Anne Elliott's photos with the keyword: Hydrangea

This beautiful Hydrangea was one of several growing in the ENMAX Conservatory at the Calgary Zoo, when I called in yesterday afternoon, after a three-hour walk at the Inglewood Bird Sanctuary. Did too much standing yesterday morning and afternoon, so my knees are killing me today - but at least I gave my painful mouse-elbow and upper arm a rest for a few hours, lol! "Hydrangea, common names Hydrangea and Hortensia, is a genus of about 70 to 75 species of flowering plants native to southern and eastern Asia (China, Japan, Korea, the Himalayas, and Indonesia) and North and South America. By far the greatest species diversity is in eastern Asia, notably China, Japan, and Korea. Most are shrubs 1 to 3 meters tall, but some are small trees, and others lianas reaching up to 30 metres by climbing up trees. They can be either deciduous or evergreen, though the widely cultivated temperate species are all deciduous. Hydrangea flowers are produced from early spring to late autumn; they grow in flowerheads (corymbs or panicles) at the ends of the stems. In many species, the flowerheads contain two types of flowers, small fertile flowers in the middle of the flowerhead, and large, sterile bract-like flowers in a ring around the edge of each flowerhead. Other species have all the flowers sterile and of the same size. 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 color is affected by the pH of the soil; acidic which can be taken up into hyperaccumulating plants." From Wikipedia.

The Butterfly House at the Calgary Zoo has such beautiful displays of spring flowers while waiting for butterflies to emerge. I liked the colours in this particular bloom.