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New Hampshire
PERENNIALS FROM SUSAN
58 Seaverns Bridge Road, Amherst, NH 03031-2114
(603) 424-2300
Susan Kierstead
Field-grown
perennials. Woodland wildflowers. Small specialty nursery. Open
late April to mid-September, Wednesday to Saturday 10-4. Free
catalog at the nursery. No mail order. Discount on advance orders.
Display gardens. E-mail: SKiers2808@aol.com.
Perennials
From Susan is a godsend for gardeners in southern New Hampshire,
where proprietor Susan Kierstead offers some 1,000 perennials from
organic growing beds surrounding her home in Amherst, Just west of
Nashua. Kierstead has good horticultural contacts and the ability
to source unusual plants. The owner, who says that “gardening is
a way of life,” founded the nursery 20 years ago by planting a
long field next to her home with perennials for sun and shade.
Many
unique and lovely perennials are offered here, especially woodland
plants that are scarce in commerce. Since retirement, Susan’s
husband, Ronald Kierstead, plays a supporting role in the nursery,
Just for the fun of it. Because the Kiersteads winter elsewhere
and tire of spending their summers pulling weeds in the hot sun,
they are gradually transforming the nursery to a shade garden,
with increasing emphasis on shade-loving perennials and woodland
plants. On the verges of the nursery, meandering display gardens
support more than 2,000 plant species and contain ornamental
grasses, a heather garden, shady woodland gardens, and a sandy
hillside sheathed in ground cover.
Perennials
From Susan is an excellent resource for tough, mature plants that
have survived the rigors of at least one New Hampshire winter. We
wasted a whole year trying out different ground covers in an urban
tree pit (all failed), only to have this nursery provide us with a
dwarf white creeping potentilla that proved tough as iron. We were
impressed with the nursery’s trove of single and double
bloodroot; its prized double pink rue anemone caused quite a stir
among woodland gardeners.
Special
plant collections include native wildflowers, Asian wildflowers,
more than 300 daylily hybrids, and hardy Japanese iris that can be
dug while in bloom. Good assortments of aster, ornamental grass,
cranesbill geranium, heuchera, and hosta are also available.
It’s nice to see someone in the nursery business wake up to
variegated tovaria, a delightful airy ground cover (we first
spied it in California) that tolerates the driest shade.
Perennials
From Susan grows plants in organic soil, digs to order, and offers
plants bare-root or potted. The nursery’s stock and plant list
can be obtained only on the premises; no mail order is offered.
Discounts encourage advance ordering; this permits plants to be
dug and ready when you arrive. (As a special incentive to early
birds, even unlisted plant treasures are for sale if ordered in
April, provided you can spot them in the display beds.) All these
conditions are a boon in disguise, for they force gardeners to
visit the nursery and discuss plants with its engaging owner, who
is wise in the virtues and habits of all her plants. She welcomes
visitors (Kierstead can usually be found in the fields, wearing a
bleached sunbonnet), and maintains that her gardens are happiest
when visited by other plant enthusiasts. In spring, the
sun-dappled gardens, ornamented with double bloodroot and rare
woodland wildflowers, are well worth the trip.
Directions:
The nursely is located off Route lOlA, north of Nashua. From Route
16/Everett Turnpike, take exit 11, and go west on Continental
Boulevard. At the intersection of Route lOlA, turn right. At the
next light, turn right again onto Seaverns Bridge Road: the
nursery is 1.4 miles on your left at #58. The driveway is on
Woodbine Road, just after the house. Support civility: Do not turn
around in the neighbors’ driveway.
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WAYSIDE FARM
507 Whiteface
Road, North Sandwich, NH 03259
(603) 284-6886
Ben and Lisa Shambaugh
Unusual
annuals, vines, and continaer plants.
Perennials, Native plants, Daylilies. Small, family-run
greenhouse and nursery. Open daily, April to June 8-5, July and
August 9-5, September by appointment. Plant list $1. No mail
order. E-mail: Wayside@LR.net.
