Q&A: Touring Summersweet Garden Nursery With Rachel Kane 

East Hardwick's Summersweet Garden Nursery used to be called Perennial Pleasures Nursery. Rachel Kane started it in 1980, when she was still a college student at the University of Vermont. She championed rare heirloom flowers and ran the nursery out of her family's 1840s brick home. In the mid-1980s, Rachel's British mother, Judith Kane, started serving English cream teas to visitors in the gardens, and a tradition was born.

Over the years, many Vermonters have made the trek to the Northeast Kingdom to enjoy scones, tea and flowers. Judith died in 2017, but teatime lives on. In 2021, Rachel renamed the business Summersweet Gardens and refocused on native plants, such as the summersweet shrub, which attracts many pollinators. She has about 800 varieties of plants, including more than 100 kinds of phlox, which she highlights in August during Phlox Fest.

In her latest episode of "Stuck in Vermont," Seven Days' senior multimedia producer Eva Sollberger takes a trip to the Kingdom to get a garden tour with Rachel and taste a fresh scone with whipped cream and homemade jam. You can enjoy tea at Summersweet Gardens from early June through mid-September; online reservations are recommended.

Sollberger spoke with Seven Days about filming the episode.

Why did you feature this nursery?

Summersweet Gardens has two of my favorite things: flowers and tea. Really, does it get any better? I am a big fan of English cream teas, and there are only a few spots in the state that serve them. For years, friends have told me about their adventures at Perennial Pleasures, and I finally got out to East Hardwick to experience it for myself.

What is your favorite flower?

I love hollyhocks. The majestic, old-fashioned flowers remind me of Miss Marple's cottage garden, and I have been trying to grow a patch of them for years. Kane gave me some pointers, and, as it happened, hollyhocks were on sale! So of course I had to take five precious pots home with me.

Kane won't name her favorite flower, but she obviously has an affinity for phlox and grows 167 varieties. I have a tiny garden with only five different phlox, so it was inspiring to see all the different shapes and colors populating Kane's gardens.

What did you learn?

Perusing the gardens with Kane was educational and interesting. She gave me a new appreciation for North American native plants, which attract pollinators and are good for our ecosystem. Kane pointed out that most of the flowers that bloom in late summer are native, such as rudbeckia, coneflowers and phlox. These are all hardy perennials which do not require a lot of maintenance. They provide shelter and food for wildlife and nectar for pollinators. Why have a lawn when you can have beds of flowers?

Kane's summersweet shrub was so popular with the bees, spider wasps and butterflies that I bought one and planted it in my yard. Kane does not use pesticides or much fertilizer, and this made me rethink using them, too. Nothing spoils a pollinator party like chemicals.

This looks like a nice spot to live.

Kane lives in the red-brick house which also houses the tearoom and gift shop. Her family moved to the property when she was in 7th grade, in 1971. Both of her parents sound like interesting people, and although they have both died, you can still see their influence in the landscape. Her father, Tom Kane, was a landscape architect who planted all the trees that shaped what was once an open pasture. And of course her mother, Judith, started the tearoom; they still harvest mint from her herb garden for the cucumber sandwiches. Rachel has been running this nursery for 44 years, and she is an amazing resource for gardeners.

Looks like you made some friends?

I met a group of three women who were having a tea party and celebrating Marshfield resident Pat Mayhew's 85th birthday. Her birthday was back in July, but the floods got in the way, two years in a row. Mayhew has known Kane and her family for years. All of the ladies have filled their gardens with Kane's plants, and that includes lots of phlox. They were kind enough to let me record their teatime and even shared a few sandwiches with me. And as it happened, they had recently visited another garden that I documented in northern Chittenden County. By the end of the afternoon, they felt like old friends. Tea and gardens have that magical effect on people.