Before Yawning: True Blue Hydrangea macrophylla, Lincoln Park Conservatory, Chicago, USA
This wonderful blue of marvellous Hydrangeas (macrophylla) matched the sublime blue sky when my new Sony T900 registered this photo in the Lincoln Park Conservatory at Chicago, USA.
The name 'large-leafed hydrangea' conjured up in my mind its etymology: Carolus Linnaeus (1753), following Jan Frederick Gronovius (1686-1762), composed the name from the Greek words for 'water' and for 'vessel', because the seed capsules reminded him of Greek Jars. Indeed, when they open up - 'yawn'; Yawning Ewers, as it were - they do in their dehiscence resemble those jars. The Hydrangea they described is in fact the North-American 'arborescens'
The great garden flowers above - Hydrangea macrophylla - originally derive from Japan, where they are called 'rain flowers'- Ajisai -, a name that fits well with jars as collectors of liquid.
Now for a drink...
Before Yawning: True Blue Hydrangea macrophylla, Lincoln Park Conservatory, Chicago, USA
This wonderful blue of marvellous Hydrangeas (macrophylla) matched the sublime blue sky when my new Sony T900 registered this photo in the Lincoln Park Conservatory at Chicago, USA.
The name 'large-leafed hydrangea' conjured up in my mind its etymology: Carolus Linnaeus (1753), following Jan Frederick Gronovius (1686-1762), composed the name from the Greek words for 'water' and for 'vessel', because the seed capsules reminded him of Greek Jars. Indeed, when they open up - 'yawn'; Yawning Ewers, as it were - they do in their dehiscence resemble those jars. The Hydrangea they described is in fact the North-American 'arborescens'
The great garden flowers above - Hydrangea macrophylla - originally derive from Japan, where they are called 'rain flowers'- Ajisai -, a name that fits well with jars as collectors of liquid.
Now for a drink...