Page 14 THE SAUGUS ADVOCATE – FriDAy, JUly 18, 2025 Saugus Gardens in the Summer Here’s what’s blooming in town this week to make your walks more enjoyable By Laura Eisener M ost of the hydrangeas we see in gardens are species that come from Asia, but there are also a few that are native to North America that are very worthwhile garden plants. The most readily available native species is smooth hydrangea (Hydrangea arborescens), which typically has white flowers. In the wild, the flower clusters are lace cap style, which means small fertile blossoms in the middle of the cluster and showier sterile flowers with larger petals around the outside of the cluster. It is named after the round lace caps that used to be popular for ladies to wear, but I usually describe this form as looking like a doily. The popular cultivated varieties tend to have more sterile flowers, and in many cases all of the flowers are sterile, resulting in a large nearly globe shaped flower cluster in a style known as mophead or hortensia. Some other hydrangea species also have varieties showing these styles of flower cluster, like the bigleaf hydrangeas that were in this column last week. Plants with mophead flower types need to be reproduced by cuttings or tissue culture, since the all-sterile flowers do not produce any seeds. Smooth hydrangea is one This ‘Incrediball’ smooth hydrangea in Julia Aston’s garden near Saugus Center has impressive flower clusters. (Photo courtesy of Julia Aston) of the hardiest hydrangea species — hardy to zone 3 — which allows them to thrive in some of the coldest parts of the U.S. Until fairly recently, the most popular mophead variety of this species was ‘Annabelle,’ which has huge snowball flowers, although the drawback is that the flowers are often so heavy as to weigh the branches down. A The beautiful silk tree in Gene and Arlene Decareau’s backyard on Central Street is in full bloom. (Photo courtesy of Laura Eisener) more recent development is ‘Incrediball,’ which also has large mophead flowers, but the stems are sturdier so the shrubs are less likely to look floppy. Another recent version in the same series is ‘Invincibelle Spirit II,’ whose flowers are pink. I have been looking eagerly in my garden for monarch butterflies (Danaus plexippus) to arrive, but so far this year, I have not seen any in my own garden. I do have several kinds of milkweed (Asclepias spp.) to attract them, but the plant I usually find them flying around is the butterfly bush (Buddleia davidii), which does not serve as a host plant but does produce nectar to attract the adults, as many other showy flowers do. Julia Aston already had a pair of monarch butterflies in her summer phlox (Phlox paniculata) and her butterfly bush. I saw one among the butterfly bushes at Northeast Nurseries in Peabody when I was at work on Saturday, but so far there seem to be even fewer than One of the first monarch butterflies to arrive in a Saugus garden this year is this one in the phlox at Julia Aston’s garden. (Photo courtesy of Julia Aston) ‘Invincibelle Spirit II’ shows off its pink blossoms in Lynnhurst. (Photo courtesy of Laura Eisener) last year. Habitat loss and decline in milkweed populations, especially in the Midwest and Mexico, are usually considered the primary causes of monarch decline, but despite efforts to slow the decline and restore populations, the populations continue to diminish every year. Every summer Arlene and Gene Decareau celebrate the blooming of the large silk tree (Albizia julibrisson) in their backyard. Ten or 12 of these exotic trees are found in gardens around Saugus, but the Decareaus’ tree is certainly one of the largest in town. It is also sometimes called mimosa, although this name is more appropriGARDENS | SEE PAGE 16
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