Wednesday, November 11, 2020

Colour: It's in the Soil

 I love hydrangeas. Years ago, outside our house at the time, we had a large hydrangea bush that bloomed with pastel blue flowers. It was lovely. I saw a lot of pastel blue and pink hydrangeas through the years. Then we came to Ireland and discovered that they're all over the place here, but the pastel ones seem few and far between. Instead, the colours of the flowers are deep and saturated, whether they're blue, purple, mauve, pink, or even red. The colours take my breath away. I saw these alongside the Aldi car park the other day. 




These are in someone's front garden and are deep red in real life. I have tried through the years to capture the colour of these, but they usually look more pink than red in the photos.
But I did manage to get a pretty good red when I took a picture of these in Killybegs.

I'm told by people who know about this stuff that the colour of the flowers has to do with the soil the plant is planted in. I have no idea what it is in the soil that leads to different colours and it doesn't really matter. I'll just enjoy looking at these poufs of colour whenever I come across them 😀

8 comments:

Mary said...

My mother loves hydrangeas. I know they come in many colors but I have only seen blue and pink pastels. The color depends on the alkalinity and/or acidity of the soil. I am not positive about this but I think you can change the color by changing the pH of the soil.

Shari Burke said...

That's interesting! I didn't know that. I once had a potted hydrangea--it would hve been fun to play around and see if I could change the colour!

Joy said...

I love them - I look forward to seeing the pictures of the ones you come across. My Nana had them in her yard and let them grow huge and then we'd make up bouquets and go around to 'visit all the relatives' and let them know we still remembered them and their contribution to our lives (for those who did that). How nice that they're in bloom now of all times!

Shari Burke said...

They're at the tail end of the season. Some are still colourful and some are fading and drying out. Someone made me a hydrangea wreath out of some pale green dried ones. That was lovely. :-)

Joy said...

Wow that sounds really neat, I've never seen anything like that. Was it there in Ireland?

Shari Burke said...

Yup, Killybegs

Lowcarb team member said...

The Hydrangeas look lovely.

All the best Jan

Shari Burke said...

They are beautiful :-)