hydrangea

butchart gardens seems well worth visiting at any time a year, and i really wish i could have followed up on my original intent to drive down once a month. maybe next year; the annual pass is ever so worth it.

i've never seen much in hydrangeas, since most people seem to have those fake-looking blue and pink ones in their gardens, and i am not fond of them -- though i find the idea of flower colour changing with soil ph interesting. but butchart has many, many different ones, and some in unusual colours. this one happens to be magenta (which is generally one of my least favourite colours), but i really like the gradations from white and green into blush and pink tints; only the fully mature floret is bright magenta.