Sparks in the Soil

You Spin Me Round

I just love how a trip out to the garden brought out three different foods that are so uniformly shaped, I could juggle them!  (If I could juggle....)

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An Unfolding Hydrangea

Last spring, we excitedly broke our "never order plants from catalogs" rule and got this "Vanilla-Strawberry Hydrangea" from the Jung seed company.  We put it in the ground in its stick state:

 

We watched as it leafed out:

And could hardly believe it when the first blooms opened up.

At first I was alarmed and disappointed that these blossoms are solidly white, since I read in source after source that you can manipulate hydrangea colors, but only if the initial flowers are blue or pink. 

But my thoughts were rescued when I re-read the plant's catalog description, which says, "Enormous flower panicles held on upright red stems emerge creamy vanilla beginning in midsummer, changing to pink and finally to strawberry-red. As new blooms continually emerge, the plant becomes a multicolored visual masterpiece." 

So once again, my garden reminds me that patience is a virtue with many rewards.  Worst case, a white hydrangea.  But possibly--even likely!--subsequent flowers throughout the rest of the summer, and next year, will unfold in deeper pinks and strawberries.  That would work for me just fine.

Waiting to see what unfolds--something we should all be doing every day.

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