The 2023 Cape Cod Hydrangea Festival — Gardens Needed!
The Festival raises much needed funds for YPL. Please consider including your garden on the tour! Thank You!
The Festival raises much needed funds for YPL. Please consider including your garden on the tour! Thank You!
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YPL has participated in the Hydrangea Festival (HF) for the past two years, and did quite well last year, even making a bit extra thanks to the generous donation of a charming hand-built birdhouse which we were able to raffle off. The 2023 Hydrangea Festival runs from Friday, July 14th through Sunday, July 23rd. Gardens are open 10 AM to 4 PM. The library recruits volunteers to welcome visitors and collect admission. To participate, we need gardens, preferably four of them. Gardeners might love their own gardens but worry they may be Hydrangea Festival-unworthy, so I’m sharing Festival suggestions in the hope that some of you might be persuaded to volunteer this year. If you are willing but uncertain, you can contact the library at 508-362-7660, and we’ll arrange for someone to meet with you. Please consider helping out YPL this year! Dinah Wolff — dg.wolff@gmail.com |
To summarize, any ONE of these gardens might do:
Here are a few guidelines for deciding if you should offer to open your landscape. Note that no garden will have all of these features, and even one of these might be enough to make a yard “tour worthy.” • An abundance of flowers in July. People love seeing gardens in bloom, no matter what type of flowers they are. You don’t even have to have a great deal of Hydrangeas. • Outside living spaces. Firepits, attractive patios, gazebos, tree houses, outdoor kitchens and other garden “rooms” are always of interest. • Plant collections. Do you have large plantings of conifers, hosta, roses or hydrangeas? If you’re a collector with a passion for a particular type of plant, that is appealing. • A beautiful view or sense of place. If your property is on the water, or has a particularly special Cape Cod feel, people enjoy seeing how the landscape flows into that vista or reflects this seaside location. • Edible landscaping. A large vegetable garden or herbs are always of interest, especially if they are beautiful and well-tended. |
• Art and ornaments. Yards that make use of garden ornaments, from traditional to repurposed and funky, can be a draw. Tourists like to visit local artists’ gardens. • Unusual architecture or charming outbuildings. Yards and gardens that compliment the structures are pleasing. Think delightful cottages, unique sheds, gazebos or greenhouses. • Huge and grand or preciously small. An unusually large landscape or a very tiny jewel-box garden could be interesting to the public. • A particular theme or philosophy. Native plant gardens, pollinator gardens, deep shade gardens, container plantings,or other niche landscapes attract visitors. In addition to any of the above attributes, a garden might have features that solve problems or are especially unique. Both amateur and professionally designed or maintained landscapes are welcomed. Again, although this festival is organized under the umbrella of our signature plant, the Hydrangea, it’s not necessary for a garden on tour to contain these shrubs. |
Scenes from
the 2022 Cape Cod Hydrangea Festival
Yarmouth Port Gardens
the 2022 Cape Cod Hydrangea Festival
Yarmouth Port Gardens
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The Hydrangea Festival was a big success for YPL! Scheduling visits to our gardens earlier in the 10 day span gained us many more viewers, which meant more raffle ticket sales for the custom-built birdhouse generously donated to us by Bob Hallstein. YPL is grateful to those gardeners who opened their beautiful properties to the public. (Please see photos from these gardens below.) |
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The Condon Garden
Yarmouth Port Owners: Mal and Mary Kay Condon The Condons were commercial Hydrangea propagators and growers for 40 years and, as one might suspect, this is a very hydrangea-centric site. They continue to expand their “collections” which now contain 300 plus hydrangeas in the ground with additional container specimens to emphasize this growing technique. H. macrophylla is the dominant species, along with collections of H. paniculata and H. quercifolia cultivars. More recently a number of H. serrata and H. arborescens plants have been added to the mix. The Condons are also serious veggie growers utilizing raised beds to produce a wide range of favorites. Fruit is in the mix too – berries and figs (always hopeful) – and a new orchard of peaches and plums is developing.
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The Coppelman Garden
Yarmouth Port Owners: Ross and Susan Coppelman Situated to provide a magnificent view of Cape Cod Bay, this garden is artistically planted with a colorful array of perennials and annuals. Sitting as it does on the edge of the marsh, this small, informal garden blends harmoniously with the uncultivated beauty of the wild. |
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Singing Marshes Yarmouth Port Owner: Sally Hockenbury This interesting garden borders conservation land and overlooks Barnstable Harbor and the Lighthouse at Sandy Neck. The home is situated down a narrow road, among the oaks and pines. The gardener has her own kitchen garden containing raspberries, blueberries, beach plums, and vegetables such as asparagus, rhubarb, squash, beans, and cucumbers. The unique fencing was fashioned to keep out deer, foxes, rabbits, and other wildlife. The property features walking paths through the beach plum and juniper shrubs to views of the marsh beyond. Hydrangeas flourish on the home’s north side. An interesting arbor, constructed by a friend from small cedar trees, stands by the garden shed. This is a rare opportunity to visit this special place. |
Singing Marshes
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My Cape Cod Dream Garden
Yarmouth Port Owner: Helen McVeigh I am excited to share my gardens! My property has areas and "rooms" of interest. There is the Monet area, wine room, breakfast room, the Bodacious cutting garden with annuals, perennials, and dahlias. I have my reflection room and hosta gardens. But most unusual is my fairy garden complete with a castle, waterfall, moat, houses, and fairies of course! You will see hydrangeas, roses, sedum and MORE. There are places to sit and enjoy the gardens. There are over 20 birdhouses built with love by "My Bobby". There will be one birdhouse built for this tour that you can take a chance on winning. This IS my Cape Cod Dream come true! The ground is slightly uneven with a couple steps from the patio. |
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