The blossoms of the hydrangea plant are so beautiful.  I’m not sure at what point in my life I decided this was my favorite plant, but it was definitely before I moved south.  I’m a “Jersey” girl transplant “Carolina Girl” and when I moved to the beautiful state of So. Carolina I discovered these plants were everywhere – almost as if it were the southern tradition to have one in every yard.   In fact that was partly the selling point of my house.  “Wow” – I thought – now let’s hope the inside looks good – chuckles… and it did.  I had a plant in my yard and planted several others – needless to say some died, some lasted.  The rain this year made the do very well and I was quite happy about the blossoms this year.

As summer is dwindling away  I have to say “ta-ta” to the beloved blossoms.  I read a post on how to dry them and decided to give it a try.  Years ago I would get them when they were beige but I’d prefer to have had them when they were the beautiful chartreuse color.  I find that such a pleasing palette color to the eye.  I clipped the blooms just before they were turning the “aged” beige color and put the stem in about 1/4 inch of water and let the water slowly evaporate.  The flower will slowly dry out with the exisiting color.  So I decided to give it a try.  This one came really good. I’ve been checking it and it’s slowly drying out and the color still remains.

So i clipped a few more and these are doing well also, in fact, they’re dried completely but I still left them in the water until it completely evaporates.

Now I can enjoy the blooms all year long.