​In August I had the pleasure of attending Erin Zagadailov’s garden party and learning about her wonderful apiary and cut flower garden right here in little Grantham, New Hampshire.  When Erin and her husband moved here, her friends laughingly called her ‘Lady Grantham’ after the Downtown Abbey series. When deciding on a name for her bee business, Erin remembered her friends’ good natured teasing and thus ‘Lady Grantham Apiary’ was coined.
 
Erin and her husband Pavel decided what’s really important and took the risk of quitting their high paying jobs to dedicate their lives to their family and to raising bees. Since that daring decision, they added two children to their hectic, happy days.
 
With no experience raising bees but armed with lessons from books and information from successful bee keepers, they tried their hand at keeping bees only to be unsuccessful for five years. Undaunted, they learned from their mistakes and made improvements and were thrilled to have three hives survive last winter. The colonies are doing well and going about their busy bee business of mostly foraging for pollen and nectar. Even baby bees help out cleaning the hive, nursing larva, and attending to the queen. Erin pointed out baby bees doing figure eights near the hive to practice flying.
 
This is the first year that Erin has taken any honey from her hives. Her policy is not to take honey unless a hive has survived the winter and is doing well.  Selling honey is not part of the plan. At the garden party, I enjoyed a honey tasting test with three types of honey—store bought, some from a neighbor’s hives and from her own bees. The store bought honey was dark and thick and had a decided after-taste, while the harvested honey was lighter, thinner, and delicious. Bravo Lady Grantham’s and neighborhood bees.
 
The bees head back to the hive before nightfall which is quite wonderful to witness. Erin timed her party so her guests could enjoy the very zen feeling of watching them fly home. Erin reads the bees activities and can tell how they’re feeling. She had brought an observation box of bees onto her shady deck so we guests could get a closer look. Later, when we toured her garden, Erin remembered the container and reported that the bees in the box and in the colony would all be unhappy if she didn’t put them back soon.
 
To support her apiary, Erin grows extraordinary cut flowers which she sells to subscribers who enjoy bouquets each week. Selling edible flowers may be added to her growing business. Erin invests all the proceeds from her flower sales into the honeybee colonies. The bees pollinate the flowers and the flowers provide pollen, nectar, and income for the bees—a very nice arrangement.
 
Along with her honey bees, many other pollinators such as bumble bees, butterflies and hummingbirds visit Erin’s garden. She pointed out multiple mud dauber wasp nests on the side of her house. Instead of calling a local exterminator, she’s happy to have these mud architects live there and enjoy the pollinator utopia that she and her husband have created.
 
Erin has graciously agreed to come and speak at the January 13th garden club meeting. Her topic will be ‘Creating a Backyard Pollinator Haven.'  Mark you calendars. 

While photographing flowers up close and personal over the past three years, I have noticed many similarities between different types of flowers. I guessed they were related but didn’t understand the connection. Now, thanks to master naturalist Mary Anne Borge I learned that they are all in the same family – the aster family.
 
New Grantham Garden Club member and knowledgeable plant person Marty Gearhart is a huge fan of Mary Anne Borge and invited me to listen to Mary Anne’s September 22nd presentation All About Asters. Mary Anne’s credentials include freelance writer, nature photographer, editor of NABA (North American Butterfly Association) magazine Butterfly Gardener, and author of The Natural Web blog www.the-natural-web.org. I learned so much from Mary Anne’s talk and want to share it with you. 
 
Asters are composites made up of tons of disk flowers all crammed together in the center surrounded by ray flowers whose job it is generally to attract pollinators. The disk flowers usually start to bloom around the diameter and gradually bloom closer and closer to the center over a course of weeks. This gives the flowers more opportunities for pollination while giving the pollinators a consistent source of food. There are more than 23,000 types of asters. Instead of blooming only in the autumn as I once thought, there are asters blooming throughout the growing season.
 
Mary Anne cleared up another mystery for me.  Last month, I watched in fascination as bees visited a patch of wood asters that consisted of what I now know were white ray flowers surrounding either yellow or pink disk flowers. The bees only visited the yellow disk flowers while ignoring the pink ones. Mary Anne explained that when wood aster disk flowers have been pollinated, they turn from yellow to pink. Bees are red-color blind and ignore the pollinated flowers making the job more efficient for the bees and protecting the developing fruit. The natural world never ceases to amaze.
 
