I’m in hydrangea heaven
A few years ago, lured, as I always am, by plant names, I bought two Endless Summer hydrangeas.
I picked them up at the end of what was not an endless summer up here in Seattle, for a song, or at least, they were a lot less than the $25+ they were labeled earlier in the season.
Unlike many plants that I choose in a rush of ardor, then proceed to ignore, planting them in the wrong place or forgetting when to prune them or watering them to death, and who fittingly reward me for my lack of thought by keeling over, the hydrangeas proved happily hardy. The one by the front door is almost taking over the landscape!
When we returned from a couple of days away, I was thrilled to be welcomed by its burgeoning blue blooms.
Last summer, I’d picked one, plopped in water and promptly forgot about it. A month later, it was still blue.
I changed the water and it just kept on blooming. It didn’t dry out as I assumed it would. Eleven months later, its leaves feel papery, but the color remains! Better yet, it has tons of roots! In the fall, I’ll plant it and see if I can keep it alive in a pot. (Stay tuned.) Even better than that, I think I will try to grow a bunch more to give as gifts!
A few days ago, my friend Jim from Artisan World and Orion Trading Company, sent me some wonderful, 100% recycled glasses hand crafted in Mexico by artisans who’ve been making them for decades. He knows that our house is a riot of color and thought the glasses would be a perfect fit combining my thirst for all things bright with my love of all things recycled. He was right!
This morning when I decided to clip my first hydrangea of the season, I thought it deserved more than an ordinary vase, so I took out one of Jim’s glasses, added the hydrangea and felt a stab (in a good way) of happiness!
Do you have hydrangeas or other flowers in your garden that make you feel happy just to gaze at them?
