Hydrangeaceae Family | Beautiful Flower Pictures Blog

Sweet Carol Bliss Hydrangeas

by hankinslawrenceimages | Jul 22, 2013 | Flowers, Hydrangeaceae Family

Sweet Carol Bliss Hydrangeas add wonderful color in a garden for several months. When the leaves emerge in the spring they are purple green – during the summer the leaves are a deep green. And then in the fall the leaves change to shades of burgundy. The flowers on this beautiful lacecap hydrangea can range from pink to purple to blue depending on the ph of the soil. In the fall – they turn fade to an offwhite/brown paper-like color.

I photographed some wonderful Sweet Carol Bliss Hydrangea plants last summer. I hope you enjoy my photos of these delicate flowers.

Sweet Carol Bliss Hydrangea © 2013 Patty Hankins

More Bigleaf Hydrangeas

by hankinslawrenceimages | May 15, 2013 | Flowers, Hydrangeaceae Family

As I mentioned in last week’s post about bigleaf hydrangeas – I realized that I had several sets of photographs of bigleaf hydrangeas that I’ve never shared with you. I posted photos of the Merritt’s Surprise, Forever Pink and Mathila Gutges hydrangeas last week – and here are the rest of my bigleaf hydrangea (hydrangea macrophylla) photographs. I haven’t been able to identify what specific varieties they are – I just know that they are beautiful flowers to see in a garden.

Do you have a favorite color of bigleaf hydrangea? I think the pink and purple ones are my favorites.

Bigleaf Hydrangeas

by hankinslawrenceimages | May 8, 2013 | Flowers, Hydrangeaceae Family

I was sorting through some of my photos and realized that I have several sets of photographs of various bigleaf hydrangeas that I haven’t shared with you. So I thought I’d start sharing them today.

When you think about the hydrangeas that we usually see in yards and gardens, you probably remember the wonderful balls pink and blue blossoms. Chances are what you saw were on of the bigleaf hydrangea (hydrangea macrophylla). Originally native to China and Japan, they tend to be hardy from USDA zones 5 to 9. The shrubs grow to 7 feet tall and 8 feet wide, with long green leaves and clusters of flowers. In many cases, the color of the blossoms is determined by the ph of the soil.

Here are some of the bigleaf hydrangeas I’ve photographed in recent years.

Forever Pink Hydrangea – this is the only time I’ve seen hydrangeas in these shades of pink and purple

Merritt’s Surprise Hydrangeas – an amazing shade of bright pink

Mathilda Gutges – a wonderful blue hydrangea

Do you have a favorite type of hydrangea?

Endless Summer Hydrangea

by hankinslawrenceimages | Jul 11, 2012 | Flowers, Hydrangeaceae Family

I was recently photographing at Brookside Gardens and noticed an absolutely beautiful Endless Summer Hydrangea in bloom. While it’s not uncommon for hydrangeas to bloom this early – I was surprised to see this particular one in bloom – since I remember seeing it in full bloom late last summer. I remembered when the Endless Summer Hydrangea bloomed because it had so many different colors of blossoms on the same plant. It turns out that Endless Summer is a fairly new hybrid hydrangea that blooms on both the current and previous year’s growth – so blooms all summer long.

Here are some of the wonderful colors of blossoms I saw on the Endless Summer Hydrangea recently. I’m going to keep an eye on this plant and see how it looks throughout the summer. I’ve been thinking of adding some hydrangeas to my yard – and this one with it’s long blooming period may be just what I’m looking for.

90 Day Photo Project – Oakleaf Hydrangea

by hankinslawrenceimages | Jan 18, 2012 | 90 Day Photo Project, Flowers, Hydrangeaceae Family

As part of my 90 Photo Project – I’ve found myself returning to one set of Oakleaf Hydrangea bushes several times. I’ve really enjoyed seeing how the colors and textures have changed on the plants over the past several weeks. Here’s what I’ve photographed there.

Day 8 – Oak Leaf Hydrangea

Lots of colors in this patch of Oak Leaf Hydrangea. I like the contrast of all the colors in the leaves and the pale brown of the dried flowers. There were some neat textures in the flowers – I may head back with my macro lens in the next few days and see what I can do with them in.

Day 8 – Oak Leaf Hydrangea

Day 12 – More Oakleaf Hydrangea Leaves

What a difference a few cold days make! Just a few days ago (day 8) the leaves on the oakleaf hydrangeas were shades of green, yellow & orange. This morning I found lots of incredible shades of red and purple!!!

Day 8 – Oak Leaf Hydrangea

Day 23 – Oak Leaf Hydrangea

I was really surprised to see so much color left in the Oak Leaf Hydrangea leaves. Just about all the other trees and shrubs in the area have either dropped their leaves – or are full of brown leaves. Lots of great reds and purples in the leaves – not sure how much longer this will last.

While I was out photographing this morning I saw lots of robins and other birds eating the berries off some of the trees. Not sure if I’ll try to photograph them or not in the next few days – I do a much better job photographing non-moving subjects than moving ones 🙂

Day 56 – Oakleaf Hydrangea Abstract

So day 56 was new Year’s Day and I ended up with a very different type of photo. Perhaps I can attribute it to the mimosas Jimmy & Rose were serving on New Year’s eve. . .

I started photographing the dried flowers on the Oakleaf Hydrangea bushes across the stree – inspired by a great photo of a red-winged blackbird on hydrangeas that Dan Williams posted. I had the dried flowers in sharp focus – and the background kind of blurry – and then I realized I liked the blurry background more interesting than the dried flowers.

So I recomposed the photo – on just the out of focus background. I kept the image out of focus – and started seeing what I could find. This was my favorite shot. There’s enough in focus to tell that it’s hydrangea bushes (if you know what they look like) with enough out of focus to not make it obvious what it’s a photo of.

Then I did more post-processing in Lightroom than I usually do. I played with all the saturation sliders – bringing out the blue, aqua, purple and magenta tones that were pretty sublet in the original image.

Overall I like it – and I may play with the idea of deliberately out of focus photos if I find something that I think will work.

I’d love to hear what you think about this photo.

Day 70 – Oak Leaf Hydrangea Blossoms

I decided to head back to the Oak Leaf Hydrangea bushes I’ve photographed several times previously. Most of the leaves are gone – and those that are left are primarily brown. Some of the flowers have dried on the stalks – and are quite beautiful.

If you’d like to see the full set of photos from my 90 Day Photo Project or would like to follow along as I post new photos – I’m posting the photos and comments to both Facebook and Google+.

A Few More Big Leaf Hydrangeas

by hankinslawrenceimages | Aug 10, 2009 | Flowers, Hydrangeaceae Family

On a recent trip to Longwood Gardens, I photograph some wonderful colors of big leaf hydrangeas. These were different varieties than I’d photographed earlier this year.

The first ones I photographed were Harlequin Big Leaf Hydrangeas. The white borders on the flowers were very dramatic and a great contrast to the bright colors.

hydrangea_bigleaf_harlequin_0152

The second variety of bigleaf hydranges are Mathilda Gutges – lots of soft colors. The way they were planted at Longwood created wonderful patterns and waves of flowers and color.

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