Some asters have only disk flowers such as blazing star, joe-pye-weed, and New York iron weed. An example of an aster that has only ray flowers is the dandelion.  All the flowers in this blog are pictures I took in Grantham Garden Club members’ gardens, and all are in the aster family.
 
If you would like to hear Mary Anne’s delightful talk and learn more cool facts about asters, go to  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hO15gpY8O7M (Initially, There will be an ad, but you can skip quickly to get to All About Asters)
 
Thank you Mary Anne for sharing your wealth of information to our garden club in the Upper Valley of New Hampshire.

​In a town of fewer than 4,000, Grantham has more than its share of angels.  Unlike typical angels who wear immaculate, white robes, these angels aren’t afraid to get dirty. Instead of wings on their backs, they carry shovels in their garden-gloved hands. Instead of floating over clouds, they dig down in the dirt. Here’s the story:
 
The Grantham Garden Club ran a bulb sale fund raiser to benefit their scholarship and grant funds, educational programs, and civic gardens. Bundles of bulbs were delivered to GGC president Elise Kendall’s home. Elise reached out for volunteers to help sort the 1,250 bulbs. Soon an assembly line of nine workers filled bags with the correct number of bulbs for each customer. In no time, folks were sipping Elise’s warm mulled cider and celebrating a job well done. 
 
The Garden Angels are people who bought 380 bulbs for the town, and/or sorted, delivered, and planted them. Early on a crisp autumn morning, the planting was done. My job was to photograph these angels going about their good work. Like all angels, these were somewhat elusive. I often came to a spot with freshly dug dirt but nary an angel in sight. As I drove up and down Route 10, I would think I spied some angels only to discover stuffed scarecrows or people waving election signs. My perseverance paid off, and I was able to get some pictures to share with you.
 
As I chatted with these wonderful volunteers, the Saint Crispin’s Day speech from Shakespeare’s Henry V popped into my mind.  I know, that’s a little bit of a stretch, but imagine how happy this band of angels will be next spring when daffodils start popping up all over town. 

​Ferns are the oldest group of plants on earth with fossil recordings dating back 390 million years ago. The type of ferns we see today evolved a mere 70 million years ago. And evolve they did. There are about 12,000 species of ferns worldwide with fewer than 70 species in New England. I’m a big fan of the home team ferns. They thrive in shady areas and add gorgeous shades of green throughout the forest. In autumn, many turn tan or yellow while some keep their deep green color all year like the christmas ferns. The only edible fern is the ostrich fern whose fiddlehead are highly sought after in the spring. 
 
The fern life cycle takes two generations of plant to procreate—known in scientific terms as diploid and haploid. I failed in my attempt to write the process succinctly. I would need to explain all sorts of things like rhizoids, archegonium, and apogamy; but trust me, it takes two generations. The two-generation system must work well because there are zillions of ferns growing everywhere. Nature continues to astound.
 
Here are some photos of a tiny fraction of the ferns I’ve seen on my hikes in the forest and include hay scented, cinnamon, christmas, interrupted, wood, hay scented (up close), bracken, sensitive, maidenhair, polypodies, braun's holly, new york, and lady fern

Most of us recognize a jack-in-the-pulpit in the spring and summer with its distinctive little guy sitting under a canopy, but I wonder how many of you know the rest of the story. Last year’s Jack could very well be this year’s Jill – and vice versa. Jack-in-the-pulpits change sex from year to year based on how much energy a plant contains in its corm, a fat underground stem that stores the plant’s carbohydrates.

“Producing fruit takes a lot of energy,” said Dan Jaffe, a botanist with the New England Wild Flower Society. “Most plants will produce male-only flowers while they are storing up additional energy. The male flowers produce pollen, which doesn’t require much energy. As the plant matures it will continue to photosynthesize and store energy in the form of sugars in its root system. Once enough energy has been stored, the plant will produce female flowers, and if pollinated will then produce berries. After fruiting, the plant will revert back to being male, and the cycle will continue.” The female or male flowers are hidden in the stem (spadix) so you can’t tell if he’s a she by looking  but one clue I read was that Jills have two leaf shoots while Jacks have only one.

These guys/gals reproduce both vegetatively and sexually. In vegetative propagation, new plants arise from the parental corm which sounds like something out of science fiction. In sexual reproduction, pollen from male flowers is transferred to female flowers by pollinating insects. 
​
I’ve been on a quest to find Jill in her berry stage, and finally, with the help of observant fellow hikers, I saw three. They are more difficult to spot this time of year among all the full grown ferns and dense vegetation. These guys/gals are perennials which live for more than 25 years so you should have lots of opportunities to see them. They like shady woodlands and, to me, conjure up images of forest fairies listening to Jack’s or Jill’s sermon. 

