On the 17th March this year, one of the last days in winter, I visited the National Trust property Tatton Park. I have been on many occasions and it is always inspirational. On that visit I came across a beautiful hydrangea, which obviously at that time of year was not in flower. Instead, it was scattered with all the dead blooms from the previous year, which had dried on the plant. It was a cold crisp and misty day, which made the hydrangea look very ethereal.
At this point I decided it would be a good idea to keep visiting the plant as the seasons changed to see how it would grow. My second visit was on the 22nd April, I think in only four weeks it had grown quite a lot. I liked the way the new growth was growing alongside the previous year's flowers.
My third visit was on the 8th July. I was really looking forward to this visit as I knew the hydrangea would be in flower and I couldn't wait to see what the colour the flowers would be. I am no plant expert as you can probably tell so I was extremely disappointed to find that the flowers were a rather pale green, not what I was expecting.
My fourth visit was on the 26th October which was a beautiful autumn day. All the flowers had already died and were drying on the plant so they were pretty much as I saw them on my first visit, the only difference being that the leaves are turning a beautiful soft yellow, which gives the flowers the appearance of being a very pale lilac.
That's a very rare hydrangea diary! - I like the fact that you know the exact days you visited the plant. These photos show how much things change in just a year.
ReplyDeleteI have enjoyed following this plants life so far, and these autumn pictures with the lovely yellow leaves are my favourite.
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