits go to children’s charities and programs and community programs.

“At the time it was only speaking events,” Cox said. “We took [it] on and expanded it to include the whole family [with] arts and crafts and food. … Each year we keep growing.”

Among the 10 speakers at the town hall will be award-winning documentary filmmaker Jennifer Stein, who will give her presentation on Sunday. She is involved with the Mutual UFO Network in Pennsylvania and Arizona, and has been in the UFO field for 25 years. This year Stein will take her audience on a virtual journey through the Sacred Valley of Peru, focusing on Cusco, Sacsayhuaman, Ollantaytambo and Machu Picchu, where, she says, some of the most interesting and significant megalithic architecture exists.

“Ollantaytambo is a megalithic site that sits high up on top of a plateau … and it shows huge megalithic blocks of stone that really defy explanation of how they got there,” Stein said. “On the underside where they are not eroded by sun and weather, some of them have smooth granite blocks. They’re huge, as big as semi trucks. How the heck did they get there and who put them there and why?”

Another mystery is the nazca lines in southern Peru. These massive illustrations seem to depict monkeys, humans, lizards and scorpions among other images that can only be fully viewed from an aerial perspective.

“Many people think that it would be impossible for us to build them and they kind of say maybe an earlier culture that wasn’t from Earth built them,” she said. “Erich von Daniken was one of the first people to bring attention to the amazing enigmas of Peru … and [to] coin the phrase ‘ancient aliens.’ … He claimed in his [1968] book, Chariots of the Gods? that these things had to be built by a culture that had aerial abilities.”

Other speakers include paranormal researcher and investigator Mike Stevens, paranormal adventurers and authors Paul and Ben Eno, and ufologist Peter Robbins.

Other happenings include kids’ activities such as face painting and rock painting, an alien costume and alien pet parade contest, a souvenir shop, an opportunity to meet the speakers, food concessions, and trolley rides to the site of the incident.

“One of the favorite things for the kids and the Exeter community are those trolley rides,” Cox said. “Last year we had only one trolley … and they made four or five trips. It was so popular, we got a lot of feedback that we should have more this year, so we’re having two trolleys on Saturday and one trolley on Sunday to try to respond to their interests and requests, so that’s a big growth [opportunity] for the festival.”

Exeter UFO Festival

Meet the speakers
Where: Hampton Inn & Suites Exeter, 59 Portsmouth Ave., Exeter
When: Saturday, Sept. 2, 6:30 to 8 p.m.
Cost: $25

UFO Festival souvenir shop
When: Saturday, Sept. 2, 8 a.m. to Sunday, Sept. 3, 4 p.m.
Where: Exeter Town Hall, 10 Front St., Exeter
Cost: varies

Town Hall speaker series
When: Saturday, Sept. 2, 8:45 a.m. to 5 p.m.,
Sunday, Sept 3., 8:45 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Where: Exeter Town Hall, 10 Front St., Exeter
Cost: $35 for both days (no single-day pricing)

Food & refreshments
When: Saturday, Sept. 2, 9 a.m. to Sunday, Sept. 3, 4 p.m.
Where: tent by the bandstand
Cost: varies

Trolley ride to the “Incident at Exeter” site
When: Saturday, Sept. 2, 9 a.m. to 1 p.m., and Sunday, Sept. 3, 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.
Where: Trolley leaves from 10 Front St. and goes to incident site 5 miles south in Kensington
Cost: $5

Kids’ activities
When: Saturday, Sept. 2, 10 a.m. to Sunday, Sept 3, 2 p.m.
Where: Town House Common Park, corner of Front St. and Court St.
Cost: Free

Alien costume & alien pet parade and contest
When: Saturday, Sept. 2, noon to 12:30 p.m.
Where: Town House Common Park, corner of Front and Court streets
Cost: Free

Kiddie Pool 23/08/24

Family fun for the weekend

Birds!

• If this week’s cover story has you inspired to do a little birding, check out the Birding Walk at the New Hampshire Audubon’s Massabesic Center (26 Audubon Way in Auburn; nhaudubon.org, 668-2045) on Saturday, Aug. 26, at 8 a.m. All ages and skill levels are welcome, according to the website. Register in advance; admission costs $10.

Author storytime

• Genie Ware, author of the book That Blankie, will be at Bookery Manchester (844 Elm St. in Manchester; bookerymht.com) on Saturday, Aug. 26, at 11:30 a.m. for a storytime and craft. Admission is free but register for a spot, online.

Game time

• The New Hampshire Fisher Cats continue a six-game run at Northeast Delta Dental Stadium in downtown Manchester against the Binghamton Rumble Ponies. The games Thursday, Aug. 24, through Saturday, Aug. 26, are at 7:05 p.m. and the Sunday, Aug. 27, game starts at 1:35 p.m. Thursday and Saturday night’s games will feature post-game fireworks. On Friday, the first 1,000 fans get a free hat. Sunday’s game features a free pencil pouch giveaway. Before Sunday’s game, the park will also host a Princess Brunch at 10 a.m. (the cost is $26 per person). See milb.com/new-hampshire.