Thank you to observant hikers Kathy, Marty, Michele, Betsy, Mo, Martha, Sharon, Cathy, and Heidi ​

Lots of folks visit Saint-Gaudens National Historical Park to see the impressive statues, gardens, and landscape. Most miss a gem that’s right down the road—The Song Garden Flower Farm. A few years ago, I learned about it from reading a friend’s Song Garden t-shirt. After some delightful visits, the pandemic arrived and like many wonderful places, the garden closed.
 
Here’s the good news--the garden is open and is an opportunity you don’t want to miss. Peggy Heath Ogilvy and Dan Hertzler are the owners and creative crew behind the gardens and grounds. In Peggy’s Tea House, you will find snacks, tea, and lemonade to purchase for a modest cost. They have placed chairs in strategic spots throughout their property that welcome guests to sit and enjoy the view, perhaps while sipping tea and munching cookies. Dan laid a white stone labyrinth in a peaceful clearing among the trees which visitors are welcome to walk.

Every time I’ve gone, Peggy has been there to say hello and chat. I always learn something new. This time I learned that when you pick hydrangeas (or lilacs), you should pound the end of the stems with a rock before putting them in a vase so they will absorb plenty of water and last longer. She even has the perfect sized rock for the job in her flower shed.

Here's the procedure for pick-your-own flowers:
- Head to the shed and grab a basket and some snippers
- Try to decide from among a zillion beauties which ones you want to pick
- Back at the shed, remove all leaves from your prizes—the better to squeeze in as many flowers as possible
- Take a mason jar, add water, arrange your flowers, drop $20 in the box
- Bring your bouquet home where it will  brighten your home for a long time--these are very healthy flowers
 
The garden opens at 10 on Tuesdays through Saturdays (only until noon on Saturdays) and will be open through September. The Song Garden's name no doubt came from the fact that Peggy is a music teacher. She recently retired after 24 years teaching in Winchester, MA, and Woodstock, VT. Peggy and Dan are seriously considering closing the gardens to the public beginning next year so she and Dan can relax for a change. I recommend you take the opportunity to visit the Song Garden now before it’s too late.  

​www.thesonggarden.com/​

​Lisha Kimball has a lovely farm in a bucolic area of New Hampshire. Recently a group of garden club members and friends took the scenic drive to Webster to visit her Milkcan Corner Farm while her raspberries, blueberries, and currants were ripe and her daylilies were bursting with blooms.
 
Fifteen of us pitched in and weeded a row of daylilies for exactly 30 minutes. As we pulled out weeds and chatted, the 30 minutes went by in a flash, but more than seven hours of weeding was accomplished. Lisha, who doesn’t hire help with her farm, was very appreciative.
 
She chatted with us while we enjoyed our picnic lunch among her daylilies and berries. Lisha had a rapt audience as she talked about growing daylilies and made suggestions about fertilizer and ways to keep pesky pests away. 
 
Lisha has an amazing amount of energy and doesn’t relax even when the growing season is past. She spends her winters making baskets. Wide eyes and dropped jaws followed by oohs and aahs were the typical reaction to entering her basket shop. 
 
You can learn more about Lisha’s farm at
https://www.granthamgardenclub.org/flowers--folklore-blog/the-milkcan-corner-farm

​Although houses with their large plots of land generate the most flowers grown in Grantham, there are many condos which also boast impressive gardens.  These condo gardens are often cooperative venture among the owners and have the added benefit of being enjoyed by a mutual admiration society. One such co-op garden I have been invited to many times is in Eastman’s West Cove and is the handiwork of the Courtyard Gardening Group led by GGC member Karen North. The group also includes Barb Jones, Cathy Ayres, Sandy and Maynard Wheeler, and Sue Pratt.  According to Barb Jones who gives the other folks most of the credit “I am so blessed to be able to enjoy their amazing work. They have transformed this rock pile.”
 
Another admirer of the garden is an extra long garter snake named Fred. I had a chance encounter with Fred who was camera shy and zipped off before I could get him in focus. Fred does his part to keep pesky critters from eating the flowers.
 
If you go for a walk along The Cove, you will get a glimpse of their delightful gardens. For a closer look, here are some pictures. 

​Jim Daigle has created his own piece of paradise in Plainfield, NH, where he lives with his wife, two dogs, a cat, a parrot and 3,000 hostas.
 
