Tag Archives: Hydrangea

Reinforces My Hypothesis

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My hydrangea bush continues to flaunt its personality. The massive flower from June that I showed in my last post has faded to a green with rosy tips as it rounds out its life cycle. At its peak it was a pale blue, almost white. The color of hydrangea is dependent upon the pH of the soil, which is why I am perplexed to see this bush produce other flowers that are a deeper range of pinks, blues, and purples. So we have a range of color and color depth. Could the soil vary so much within this small space, causing roots that feed different branches to grow in soil with widely varying acidity? Or is this bush just bizarre?

As I walked around to the back of the bush, I discovered an even more massive flower than the first one. Also green now (and the current masthead), this flower is almost the size of a basketball. Is this normal?

We should probably have testing done…maybe the backyard really is radioactive.

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Praying Legacy

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We have often speculated that our tiny little backyard has traces of radioactivity; plants and insects seem to grow unusually large there. In the case of our hydrangea bush, we welcome the over-sized growth. Here’s a bud from June that eventually became massive.

<small>A new bud on the horizon</small>

Growing to become ridiculously large

It’s more pale than some of the other flowers, but beautiful nonetheless.

More pale than some of the others

Some of the flowers are so big that they cannot stay upright without the support of the surrounding leaves.

Some of the flowers are so big that they cannot stay upright without the support of the surrounding leaves

While documenting the mutant flowers, I stumbled across this little guy…

So cute

Keep praying, my friend

I couldn’t help but wonder — How large will he grow to be? And is he the grandchild of this praying mantis we saw knocking on our door in 2006?…

Knocking at our door

(This one was probably about 6 inches long.)

Probably about 6 inches long

Upon closer examination, I really do believe the two are related. They had similar features and mannerisms. They shared the same work ethic. And they both spoke with a British accent.

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