Author: Pam

New England native, Florida resident. Blogging about boating, beach-combing, gardening, camping, and knitting. Work for Zazzle as a designer since 2008.

Pink and Cream Dried Hydrangea Bouquet

dried hydrangeas
Pretty Little Dried Bouquet

This little pink and white – or cream colored – bouquet of hydrangeas came from a shrub that was planted out near the woods in a house I once owned.

When I first moved to the northeastern U.S. from Florida, I didn’t know much about hydrangeas, or many northern flowering shrubs to be truthful. My new home had some very interesting and beautiful plantings, and I decided to find out what was growing in my yard.

Fortunately my next door neighbor was a big-time gardener himself, and his house was about 200 years old with huge flowering bushes growing all along the side of his yard. He came over and pointed out the Lilacs, hydrangeas and others for me, and between his help and visiting local nurseries, I finally figured out what I had.

The little hydrangea “tree” was (I think) a PeeGee and in the Fall the white flowers turned tan, cream and light mauve pink. So pretty! I cut a few and added them to a little vase and got a photo.

This little shrub was doing quite well neglected and tucked under a pine tree at the edge of the woods, so I might try growing one this year in my new, not-too-sunny, yard.

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Taking a Lesson From An Old Garden

backyard garden
A Ready Made Garden

I was lucky to have bought a house that had at one time housed a gardener. The previous owners had already started gardens in the sunniest spot. They had planted an asparagus garden, many beautiful bulbs of tulips and daffodils, peonies, coneflowers and more. They had set up arbors and built a gazebo off the large deck to enjoy the outdoors, bug free. It really was great.

Along the edge of the yard near the road was a row of big forsythias that bloomed bright yellow in spring. The side yard was bordered by big purple rhododendron shrubs. That yard was fun to garden in. I expanded and added my own flowering shrubs to the already lovely landscape. When I moved in I really just needed to do some maintenance – like lots of weeding – to make the yard sparkle.

Unfortunately, instead of growing old in my home, disaster struck and I only had two years to enjoy that place. But it taught me a lot about what will grow in this area and I’ve longed for my own yard again to duplicate what I used to have.

I just moved into my own place over this past summer, and although I did plant a few things – daylilies, tulip bulbs, peonies, small hydrangeas and a rhododendron, I know the yard will be sparse come summer.

It’s sad for me to look at the photos from my the yard at my old house, and when I think of all the work I put into the place, I can only hope that the people living there are enjoying it as much.

My hope now is to transform this barren yard (where I now live) into something beautiful. The land is not as good. The yard is fairly small and surrounded by trees, which means less sun, so it will be a challenge. We’ll see what happens.

How did I take this photo? The house had a big skylight and I stuck my camera out to get this shot of the yard. 😉

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The Winter Bouquet Sans Hydrangeas

Dried flowers and weeds bouquet
Fall and Winter Bouquet

I’ll have to dig out my old photo of some dried hydrangeas I had years ago when I first moved to the northeast. The house we bought had the most amazing plants and shrubs growing all over. It’s where I learned about what grew in the north as opposed to the Florida plants I was used to growing.

The yard had a big wisteria vine covering an arbor. It never bloomed while I lived there (only 2 years), but it was amazing. There was a hydrangea tree which got pretty white flowers on it and they would dry up at the end of summer and become pretty shades of tan and pink. I’m pretty sure it was a Pee Gee hydrangea.

I have a photo of those dried flowers somewhere, but this winter I have to make due with my dried flower bouquet without hydrangeas.   It has some weeds, coneflowers, grass and a pinecone.

I can’t wait to have hydrangeas growing in my yard – and other flowers. I miss having beautiful gardens. It will be a lot of work, but I know that if God gives me the time and abilities, I will make this yard into a stunning showcase! Winter is a time to rest and plan. And I have big plans!

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She Liked My Hydrangea Pictures!

blue hydrangea photo
Blue Hydrangea photography by P. Carter @ Hydrangeasblue.com
If you have spent any time uploading photos and artwork on the internet, whether for pleasure or work, you have probably run into unscrupulous people who grab your images to use on their own sites.

Sometimes they only want the image to draw readers, because the image is a good one, or related to the writing. I don’t have a problem with that if the writer asks permission or at least links the image back to me. I’ve had a few people contact me to ask to use my hydrangea photos. And I’ve had others simply take the images – usually with links back, but sometimes not.

WordPress offers a “reblog” option where someone can re-blog the entire post from one blog to their own. It can be turned off by the blogger. I have re-blogged from others, but I always ask permission first. Even without permission, it’s a good thing to have your blogpost show elsewhere to further readership, IMO.

The use of images is what bothers me. I’m a designer for an online print-on-demand site and I’ve had my design images stolen and then put up for sale at Amazon by downright dirty rotten thieves. They know what they are doing and they steal from lots of people to make a quick buck. The owner of the artwork must then spend lots of time filing notices to get their stolen property removed. And that doesn’t always work either. I’m betting that I will still find lots of my images for sale on Amazon. I get tired of looking.

Some internet users are simply ignorant of the ways of using images. Pinterest tends to have beautiful images with no links, but that is not the only place.

Bottom line is photos, illustrations, pictures in whatever form, came from someone. Give credit where credit is due. When you see something you like online, make sure it is free to use for yourself. Contact the owner if possible, or better yet find free to use images at sites like Pixabay, where all images are safe to download and share.

Do you like my hydrangea photos? Please do what is right.

Out of The Box And Into the Yard – Mail Order Perennials

New little hydrangea plant
One of The Hydrangea Plants

I was impressed with the packaging of the perennials I had ordered from American Meadows, and even though they were a little droopy, they bounced back.

Both Hydrangeas are planted in the backyard where they will get sun and the forsythia is out front. Unfortunately we got a freak 2 feet of snow the end of October, so they hadn’t been in the ground for long before they were covered. One of the long stalks of the forsythia broke off so it’s pretty small now, and the hydrangeas are droopy and partially broken. (The photo was taken before the snow – which may seem obvious, but the snow has all melted now).

I ordered from an online store because I was anxious to get my gardening started here at my new place, but I have my doubts as to how well these plants will do once Spring arrives. And more importantly, how much will they grow. I will be saving up this winter to buy some local hydrangeas and probably more forsythia so we’ll see how much of a difference it makes as far as growth.

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Got My New Little Mail Order Hydrangea Plants

mail order hydrangea plants
Mail Order Hydrangeas & Forsythia

I actually received these plants October 11th, but I’ve been busy with renovations to my house and didn’t have time to post.

I ordered two hydrangeas, a forsythia and some other perennials and bulbs from American Meadows (link on my sidebar) and the hydrangeas and forsythia came in pots wrapped in little cardboard boxes, which you can see in my photo here. I just took the boxes and “unwrapped” them from around the plant. It was a pretty cool way to ship them with little damage showing.

On the left, is the Limelight hydrangea which has greenish flowers. In the center is the “All Summer Beauty Hydrangea” which (as the tag says) is a hardier cousin to the Nikko Blue.

They were in pretty good shape and it rained for days after they arrived so I set them out on the deck to get watered and adjust to the outdoors during that time. Then I dug big holes and mixed in some Bonemeal with the dirt and watered them well. I planted the All Summer Beauty next to the porch steps and the Limelight at the side yard next to my new red, rhododendron.

All the plants are doing very well and I’ve finally finished planting all my tulip, daffodil and hyacinth bulbs.

Are you a mail order person or do you prefer to buy local – or maybe a bit of both.  I have written a page on Buying Perennials about my thoughts on this subject with pros and cons as I see them.

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