Recently Jim gave GGC members an exclusive tour of his gardens made up of 650 varieties of hostas plus many companion plants. The three hours flew by as we wandered through his charming grounds while Jim told us funny anecdotes and gave us inside information and tips like using cut up leaves instead of expensive mulch to keep the soil moist and discourage weeds.
 
I learned that Jim is an artist who uses water colors to paint lovely flowers and scenery. Not surprisingly, Jim uses his artistic talent to balance the colors and textures in his gardens, often adding a piece of statuary or wood to delightful effect.
 
One of my favorites is a petite hosta garden that is guarded by a crouching cat. Jim drilled holes in an old, mossy log and populated it with various types of tiny hostas. Another favorite is a piece of wood which looked so much like a whale Jim mounted it on his art studio and used a hosta plant for the blow hole.
 
Jim has an incredible breadth of knowledge about his gardens. Much of what he told us is based on his own experiments and years of experience.  To demonstrate how to split hostas, Jim dug one up, showed us where to cut and used a saw to neatly create multiple hosta plants which he then gave away to his appreciative audience. Mine, without the dirt, is in a vase on my dining room table—another of his suggestions.
 
Jim involved the group in an activity to design a hosta garden with people moving potted hostas of different colors, markings, and sizes. One of his secrets to his healthy garden is the soil which he enriches with compost. When he showed us his 3-step compost area, he dug out of handful of cut grass from the middle of the compost pile and asked me to touch it. I jumped when I felt how hot it was. All that material was really cooking.
 
At the end of the tour, Jim offered us potted plants for sale but also gave anyone interested the opportunity to dig up plants from a large garden plot with even more varieties. I grabbed a shovel and dug in. This was an up-close-and personal, get-your-hands-dirty experience. Great fun!
 
If I tried to tell you all I learned from Jim, it would lose a lot in translation, but there's the option to see for yourself. Contact him at jim.hostas@gmail.com to arrange for a visit.

in recent days, my best friend Elise and I enjoyed some found time and took the opportunity to drive 90 minutes north of Grantham to the idyllic village of Sugar Hill. The main purpose of our little road trip was to check out what we had heard is one of the most scenic venues in the state of New Hampshire. This is particularly true during early to mid-June when the colorful lupines are at their annual flowering peak.    

By way of background, Sugar Hill is one of those small northern New Hampshire towns that probably looks and feels a lot today just as it did, say, 75 years ago. In fact, it is officially the newest incorporated town in NH having earned this status 60 years ago in 1962. Once a Victorian resort town, Sugar Hill is perhaps best known today as the home of Polly’s Pancake Parlor which has been serving up breakfast/brunch fare for over 80 years.

In early June, it’s the lupines that take center stage in Sugar Hill. For nearly 30 years the town has hosted the annual Sugar Hill Lupine Festival and Market however, like so many other events, it has been regrettably cancelled in recent years due to the ongoing pandemic. https://www.lupinefestival.com
​
Nonetheless, the festival cancellation didn’t stop the annual return of the blue, purple, and pink lupines!

​Upon arriving in the village, it was not hard at all to spot the lupines which seemed to be popping up just about everywhere…along the road, between houses, etc.  However, the most stunning displays were in many of Sugar Hill’s open fields with the White Mountains themselves serving as a spectacular backdrop.  Here’s a photograph of a field of lupines we came across swaying back and forth as if they had been choreographed with a wide range of mountains including Mount Lafayette and Cannon Mountain, separated by Franconia Notch, in the near distance (Mount Washington was also in view but, as is often the case, was experiencing clouds covering the summit).  Painters with their palettes were a common sight as they captured the stunning lupine/mountain images on canvas.  

​In addition to multiple open fields of lupines, we noticed the flowers thriving in other parts of the village as well including behind the famous Harman’s Cheese and Country Store and on the grounds of St. Matthew’s Chapel, a quintessential New England white-steepled church on a hill.  While there was essentially no traffic or crowds for us to compete with in viewing the lupines, we did take note of visitors from both near and far – including international tourists - that chose to take in these special sights as evidenced by car license plates from Texas, Mississippi, Virginia and all six New England states.  We also learned that some visitors actually time their visits to the lupine fields to coincide with sunrise or sunset where the sunlight can dramatically alter the appearance, and beauty, of the lupines depending upon the time of day. You might want to consider a brief trip to enjoy the natural beauty for yourselves.