Enjoying Hydrangeas

I love hydrangeas!  They look great in gardens, with beautiful flowers that bloom throughout the spring and summer months, giving more colour and visual appeal to your garden right into the Fall, when their colours change.

You can enjoy hydrangeas all year round!  Why not bring them into your home and enjoy their beauty.  There is so much you can do.

2011-06-18_0230_edited-2

If you wish to bring some indoors to arrange in vases, here is a method to prevent the sticky stem substance from clogging the stem so the freshly cut blooms don’t wilt like a cut flower:

  1. When cutting hydrangeas, take a container of water into the garden with you.
  2. Immediately after cutting each bloom and stripping off the leaves, place the stem into the water.
  3. Once indoors, boil water and pour it into a cup or any container.
  4. Cut the hydrangea stems to the desired length.
  5. Stand the stems of the hydrangeas in the hot water for 30 seconds.
  6. Immediately put into room temperature water, and then arrange.

Another idea is to dry your hydrangeas.  There are a multitude of uses for these beautiful dried flowers so you can enjoy your hydrangeas indoors, as much as you did in the garden.  Let the hydrangeas in the vase with water dry out.  They will look like this in a few weeks.

dried hydrangea wreath 3752

With the dried hydrangeas you can leave them in a vase, or make a beautiful wreath.

thQNBTTSFU

Using a similar technique as the wreath, dried hydrangeas are also beautiful, when placed around your favorite candle.

You can also tuck dried hydrangeas into the boughs of your Christmas tree to add that old-fashioned touch.  Or, try adding dried hydrangeas with evergreen branches, ivy and baby’s breath for a display on your mantle.

You can also use your dried hydrangeas in your outdoor winter urn. They are a beautiful addition.

container