Hydrangeas please…

Even my 6 year old son (now 16) knew that hydrangeas were my favorite flower. I had them at my last two houses in Charlotte and they grew okay. (The second to last house had Endless Summer hydrangeas and the last house had Limelight.) So when we bought a house on Martha’s Vineyard where hydrangeas are amazingly plentiful, I was super excited!

The first time I saw the house was in January, with everything dormant. We moved in mid-March with the awakening of spring, just on the horizon. So I wondered just what color my newly inherited hydrangeas would be.

This is how the hydrangeas looked when we first moved in. March 2020.

By April 2020, things started to bloom. If you zoom in, you can see green on the hydrangeas.

While my existing plants started sprouting the most luscious green leaves, I decided to purchase some additional plants for the driveway. Eventually I want as many hydrangeas on this property as possible.

In early July, I purchased 5 new hydrangea plants. Was happy to see these blooms for a little while.

Although many parts of the island go into full hydrangea season, by the end of June, it took until the end of July for my hydrangeas to show up. And although I had secretly hoped they would be blue, they were actually a pinkish purple. In addition, the blooms to leaves ratio, left a little to be desired. Where were my blooms?

July 20th. Pretty much as good as they are getting this year.

After chatting with someone at my local nursery, I learned that my hydrangeas could be the victims of over-pruning. Because these particular plants bloom on old wood, if they are pruned too late, you can accidentally cut off the tiny new buds that are already trying to form. But who trimmed back the hydrangeas? Wouldn’t everyone know not to do that? It turns out-it was the deer. And I know it is true, because they ate my new plants too.

Here’s hoping that next year I will be able to keep the deer at bay and see my hydrangeas in their full glory.

These Endless Summer hydrangeas were planted on the side of a hill two houses ago. I wonder how they are thriving now?

While I want blue now, I definitely wanted pink then.

These Limelight Hydrangeas were only 2 years old when we sold the house.

I love the task of cutting flowers and bringing them into my home.