My Favorite Flower: The Hydrangea!

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Bread feeds the body, indeed, but flowers feed also the soul.  

~The Koran

My favorite flower is the hydrangea, I like it so much I used hydrangeas for the table centerpieces when I was married. They were so beautiful and can you believe I did not save one for myself!

Granted, it would be dead by now, but I could have dried the flowers and made a wreath out of them.

Well, I decided to have a miniature replica made of my centerpiece that I can have for years to come. Let me tell you, it is GORGEOUS!!!

It was made by: CCbyCherrie, all out of clay! (see pic.#1)

The entire eastern side of my house is filled with hydrangeas! As you drive up my street they are the first thing you notice about my house - it is so beautiful! (pic. #2)

ABOUT:

The Hydrangea is the one plant that stands out all summer with vivid color. In shaded areas, its large blooms of white, pink, or blue will outshine all others. Originally from the Orient, it has been planted all over the world.

The most common variety is the French Hydrangea. It is easy to grow in rich, moist soil, it has a large, mounding shape and can grow as tall as four feet in a year. The large foliage is dark green, but being deciduous, it is gone in the winter. Blooms appear on previous year's growth, so prune only the stems that produced this year's flowers; otherwise you will not have blooms next year.

The color of the bloom can be adjusted. White blooms will always be white, while the blue or pink can be controlled by the acidity of the soil (the more acidic, the brighter the flower). Add agricultural lime in the fall for a deeper pink color or aluminum sulfate for darker blues.

The Oakleaf Hydrangea is larger than the French, its flowers are cone-shaped and white, and the foliage turns a beautiful maroon in the fall. The unique tree form of hydrangeas called, Peegee, grows up to 15 feet and blooms late in the season. 

Your local nursery can help you choose a hydrangea suitable for your location.

USES:

Hydrangeas can be used for many things. They can add color to a garden or other landscape projects, their shape makes for great arrangements or bouquets and wreaths made out of them are very striking. 

HOW TO PICK HYDRANGEAS FOR A WREATH:

If you have hydrangeas in your garden, you can make beautiful dried flowers from them. The secret to perfectly dried hydrangeas is choosing the right time to harvest them. Although it is tempting to cut the hydrangea blossoms for drying at the height of their color, this does not work very well. Fresh, recently opened blooms rarely dry well in the open air. Hydrangeas do best when allowed to dry a bit on the plant before being picked. Experiment with harvesting from August through October. Cut the blooms, strip off the leaves, do not add water or any liquid and arrange them in a vase. As they continue to lose moisture, they will retain their color and shape for a long time. Eventually, the green tones will fade to an antique color and finally turn brown. But by then, you will have produced several more crops of hydrangeas to use as replacements. It is not necessary to hang hydrangeas upside down to dry unless the stems are very thin and weak.

One of my favorite internet/mail order companies for flowers is:

White Flower Farm. They are approved by Better Home and Gardens, are knowledgeable, have a very large selection of bulbs, flowers, plants and vegetables and are pretty reasonably priced. I usually order their annual combinations for my planters.

In honor of SPRING and HYDRANGEAS, one lucky reader will win a hair clip from CCbyCherrie. (pic. #3)[hair clip may be different than the ones shown in the picture]

Just visit White Flower Farm, come back here and in the comment area tell me what your favorite flower is and why (you will get an entry), if you are a follower, tell me so in another comment (you will get an entry) - for a max of two (2) entries! The giveaway will end at Midnight (EST), on Wednesday March 25, 2009. 

Thanks for joining me! Have a wonderful day!!

If you've never been thrilled to the very edges of your soul by a flower in spring bloom, maybe your soul has never been in bloom.  

~Audra Foveo