hydrangea

[piranha]

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.

Comments

[tigertoy.livejournal.com]

I usually find that colors and color combinations that I find awful on a shirt or on a wall are beautiful in flowers or other natural phenomena.

[dr-brat.livejournal.com]

I'd never been much into hydrangeas either, until I moved here. There were already several in the yard: 2 amazing bluish-deep purple ones and several less interesting white ones. The back fence had privit all along it, which I hate and promptly removed. I've been succussful in planting two Niko Blue and two Miss Belgium along there. There's a tiny Bottstein out there as well. Unfortunately, the Goliaths just didn't take. I really wanted to line the whole fence with hydrangeas because they do so well here and bloom for much of the season. I find them low maintenance and preferable to most of the other options for coverage shrubbery (there's a pool and loud neighbors on the other side of the fence).

[trulybloom.livejournal.com]

I find that the green hydrangias are excessively popular in high-end flower arrangements these days. It could be that that's always been true and I've only recently noticed it.

But, I have to say, I'm not at all fond of the green fully-bloomed version, though I must say that I like the contrast between the green buds and the deep petal color like you have captured in your photo.

I really want to visit Butchard Gardens - I haven't been since I was little and didn't get the opportunity the last time I was in the area. I think maybe I'll have to make that the point of my next trip.

Thanks for sharing your photos!

[prairierabbit.livejournal.com]

Gorgeous photo! I like hydrangeas, but I've been struggling to get them established in my yard. They look beautiful, and then I plant them. I'm going to try more fertilizing next year, to see if that makes a difference.