blue hydrangeas – New England's Narrow Road

I did a lot of gardening when I lived in Florida. It really wasn’t much fun in summer – and that is when the weeds would grow like mad of course – and I had just about every kind of southern flower and plant in my large yard. My favorites were the Camellias and Crepe Myrtle, but I also had lots of azaleas under the Oaks and yellow and white Jasmine covering the fence. I lived in that house for 12 years and added more to the yard each year.

The north has it’s own collection of gorgeous flowers that are not seen in the south. Hydrangeas are one such plant. It’s just too hot for many plants to survive that heat and the perennials need a dormant time (in winter) that the southern plants don’t get. At least not to the extent that the northern ones do.

I’ve been trying my hand at drying the blue hydrangeas that grow in the front yard of my rental house. I wrote a page about Hydrangeas and how to dry them, with lots of links, at my Squidoo site – if you are interested. I had one large blossom dry up nicely (in the picture to the right) and just added a few more smaller and darker blue ones to the vase, but my favorite thing to do is photograph them.

I think my pictures turned out better than my attempt at drying. I’ve used them to start a new store (#6) at Zazzle. I’ve sold many blue hydrangea cards and stamps from my main store- Narrow Road Designs, so this is an off shoot of that.

Click here to start your own Squidoo lens or to visit Blue Hydrangeas

I just visited Flandrum Hill’s blog and she has some gorgeous photos of the flowers blooming in her yard in Nova Scotia and she inspired me to post these flower photos from my own yard to my blog.

I don’t do anything special to make this Hydrangea blue, it grows that way. In fact the blooms lower to the ground on this plant seem to be the ones with a purple tint. The acidity of the soil can make a difference in the color, but some types just tend to be one color or another and can’t be changed.

We’ve had such drama this year with all the baby birds in our yard. This poor Robin has had her nest invaded by red squirrels, eggs dumped by a wind storm and so on…She did finally have success as we watched her sit in a nest with a bunch of young ones. They are gone now, so I assume all went well. This one (the dad, I think) was in just the right spot to be part of my Hydrangea photo.

I use my Hydrangea photos for making postcards, stamps and other products and selling them at my on-line store, BlueHyd. I never tire of taking floral shots. I love preserving the beauty of a quickly fading bloom.