Stage Road Gardens

10/26/2026

Collecting seeds for Buttonbush (Cephalanthus occidentalis), one of my favorite native shrubs and one of the easier ones to grow from seed. As you can see, it tends to prefer moist places.

10/24/2026

Gathering seed from this patch of Little Bluestem for the annual Pollinator Pathways NH Seed Swap/Giveaway in Portsmouth on November 14th. Check out their page for details!

10/21/2026

For my Strafford/Rockingham County friends. Pawtuckaway still has tons of gorgeous perennials, trees, and shrubs available as well, and you still have time to get them in the ground ahead of next spring! For those of you who don’t know, this is where I got my start in the horticultural business and the owner, Mark, taught me so much. He’s one of the most knowledgeable “plant people” I’ve ever known and Pawtuckaway is, in my opinion, the best retail nursery in the area.

10/21/2026

One of the best nurseries I’ve found in the Upper Valley for perennials, trees, and shrubs! Stop by and take advantage of their fall sale Wed-Saturday! It’s still a great time to plant!

10/20/2026

Detail of a hand-drawn garden design recently completed for a Deerfield, NH residence. This is for a sloped, partly shady border that frames their back yard and includes a mix of native and non-native perennials. The clients wanted as much bright color as possible throughout the seasons, so I combined spring-blooming favorites like Peonies, Trollius, Primrose, Phlox stolonifera, and Fringed Bleeding Hearts with summer and fall bloomers like late-blooming Astilbes, Chelone, Geranium, and Lobelia. Check out my website at https://stageroadgardens.com/ for more info about garden design and consulting services!

10/19/2026

Working on an exciting new garden coaching project at a home in Canaan, NH. These folks wanted to add some natural-looking, pollinator-friendly plantings on either side of their wooded path down to the pond, so we planted over sixty native and near-native perennials together on Saturday, a mix of Chelone glabra (White Turtlehead), Phlox stolonifera, Sedum ternatum, Tiarella (Foamflower), Christmas Fern, Cardinal Flower, and Jacob's Ladder. The owners are doing most of the work themselves, but wanted some guidance on plant choices and placement, so I sourced and laid out the plants for them and helped them get started with the planting, made sure they knew what to do, then they finished the job all in one afternoon! Can't wait to see what this looks like in the spring!

10/14/2026

Christmas Fern (Polystichum acrostichoides) releasing its spores, starting at x4 magnification. You can actually see one flying off to the bottom left towards the end after I zoom back out. I thought they’d be interesting to check out under the microscope, but what I didn’t anticipate was that as soon as the light on the scope warmed them up, they started firing off like crazy. Going to try to germinate some over the winter.

08/13/2026

Taken from a kayak on Sunday, looking up at the riverbank of the land in Enfield, NH where we plan to build our future home. I’ve been exploring the property and found so many wonderful native plants, but I think the buttonbush might be the one I was most excited to find already growing there. It was bustling with bumblebees and monarchs all morning.

Buttonbush (Cephalanthus occidentalis) is a great mid-size shrub for rain gardens and pond and wetland edges, but also does fine in normal, reasonably moist garden soil once established. It sports these funky, fragrant, spherical, late-summer blooms that are absolute pollinator magnets. The seed heads help feed the birds in winter, too!

08/01/2026

Bumblebee napping on tasselflower.

07/02/2026