My Grace is sufficient for you, for My power is made perfect in weakness.
2 Corinthians 12:9
Late morning, these 7 hydrangeas were put in this vase with some stalks of silk tassel bush. The hydrangeas are from a garden I have known for the last 30 years. Infact they were blue the last time I used them in an arrangement a few years ago. At that time the soil must have had a pH below 6 meaning it was acid. The flowers are pink to red now so the pH must be above 7 and alkaline. If one wants to change the colour this can be done by adding garden sulfur to the soil.A hydrangea leaf and flower. The silvery grey flower was snug in the middle of the colourful ones. The leaf, yellow and red, fell as I was working with the stemThis photograph was taken after 3pm when the sun was low in the sky on what has been a frosty, blue – sky day. The wavy leaf silk tassel stems were growing on a bush I cut down so only a stump remained. A dear neighbour looked at it and said: “I don’t think that will recover”. I proceeded to plant Rosemary and Lavender around it and the three have been competing ever since. The Silk tassel bush is at full size after 15 years (4m spread and 3m height). The leaves are oval to roundish their felted grey underside in contrast with the dark shining green above. Then to complete the shrub, it is covered in male catkins. We must have a male bush as I have never seen long clusters of purple brown fruit in summer. This shrub is so tolerant. These are the conditions it does well in. Soil: chalk, clay, loam or sand pH: acid, alkaline or neutral Aspect: North, South, East or West Recovers well when cut down low!! 🙂 I am going to dry these so they are in half an inch of water now. They will hydrate and then I will just leave them until they feel paper like dry. No more water!
God made man perfectly holy and happy; and the fair earth, as it came from the Creator’s hand, bore no blight of decay or shadow of the curse. It is transgression of God’s law – the law of love – that has brought woe and death. Yet even amid the suffering that results from sin, God’s love is revealed. It is written the ground was cursed for man’s sake. Genesis 3:17. The thorn and the thistle – the difficulties and trials that make life one of toil and care – were appointed for our good as part of the training needful in God’s plan for his uplifting from the ruin and degradation that sin has caused. The world though fallen, is not all sorrow and misery. In nature itself are messages of hope and comfort. There are flowers on the thistle and thorny branches have roses.
Didn’t know hydrangeas could be red like that. Perfect match with the vase. Interesting plant info.
You started with one of my favourite verses. xx
Didn’t know hydrangeas could be red like that. Perfect match with the vase. Interesting plant info.
You started with one of my favourite verses. xx