This hydrangea head is possibly the most beautiful spent flower in the world. Of course I am open to correction about this outrageous claim, but today at L&L’s it seemed that way. My morning spent digging out a raspberry (and ground elder) bed was enhanced by the sight of its gloriously maturing blooms. If Helen Mirren was a flower, then this would be her, confident in her ripe beauty.
Whilst remembering the forbidden fruit that I had sampled just a few weeks ago from these canes, I asked Lionel if scrumping referred only to apples. “Well” he told me “When I was a boy I would scrump apples, pears, plums and cherries.” This made me feel much better about my foraging. However I cannot blame the impetuosity of youth, just the devil-may-care of age.
Off The Edge Gardening 
Oh wow!
I fancy a jumper in that colour whether it suits me or not!
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And me! When we find a willing knitter in the ranks we will be fully fitted out for the winter. How about Mum?
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A jumper in that colour wouldn’t be to her liking I’m afraid! The hydrangea is stunning.
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What is scrumping?
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Scrumping is when naughty children (or perhaps sometimes adults) steal apples (or apparently other fruit) from a tree that doesn’t belong to them! 🙂 https://offtheedgegardening.wordpress.com/wp-admin/edit-comments.php#comments-form
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Like Helen Mirren, ha ha! I admire every stage of hydrangea flowers and usually keep a bunch of dried flowers in a vase through the winter. The colours are still amazing, though subdued: mauve, turqouise, silver.
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I am drying some of these for my house, they dry beautifully don’t they?
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You are right, I can’t think of another plant that just gives and gives like hydrandeas, outrageous flowers on some, discreet flowers on lacecaps, they climb, spread across, or just get bushy, They tolerate shade too. I used not to be very fond of them but have come to love their infinite variety.
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I have grown to love (most of ) them too, there are some wonderful examples out there.
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I’ve never understood why the flower world needs to be so pervasively beautiful. It makes it hard to choose just one to be your favorite. But the hydrangea comes close.
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My favourite changes on a daily basis, but I do keep coming back to old friends.
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