There's a moment every June when the Northeast transforms. Hedgerows that were bare sticks in April suddenly burst into those unmistakable blue and lavender globes — hydrangeas in full bloom, tumbling over fences, lining cottage gardens, spilling down the walks of old inns.
It's the season that inspired the Nantucket Hydrangea, one of my most beloved designs. I painted it thinking about exactly this: the particular blue of a hydrangea in coastal light, the soft, crowded bloom clusters, the way they hold color even as they dry. I wanted to capture something that felt genuinely New England — not a generic floral, but this flower, in this light, at this time of year.
If you're in the Northeast right now, here's where the blooms are at their best.
Newport, Rhode Island
The mansion gardens along Bellevue Avenue are one of the great hydrangea spectacles on the East Coast. The Breakers and Marble House both maintain formal gardens where bigleaf hydrangeas put on extraordinary displays in late June and early July. The combination of ocean air and the particular microclimate of Aquidneck Island produces blooms of an almost unreal intensity of color.
Newport holds a special place for me personally. I came to love it after my time at the Rhode Island School of Design — it's where I first met Pete, who would become my husband some years later. We married in June at dawn in Acadia National Park. And yes — blooming hydrangeas were there too. Some flowers follow you.
If you've ever wondered why the Nantucket Hydrangea reads the way it does, a walk through Newport in bloom season would answer the question.
Chatham, Massachusetts (Cape Cod)
Chatham may be the single best hydrangea town in America. Shore Road is famous for its "Hydrangea Walk" — a stretch where the bushes grow so large and so prolific that the whole street turns blue-purple in midsummer. The Chatham Bars Inn has its own magnificent plantings that are worth the drive on their own. The same blooms line the roads through Falmouth, Yarmouth, Dennis, and Sandwich — the whole Lower Cape turns blue-lavender in July. Provincetown, at the very tip, has its own spectacular hydrangea gardens tucked between the galleries and the harbor.
The Massachusetts coastal affinity runs deep in our customer community — more of our Nantucket Hydrangea cases ship to MA than to any other state. We've always thought of this design as a love letter to that part of the world.
Fairfield County, Connecticut
Closer to home for us — Gilbertie's Herbs and Garden Center in Westport carries early and re-blooming hydrangea varieties right now if you're looking to plant your own. The re-blooming varieties like Endless Summer extend the season well into September.
Black Rock, where our studio is based, has its own share of beautiful cottage gardens. Hydrangeas are the defining flower of the Connecticut shoreline as much as anywhere in New England.
Kennebunk and the Maine Coast
Maine blooms a few weeks behind Cape Cod, which means July is prime time along the southern coast. Kennebunk, Kennebunkport, and the villages around Boothbay Harbor all have that classic combination of weathered shingle cottages and overflowing hydrangea plantings that defines coastal Maine summer.
If you're planning a trip north, the bloom timing works in your favor — peak color tends to hit just as the summer season reaches full swing.
Carry the Season With You
Hydrangea season is fleeting. By August the blooms begin to fade to parchment and rust — beautiful in their own way, but gone from that peak blue-lavender intensity that makes them so arresting.
The Nantucket Hydrangea collection was designed to carry that moment forward. The iPhone cases, Samsung cases, MagSafe cases, AirPods cases, spiral notebooks, and cork coaster sets all share the same original painting — that particular shade of blue, those crowded bloom clusters, that coastal light.
It's a small piece of New England summer you can keep year-round.
Shop the Nantucket Hydrangea Collection →
Kate Spain is a RISD-trained artist and surface designer based in Black Rock, Bridgeport, Connecticut. Her botanical designs have been licensed by Moda Fabrics, Crate & Barrel, Nordstrom, and The Container Store. The Nantucket Hydrangea pattern is part of her Floriori collection of artist-designed phone cases and accessories.