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Copyright © 2012 Deborah M. Zajac. All Rights Reserved.
My Hydrangea is in peak bloom so I thought I'd put together a summerish still life, and play with my lights.
Nikon D700| Nikkor 50mm f1.8 AF-D| f16| 1/6sec| ISO 200| Manual Priority| Tripod| 2 clamp lights each with a Daylight 4800K bulb one camera right, and one camera left. Texture by Muffet. [http://www.flickr.com/photos/calliope/]
Hydrangea, common names hydrangea or hortensia) is a genus of 70-75 species of flowering plants native to Asia and the Americas. By far the greatest species diversity is in eastern Asia, notably Korea, China, and Japan. Most are shrubs 1-3m tall, but some are small trees, and others lianas reaching up to 30m by climbing up trees. They can be either deciduous or evergreen, though the widely-cultivated temperate species are all deciduous.
Having been introduced to the Azores, H. macrophylla is now very common, particularly on Faial, which is known as the "blue island" due to the vast number of hydrangeas present on the island.
‘Hydrangea’ is derived from Greek and means ‘water vessel’, which is in reference to the shape of its seed capsules. The earlier name, Hortensia, is a Latinised version of the French given name Hortense, referring to the wife of Jean-André Lepaute.
In most species the flowers are white, but in some species (notably H. macrophylla), can be blue, red, pink, light purple, or dark purple. In these species the colour is affected by the presence of aluminium ions which are available or tied up depending upon the soil pH.
This example of H. macrophylla, called "Bouquet Rose," was seen in the grounds of Wakehurst, a house and botanic gardens in West Sussex, England, owned by the National Trust but used and managed by the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew.
Change the pH of your soil and you change the color of hydrangea. Acidic soil with pH lower than 6.0 gives us blue or lavender-blue. While alkaline soil with pH over 7.0 gives us pink and red blooms. Hydrangea are one of the few flowers that change color relative to the pH of the soil they grow in.
The hydrangeas in my yard are turning from blue to green but only the ones in the shade. The blooms that get full sun are faded with scorched edges. I picked a giant bouquet of the greenish hued ones to enjoy and photograph in my kitchen.