Movie time

• Chunky’s Cinema Pubs in Manchester (707 Huse Road, chunkys.com) and Nashua (151 Coliseum Ave.) will screen the early summer Pixar release Elemental (PG, 2023) on Thursday, Aug. 24. The movie screens at 11:45 a.m. in Manchester and 4 p.m. in Nashua.

• See Minions: The Rise of Gru (PG, 2022) on Saturday, Aug. 26, at 7:30 p.m. at Wasserman Park (116 Naticook Road in Merrimack). The event, which is part of the town’s Movies in the Park series, is free. See merrimackparksandrec.org, which also has a link to the movie’s trailer.

• Movie Night Mondays on the Beach wraps up at Hampton Beach with 2021’sSing 2(PG) on Monday, Aug. 28, at 7:30 p.m. Admission is free; bring blanks and chairs.

• It’s the penultimate week of Concord Regal’s (282 Loudon Road in Concord; regmovies.com) Summer Movie Express Series, which runs on Tuesdays and Wednesdays in the afternoon. On Tuesday, Aug. 29, and Wednesday, Aug. 30, the movies start at 1:30 p.m. and are Trolls World Tour (PG, 2020) andDespicable Me(PG, 2010). The series wraps up Sept. 5 and Sept. 6 with Despicable Me 3 (PG, 2017) and Spirit: Untamed (PG, 2021)

Palace shows

• The 2023 Bank of New Hampshire Children’s Summer Series wraps up at the Palace Theatre (80 Hanover St., Manchester, palacetheatre.org) with a production of Finding Nemo Jr., which has show times at 10 a.m. and 6:30 p.m. on Thursday, Aug. 24, and 10 a.m. on Friday, Aug. 25. Tickets cost $10.

• The final production by the kid performers at the Palace Youth Theatre summer camp will also take place this weekend. Winnie the Pooh Jr. will be performed at the Palace Theatre (80 Hanover St., Manchester, palacetheatre.org) on Saturday, Aug. 26, at noon. Tickets for the show start at $12.

Big plants, tall plants

Give a flat garden some height with these perennials

If Jack, of Beanstalk fame, were to visit my garden, I think he would be impressed. I’m not sure how tall his beanstalk grew, but I got out my 10-foot tripod Hasegawa pruning ladder and took a picture of a flower blossom while standing on the top step. The flower, a black-eyed susan, stood 111 inches tall on a thick stem that has withstood the wind and rains of recent weeks without any staking. It is truly a Goliath.

But this is no ordinary black-eyed susan. Its Latin name, Rudbeckia maxima, gives you a clue about its inclinations. It wants to be bigger and better than any other in the same genus, or family group. Its common name is large coneflower, which is appropriate as the flower does have a large black cone surrounded by yellow petals. I’ve read that it commonly grows 6 to 8 feet tall, but this year it has exceeded that and may still be growing. The leaves are few but large and blue-green in color. Quite interesting. The leaves are mostly clustered toward the bottom of the stalk.

Large coneflower is not commonly sold in nurseries. But if you find one — or better yet, three — plant it where it can strut its stuff. It does well in full sun and average, moist soil. Perhaps because my soil is above average (it is rich, black and fluffy), my plants are taller than average. A few words of warning: Rudbeckia maxima hates to be moved and can take a couple of years to recover from transplanting, or at least mine did.

Another tall, lanky plant I love is a meadow rue called Thalictrum rochebrunianum ‘Lavender Mist.’ My go-to flower book is Manual of Herbaceous Ornamental Plants by Steven M. Still. This is an 800-page text that tells me most everything I need to know about any flower I want to grow: where a plant will grow best, zone hardiness, flower description, how best utilized, related species and much more. Still’s book says ‘Lavender Mist’ commonly grows 4 to 6 feet tall with delicate lavender sepals, no petals, and “primrose-yellow stamens.’ Like the Rudbeckia mentioned above, mine gets tall, often 8 feet or perhaps more, and has large parts of the stem bare of leaves. The finely cut leaves are on a few side branches along the tall stem. This one does need staking sometimes to keep it erect in rainstorms. It is a splendid cut flower, very dramatic in a tall vase. ‘Lavender Mist’ does well in part shade and rich soil. Half a day of sun is fine.

Some years ago at a garden-design competition in the Loire Valley of France I happened upon a Culver’s root (Veronicastrum virginicum) called ‘Fascination.’ It is a tall plant, 6 to 7 feet tall for me. The flowers are lilac-rose-colored spikes and quite striking. But no one had them for sale in the States until I finally found one for sale at a mom-and-pop roadside corn and tomato stand that also sold marigolds and geraniums. Huh. How did it get there? I don’t know, but I bought it and still have it 20 years later.

‘Fascination’ flops in rainy weather and needs to be surrounded by three strong stakes and a barrier of string. But if I remember to cut back the stems by half in mid to late June, it does not flop and produces many more flower spikes. Instead of one per stem, it produces six or so smaller ones, and a bit later in the summer. Mine is blooming now.