Wayside
Farm is a small family-run greenhouse nursery on a country road
east of Lake Winnipesaukee. Owners Ben and Lisa Shambaugh (who are
both town selectmen) work hard to provision New Hampshire
gardeners with distinctive flowering plants, propagating all
their own stock by cutting, seed, or division. The nursery grows
some 1,200 plant varieties, including perennials, vines, native
plants, and uncommon annuals. Wayside Farm has a bit of
everything, in the way of country greenhouses. Its adventurous
plant collection includes sophisticated items more commonly
found in urban settings. The farm’s location in a rough,
hand-cut woodland clearing, with long views to the peaks of the
Sandwich Range, reminds one of the early homesteaders who settled
this region of New Hampshire, intent on bringing civilization to
the wilderness.
The
Shambaughs’ ambition as plant pioneers is most apparent in their
collection of annuals and tender perennials. Besides petunias and
sunflowers, Wayside Farm grows exotic coleus, variegated begonias,
trailing snapdragons, sweet potato vine, and Chinese
forget-me-not. Gardeners interested in the flora of South Africa
can find Cape marigold, African daisy, dill-leaf ursinia, and
Monarch Namaqualand-daisy (Venidium spp.). Salsa lovers can
spice up their container gardens with Chilean monkey flower (Mimulus
spp.), Chilean bellflower (Nolana spp.), Chilean
glorybush (Tibouchina spp.), and Peruvian mask flower (Alonsoa
spp.) . Ambitious gardeners can dazzle their neighbors with
little-grown trophies—flax-leaf pimpernel, red-hot cattail, blue
Italian alkanet, clove-lip toadflax, meadow foam, and something
called blue lips. Wayside also offers colorful annual vines such
as scarlet runner bean, cup-and-saucer vine, morning glory,
moonflower, lotus vine, and Chilean glory flower (Eccremocarpus
spp.).
The
nursery’s perennials, though necessarily less exotic than the
annuals, offer well-selected specimens from an extensive plant
list. We warmed to finding—this far north—ornamental sea pink,
globe thistle. helenium, snakeroot. knautia, and sea kale. Wayside
Farm carries native ground covers such as baneberry and bearberry;
native perennials such as amsonia, joe-pye weed, goldenrod,
rodgersia, and Jacob’s-rod (Asphodeline spp.); and native
shrubs such as chokecherry (Aralia spp.) and shrubby
dogwood. A large population of hanging baskets (25 kinds) rounds
out the display.
As
with any greenhouse nursery, plant selection and stock are best
early in the season. Knowing customers visit Wayside Farm for
bedding and container plants in May and June, before the summer
crowds. August visitors are rewarded with discounts (normally 20
percent) and an annual bare-root daylily sale, in which 75 daylily
cultivars are divided and sold at half price. By then, Wayside
Farm’s containers may be a bit weedy, but the plants don’t
seem to suffer. Frugal gardeners have long recognized the value of
fall-planted perennials. Wayside Farm also sells its own organic
compost, called Wayside Gold, along with bagged bark mulch and
cocoa shells.
Directions:
Wayside Farm is 65 miles from Concord, and 1.5 hours from Durham,
New Hampshire. From 1-93, take exit 23/Meredith onto Route 104
east to Meredith. Take Route 25 east, and in about 10 miles, turn
left onto Route 113 north. In 4 miles, in North Sandwich, turn
right onto Route 1 l3A; the nursery is 2.4 miles on your right.
From Route I 6/Spaulding Turnpike, go to West Ossippee and take
Route 25 west. In about 5 miles, turn right at the second sign for
Route 113 north, and follow directions above.
Nearby
attractions: Sandwich and Tam worth are among the region ‘s
prettiest towns. In North Sandwich, DiFiippe Farm & Greenhouse
(603-284-6482), is a roadside stand, open year-round, doing brisk
sales in greenhouse-grown annual and vegetable flats, perennials,
and seasonal plants. South Tam worth ‘s Community School
Gardens, 1164 Bunker Hill Road (603-323-7000), offers fresh
organic vegetables, berries, fresh organic eggs, and scenic
trails; open to the public daily 9-6, from late June to early
September.
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