OUT OF SEASON HYDRANGEA

About six months ago, at the beginning of autumn, a newly potted hydrangea in the garden suddenly produced a single flower. It grew slowly over winter and I was waiting for it to develop some autumn colour. Although the leaves have gone a satisfying bronze colour, with the very cold winter nights the flower only developed a few spots of pink.




I finally decided I had to pick the flower before going on holidays, in case it withered while were are away. The flecks of pink made me think it would go well in this beautiful red-splashed ceramic bottle by Barry Singleton * . It hardly seemed to need to be arranged. However, I did do some careful pruning, leaving only one of the leaves to counterbalance the large flower.



In this second arrangement I have used some bright pink ranunculus * that I had used in a class-room demonstration. Here I have re-used them with two leaf stems from a strelitzia in a white ceramic vase. I was interested to learn that these flowers are in the same family as buttercups and have toxins that may cause dermatitis if handled too much. Take care.  



* Click blue text for further information

Greetings from Christopher
14th September 2014

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