One of my favorite flowers are hydrangeas...blue ones,to be exact! I needed plants that loved shade,since sunlight only finds it's way in this area first thing in the morning,so at first I planted four Nikko Blues,then a couple years later I planted three more. I have the "mophead" variety,meaning the bushes produce very large sepals (what we call "blooms"). They make great boundary and foundation bushes,and are perfect for morning sun and afternoon shade.
We live in Zone 5,and though some say that these only grow in Zones 6-9,I have received many beautiful blooms from them. Some years there are more than others. This year, I only had blooms on four of the bushes. I also had clipped some of them off before I took this photo:
Care of these bushes is simple:water them. Yep,that's it. The blooms last through the fall when they dry out,and they do make nice dried arrangements. The only pruning needed is snipping off the dead canes,and that can be done at anytime.
The color of flowers can depend on the acidity of the soil,so Nikko's can vary in color from pale blue to very vibrant blue.
I wanted to make the house pretty for when Rick and Zach came back from their week long trip to Boy Scout camp,so I picked some blossoms for the dining room table. When I took the photo with the light over the dining room table on,the blooms looked like they were a lavender hue:
With camera flash on,the real color came through:
A few of the blooms came of the stems when I was arranging them,and I thought they would look pretty in the birdbath:
What is your favorite flowering bush?
Definitely Hydrangeas as well. Never get tired of looking at them!
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