Heavenly Hydrangeas: Outdoor Hour

With the excitement of the new direction of the Outdoor Hour Challenges in our minds, we turned to our hydrangeas. Not only because they are a favorite, not only because they are abundant in several colors in our yard…

…but also because we are fresh from a wedding featuring hydrangeas in all the bouquets and arrangements.

We looked at the gorgeous arrangements from the wedding – right in the middle of our kitchen table – and found that these prompted questions:

• Is it a bush, shrub or a flower? Though we couldn’t find specifics in our Handbook of Nature Study, all online searches proved it is a flowering bush or shrub.

• Does it have bark? It does not but does have a tough stalk. It is a perennial.

• Is it a composite flower? We decided yes because of all we learned about dandelions and sunflowers. The National Arboretum site has so much good information about the huge variety of hydrangeas, also about seeds and layers.

• Are we supposed to prune hydrangeas? Our hydrangeas that frame our front door get rather brown and unsightly in the winter. We’ve wondered if we were supposed to prune them. But, apparently our sheer neglect has been good for our bigleaf hydrangeas. Read more about hydrangea care here.

• What causes the different colors of hydrangea blossoms? the acidity of the soil causes the change in the colors. The bushes at our front door range from light blue to pink while the ones in the side yard are a deep, deep purple. The ones at Nana’s house are a pink – almost red. According to the sites we read – when the soil is high in aluminum, the flowers are blue. Neutral soils produce white blossoms. While alkaline soils make for pink flowers.

 

See our van in the left of photo? That proves how big Mama Ann’s oakleaf hydrangea is! This variety thrives in dabbled woodland light.

We collected and we sketched. We talked about the beloved oakleaf hydrangea in our backyard. The one that was started from the enormous bush in Mama Ann’s side yard. Aren’t the white flowers beautiful?

And see the leaf? It does look just like the leaf of an oak.

Eldest boy did a leaf rubbing (photo at very top). His favorite color of hydrangea is white. Above is Middle Girl’s notebook page.

Youngest girl collected the blue blossom from the bigleaf hydrangea bush at the front door. Her favorite color is light blue.

Middle girl pointed out the flowers just starting to bloom. Her favorites are pink and purple.

Because we love them so, we are sharing a hydrangea gallery. Most from our yard except the wedding photos and the dark pink in Nana’s yard:

We all decided that hydrangeas are heavenly.

They will adorn our kitchen table throughout the summer. Can you tell we love them?