Saying "It's Hydrangea time again" is a harbrindger to New England's most beautiful season, Fall. Our temperature this morning was 45 degrees. We do have a few tree turning but the full leaf tree experience is a while away, meantime we should enjoy Hydrangea Time. Our cemetery is bursting at the seams with the beautiful white blossoms of hydrangea quickly reaching their peak. We have Hydrangea bushes everywhere in our cemetery, just like most cemeteries around. We guess that they came from early benefactors planting them at their loved ones graves. Tomorrow signs will go up warning visitors not to pick the blooms as they
can quickly strip the bushes bare. There is a market for the white blooms in NY and in Boston but recently that market has shrunk and it helps preserve out blooms. The early blooms are used in wedding flower arrangements. The active market appears to have shifted to dried flower market. Hydrangea undergo several changes during their season. They start out as the beautiful white blossoms that are seen in these photos and then they slowly start to change to a green blossom in the more southernly states and a brown color in the colder climates. This color change is symptomatic of the heads drying. It is at this point that the commercial dried flower shops pick the flowers. If the flowers are fully dried they can now be dyed with the same system that is used to dye clothing.
This is a photo of a dried and dyed hydrangea basket so you can see the results that can be available. There are numerous methods to dry and dye the flowers. The basket photo is from the Internet and if you want to learn more about making this basket, drying and dyeing, give this site a click
here. I think the site author said that the flowers in this arrangement were dyed 2 years ago.
Saying "It's Hydrangea time again" is a harbrindger to New England's most beautiful season, Fall. Our temperature this morning was 45 degrees. We do have a few tree turning but the full leaf tree experience is a while away, meantime we should enjoy Hydrangea Time. Our cemetery is bursting at the seams with the beautiful white blossoms of hydrangea quickly reaching their peak. We have Hydrangea bushes everywhere in our cemetery, just like most cemeteries around. We guess that they came from early benefactors planting them at their loved ones graves. Tomorrow signs will go up warning visitors not to pick the blooms as they 
can quickly strip the bushes bare. There is a market for the white blooms in NY and in Boston but recently that market has shrunk and it helps preserve out blooms. The early blooms are used in wedding flower arrangements. The active market appears to have shifted to dried flower market. Hydrangea undergo several changes during their season. They start out as the beautiful white blossoms that are seen in these photos and then they slowly start to change to a green blossom in the more southernly states and a brown color in the colder climates. This color change is symptomatic of the heads drying. It is at this point that the commercial dried flower shops pick the flowers. If the flowers are fully dried they can now be dyed with the same system that is used to dye clothing. 
This is a photo of a dried and dyed hydrangea basket so you can see the results that can be available. There are numerous methods to dry and dye the flowers. The basket photo is from the Internet and if you want to learn more about making this basket, drying and dyeing, give this site a click here. I think the site author said that the flowers in this arrangement were dyed 2 years ago.
