Monday, August 11, 2008

TODAY'S FLOWERS: Not Quite Ripe - Post 55



Hydrangea



The hydrangea bush bearing this not-quite-ready bloom was planted in my yard in 1965. The original plant was a gift from one of our church friends at the time of my father's funeral, in January, 1965. It was a beautiful pot-plant that we nurtured through the cold months inside the house. We planted it when the ground was warmed, late in the spring of that year. The bush is now about 6 feet wide and about 5 feet tall, and bears at least a hundred blooms each year. When fully matured, the blooms are a beautiful, slightly blue-violet all over.

Today's Flowers is a new weekly Meme, posted each Monday, which was created by Luiz Santilli, Jr. and may be found here. Please visit to see others' lovely flower photos and, if you have a flower photo of your own to share, please join us.




34 comments:

Louise said...

Quite a beautiful picture.

Lara said...

this is such a beautiful bush! no clue if we have it here, but sure it looks amazing!

Marie said...

What a beautiful hydrangea :)

Luiz Santilli Jr said...

Fantastic flower!

Thanks for your support to this idea: TODAY'S FLOWERS!
I hope you come back every week.

Bye

Luiz

JC said...

Pat, This is a wonderfully perfect picture. I thought you got it from the internet until you told about the bush. I'll have to check out someothers. BTW the lilly with the bug on it is beautiful as well. Well the lilly is, not so much the bug. It is cute as far a bugs go. Grace and blessings to you.

Anonymous said...

Looking pretty darn professional there Pat. Nice shot, and lucky owner of the bush!

Daniel J Santos said...

beautiful picture and a excellent contribution for the flower's Today.

♥ Denise BC ♥ said...

Buquet It is a beautiful, beautiful know that is so high and is in his house so many years, has value of heart, it is worth a lot in our lives. Congratulations on that great start in Today's Flowers.
Denise

Ruth Hull Chatlien said...

That is beautiful. And how wonderful that it has such sentimental value for you.

Anonymous said...

A splendid photo of the Hydrangea from your beautiful plant!

Marcos Santos said...

Hello Pat

I liked everything. The history, the flower.

Simply beautiful!

Anonymous said...

that is gorgeous!

arlene,
Port Orchard florist

Anonymous said...

WoW...this is a very beautifully captured shot...lovely!

Unknown said...

Hydrangea is a popular plant in everyone's garden here.... i love the large blooms and the colors... your photo is lovely!

thankyou for visiting my blog and for letting me know that 'a little tiff' was among those mentioned on David's authorblog.... i appreciate.

Laerte Pupo said...

BEAUTIFUL FLOWER.

Countrygirl said...

Oh so pretty......I can picture it perfectly with your description! I miss the long Texas summers where I could have a large garden and lots of flowers. Where we are now the summers are too short and it's not warm enough. Beautiful!

dot said...

One of my favorite flowers!

EG CameraGirl said...

Beautiful hydrangea!

Gemma Wiseman said...

This is really interesting! Love how the colours are in the process of evolving! Beautiful!

duopastorale said...

Lovely. That's the same age as me but looking a lot better! lol

VĂ­ Leardi said...

Deat Pat ...had so many troubles with my P.C yesterday, that I wasn't able to come ...love your flower...how nice to interact once more in such a lovely theme...A big hug...

Maria said...

A beautiful flower, and with a history, too!
I saw this plant first when I moved to Vienna, here it often grows in the small dark backyard gardens between houses. And last year I saw them in Salzkammergut in the beautiful gardens around old villas along the lakes and in the most unbelievable colours like blue and violett - wow, a great flower, indeed!

This Is My Blog - fishing guy said...

Pat: What a beautiful flower for the TF post. This sounds like a great bush.

Anonymous said...

It´s a beutiful picture of a beutiful flower!

Kerri Farley said...

Lovely flower!!

Texas Travelers said...

One of my favorites. My Grandmother had a pink one on one side of the from steps and a blue one on the other.

They were large like yours. If fact, they were older than prehistoric dirt. (grin)

Nice post and beautiful photograph.

Thanks for the visit,
Troy and Martha

Dewdrop said...

Such a beautiful capture, Pat!

SandyCarlson said...

Pat, that's gorgeous. I love waiting for these guys to blossom.

rhymeswithplague said...

What a great close-up of a gorgeous flower! I had no idea hydrangeas could be 43+ years old. Wow and double wow!

Did you know that whether a hydrangea is pink or blue or purple depends on how alkaline or acidic the soil is in which it is planted? There are not pink, blue, and purple varieties as with orchids. The hydrangea is the chameleon of the horticultural world.

Splendid job, Pat!

Marvin said...

Not quite ripe, but still beautiful.

Kahshe Cottager said...

How lovely - both the plant and the memories!

Anonymous said...

Ready to bloom or not, your hydrangea is beautiful.

Digital Polaroids said...

Lovely.I'm pretty sure is what we call in Argentina "Hortensia"

Egghead said...

What a lovely way to memorialize your father. This is beautiful and I bet you think of him every time you see it.