Saturday, August 07, 2010

Hydrangea


Hydrangea thrive upon chalky soil of which there's plenty throughout the low-laying county of Norfolk.

The large hydrangea shrub in my garden is certainly over thirty years old, maybe as old as my plum and pear tree, planted when the houses and gardens of Woodlands Estate were first established early in the 1950's. I personally associate the large flowering heads with happy summer days spent with my grandmother as a child.

The Oxford English Dictionary defines hydrangea as - a shrub with flowering heads of white, blue or pink florets, native to Asia and America. Origin, mod. L. from Gk hudro -'water' + angeion 'vessel' (from the cup shape of its seed capsules).

1 comment:

teegee said...

I ought to get some more of these. There were half a dozen bushes around my house when I bought it, but the first time that I had to have the house painted, the painters killed them, whether by trampling or by pouring out chemicals I do not know. They blossom beautifully.