I’ve come to love the common white Culver’s root even better than ‘Fascination.’ It only gets to be 4 feet or so tall but needs no staking. Bees and wasps love it, too.

While visiting a farmer in Ohio I spotted a fascinating big plant called teasel, growing in his corn field. I was told that teasel (Dipsacus spp.) was a horrible weed, and that I was crazy to collect seed from it (though I did anyway). It is biennial with a spiny stalk and leaves and sculptural blossoms that are not like any other I have seen. Hard to describe; see the photo with this article.

Each spring I pull out all but two or three first-year teasel plants so they do not take over my garden. I have three this year, and one is easily 8 feet tall. The flowers are fabulous in an arrangement and can be used dry all winter. Outdoors the stems stand up in wind, snow and ice and are endlessly fascinating to me.

Another favorite tall native plant of mine is called snakeroot, bugbane or black cohosh. Its scientific genus used to be Cimicifuga, but now it has been changed to Actaea. I grow two species, Actaea racemosa and A. ramosa. They bloom starting in August and are a great treat for pollinators, especially bees of all sizes and types. They bloom in alphabetical order, A. racemose first, then A. ramosa. They can have a very strong scent, which I like as much as the bees do.

Snakeroot is a native woodland plant but will do well in full sun or part shade so long as there is plenty of moisture. There are also named cultivars such as ‘Hillside Black Beauty’ that have leaves that are deep purple to almost black and are very striking in the garden. This spring I had ‘Hillside Black Beauty’ growing next to a Rodgersia with big almost orange leaves, and the combination was breathtaking. Later those orange-tinted leaves turn green.

If you garden on a flat area, think about growing some tall perennial plants to give your garden a more interesting look. And mix in some shrubs or small trees to give you height in winter. But that’s an article for another day.

You may email Henry at [email protected]. He is a garden consultant and the author of four gardening books. He lives in Cornish, N.H.

Featured photo: Native Culvers root is delicate looking, but strong. Photo by Henry Homeyer.

Kiddie Pool 23/08/17

Family fun for the weekend

Summer shows

• The 2023 Bank of New Hampshire Children’s Summer Series has two shows left at the Palace Theatre (80 Hanover St., Manchester, palacetheatre.org): Catch Frozen Kids Thursday, Aug. 17, at 10 a.m and 6:30 p.m. and Friday, Aug. 18, at 10 a.m. The series then wraps up with Finding Nemo Jr. Tuesday, Aug. 22, through Friday, Aug. 25, with shows at 10 a.m. and 6:30 p.m. Tuesday through Thursday and 10 a.m. on Friday. Tickets cost $10.

• The Palace Youth Theatre also has two upcoming shows featuring young performers (campers in grades 2 through 12). On Friday, Aug. 18, and Saturday, Aug. 19, both at 7 p.m., catch High School Musical Jr.On Saturday, Aug. 26, at noon, see Winnie the Pooh Jr. Tickets for either show start at $12.

Beach fun

• The Hampton Beach Children’s Festival wraps up with events Thursday, Aug. 17, and Friday, Aug. 18. On Thursday activities include a performance by magician Fran Flynn at 12:30 p.m., ice cream with the lifeguards at 1:15 p.m. and paint with Alyssa Pine at 2 p.m. On Friday, the children’s costume parade will start at 11 a.m. (meet up at 10:15 a.m.) and there will be a performance by Mr. Aaron at noon. Most of the events take place at the Hampton Beach Sea Shell stage; see hamptonbeach.org.

Also at the beach: There are four more evenings of fireworks scheduled at Hampton Beach at the top of B and C streets — Wednesdays, Aug. 23 and Aug. 30; Sunday, Sept. 3, and Saturday, Sept. 9. All fireworks start at 9:30 p.m. Monday night movies on the beach next to the playground also continue through August with Strange World (PG, 2022) on Monday, Aug. 21, at 7:40 p.m. and Sing 2 (PG, 2021) on Monday, Aug. 28, at 7:30 p.m., according to hamptonbeach.org.

Audition call

• The Palace Theatre (80 Hanover St. in Manchester; palacetheatre.org) is seeking an actor between the age of 8 and 18 who is able to play 12 for the role of “Young Simon” in the October-November professional production of Kinky Boots. Auditions are open to BIPOC talents of all genders who are 5 feet 2 inches and under, according to a press release. Virtual submissions can be sent to [email protected]; include a current picture, resume and short video of vocal abilities, the release said.

• The Peacock Players (14 Court St. in Nashua; peacockplayers.org) have upcoming auditions for two shows. Auditions for an October production of James & the Giant Peach Jr. are slated for Wednesday, Aug. 23, and Thursday, Aug. 24, from 6 to 8:30 p.m. for ages 6 to 14. Auditions for a November Teen Mainstage production of Beauty and the Beast will be held Sunday, Aug. 27, and Monday, Aug. 28, from 6 to 8:30 p.m. Schedule an audition time and find all the details on the website.

Stay in the loop!

Get FREE weekly briefs on local food, music,

arts, and more across southern New Hampshire!