The other day I read very interesting article titled 'Nurturing the magic of hydrangeas'. It was about hydrangeas in Massachusetts. A women they interviewed named C.L. Fornari had started the annual hydrangea festival in Cape Cod. There are over one hundred different kinds of hydrangeas, my new favorite being Twist-n-Shouts. It must be a pretty popular event seeing how families from Australia and China have visited. The one thing that makes hydrangeas unique is there ability to change their petal color depending on the pH of the soil. If the pH is high in acidity the petals will be blue/purple, if it is more basic it will turn pink/red. Fornari also has her own weekly radio show called 'Gardenline'.
The article then jumps to the Chatham Bars Inn, with the gardener Pamela Vasques. She oversees around 4,000 bushes in their garden. She gave a few planting pointers such as: Hydrangeas like both the morning sun and the afternoon shade. Hydrangeas need a lot of water but do not like to be watered from the top because you can literally burn the leaves in the sun.
Another hydrangea lover, Mal Condon, has been growing hydrangeas for over 45 year and even started trying to make his own hydrangea variety, Froggie. He is the hydrangea curator at the Cape's Heritage Museums and Gardens. They have over 150 varieties, making it the largest collection on the East Coast. Condon spends his time in his hydrangea test garden to grow and evaluate them.
At the North American Hydrangea Test Garden, Mal Condon has been developing a new variety, Froggie. CBS NEWS
Cape Cod's climate is what makes these hydrangeas thrive, moderate maritime climate. As summer comes to an end so does the colors of the hydrangeas when they fade. Condon said "If we have good summer conditions, we go in what's called the antique season in the fall, but it takes on these other hues within the color pattern. Magnificent."
I have no words for just how stunning hydrangeas look when they start to fade. Just the different hues and it just goes to show even though something is coming to an end, doesn't mean it has to be sad.
T.S. Eliot: “The end is just the beginning”
