Perennials at Fuller Gardens, North Hampton
New Hampshire Gardens: Seacoast Region
- Including a tour of Portsmouth residential gardens and poet Celia Thaxter’s Appledore Island garden
Please e-mail listings, preferably in the format below, to: [email protected].
Photo by TARA Photography
The rose and grape arbor in the Langdon House garden is a popular wedding venue
Daily, YEAR ROUND, gardens open dawn to dusk; hourly house tours Friday-Sunday, MAY 31-OCTOBER 13
Governor John Langdon House & Gardens
143 Pleasant Street, Portsmouth
Enclosed by thick hedges, the expansive lawn of this elaborate late-18th-century Georgian mansion includes lilacs, perennial borders, and—most notably—a 100-foot-long arbor covered with grape vines and climbing roses. When the roses bloom, the arbor is a 10-foot-high, 10-foot-wide tunnel of blossoms. Gardens free. House tours $15.
603-436-3205
www.historicnewengland.org
Photo by Prescott Park
Fountain in Prescott Park
Daily, YEAR ROUND
Prescott Park
Marcy Street, Portsmouth
City-owned waterfront park with three fountains and well-designed flower gardens: Brick paths curve around billowing beds of (mainly) annuals, each variety planted in a large stunning sweep. Free.
603-610-7208
www.cityofportsmouth.com/prescottpark
Photo by Prescott Park
Lush flower beds in Prescott Park
Photos by Wentworth-Coolidge Mansion
Lilacs in bloom at the Wentworth-Coolidge Mansion
Daily, LATE MAY, dawn to dusk
Wentworth-Coolidge Mansion
375 Little Harbor Road, Portsmouth
Common lilacs (Syringa vulgaris), planted in the mid-1700s by the colonial governor Benning Wentworth, are at peak bloom. Free.
603-436-2233
www.wentworthcoolidge.org
Photos by Wentworth-Coolidge Mansion
Lilacs in bloom at the Wentworth-Coolidge Mansion
Photo by Strawbery Banke
Goodwin Garden at Strawbery Banke
Daily, MAY 1-OCTOBER 31, 10-5 (10-4 weekdays MAY-JUNE & SEPTEMBER-OCTOBER)
Strawbery Banke
14 Hancock Street, Portsmouth
37 historic houses and other buildings, many of them restored, spanning more than 3 centuries. The 10-acre site includes 9 small gardens, mostly herbs and perennials (including heirloom species), reflecting plants and garden styles popular in different eras; plus 3 heirloom orchards. $23 for 2 consecutive days.
603-433-1100
www.strawberybanke.org
Photo by Strawbery Banke
Thomas Bailey Aldrich Memorial Garden at Strawbery Banke
Photo by Fuller Gardens
Roses at Fuller Gardens
Daily, MAY 12—MID-OCTOBER, 10-5:30
Fuller Gardens
10 Willow Avenue, off Ocean Boulevard (Route 1A), North Hampton
Early-20th-century ocean-side Olmsted-designed estate gardens created by businessman, philanthropist, and former Massachusetts governor Alvan T. Fuller, with rose gardens, conservatory, annual displays, small Japanese garden, and walled perennial garden. $10.
603-964-5414
www.fullergardens.org
Photo by Fuller Gardens
Roses at Fuller Gardens
Photo by Bedrock Gardens
Parterre garden and Conetown at Bedrock Gardens
MAY 15 – OCTOBER 14, Tuesday-Friday and first and third weekends of each month, 10-4
Bedrock Gardens
19 High Road, Lee
A large, lively collection of plants, garden follies, and contemporary sculpture by garden co-creator Jill Nooney arranged across 30 acres of a former dairy farm. $15 suggested donation.
603-659-2993
www.bedrockgardens.org
Photo by Bedrock Gardens
The 200 foot-long Wiggle Waggle with lotuses at Bedrock Gardens
Photo by Moffatt-Ladd House & Garden
Moffatt-Ladd Garden
JUNE 1 – MID-OCTOBER, Friday-Monday, 11-4
Moffatt-Ladd House & Garden
154 Market Street, Portsmouth
Elaborate 3-story colonial Georgian mansion with lush, terraced perennial gardens on the slope behind it, plus a gigantic horse chestnut tree—50-plus feet high and wide—planted by William Whipple after he signed the Declaration of Independence. $10 for house and gardens; $2 for gardens only.
603-436-8221, 603-430-7968
www.moffattladd.org
Photo by Moffatt-Ladd House & Garden
Moffatt-Ladd Garden
Celia Thaxter’s Island Garden
JUNE 28, JULY 5, 6, 12, 13, 19, 20, 27, AUGUST 2, 3; 8-3:30
Tours of Celia Thaxter’s Island Garden
Poppies, hollyhocks and other venerable perennials first planted by the romantic poet Celia Thaxter at her family’s summer hotel on Appledore Island, one of the Isles of Shoals off the New Hampshire coast. Thaxter described her 15-foot-by-50-foot garden in An Island Garden, published in 1893 and illustrated by the impressionist painter Childe Hassam—one of Thaxter’s many distinguished guests, who included such 19th-century literati as Emerson, Hawthorne, and Longfellow. The island’s Shoals Marine Laboratory offers day cruises from New Castle, including a guided tour and lunch, for $125.
603-862-5346
www.shoalsmarinelaboratory.org
Friday, JUNE 21, 5-8; Saturday, JUNE 22, 10-4
35th Annual Pocket Gardens of Portsmouth Tour
9 private gardens in Portsmouth’s Little Harbor neighborhood. $30; $25 if tickets are bought before the tour weekend.
603-436-4762
www.southchurch-uu.org