I visited my dad and stepmother today. Seeing how lovely their garden is looking, I confessed to a little hydrangea envy. My stepmother promptly produced a shovel and insisted I dig out a small bush to take home. She then took a cutting from a second hydrangea to give me as well.
I’m spending tonight and tomorrow night in (different) hotels, and I’ve never transported hydrangeas before. They’re spending tonight in a bucket of water in the bathroom, but have a fairly long (and bumpy) car ride tomorrow before I can get them back into the bucket.
Umberto Eco once wrote an essay called ‘How to Travel with a Salmon.’ I’m hoping the hydrangea proves a more rewarding — and less expensive — travelling companion.
You have done the right thing so far. I hope they survive. This could be an ongoing post.
Travelling with a Hydrangea
Sleeping with a Hydrangea
Planting a Hydrangea
Watching flowers grow
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Thanks Brian. Their overnight soak has done wonders, so I’m a bit more optimistic that I can keep them alive until we get home. Next post: fitting hydrangeas into an overloaded car.
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I forgot about the getting them into the car. I guess someone will have them on their lap for the journey home 😀 😀
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They travelled in the back, wrapped in wet towels and plastic bags — sitting in the bucket. So far, so good.
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Watch out for potholes and sudden stops
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Hehe. Will do.
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so funny, it seems like you are doing all the right things and know they’ll be hardy if they make it. fingers crossed –
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Thank you. The next challenge will be transporting it when our car is also full of our luggage!! 😀
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The salmon story is a riot. Good luck with the hydrangea. Lay off the alcohol. Get a good lawyer.
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Isn’t it. Eco was one of my literary heroes.
The next challenge is going to be fitting hydrangeas and luggage into the car!
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Do keep us posted on the hydrangea! And safe travels.
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Thanks Amy. I will.
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I would also suggest wet compresses. Around the roots and base of the cutting, but you can include your head if necessary.
The wet cloths will help keep the root ball moist as water will slosh about in the buckets during the bumps.
Lol❣️ 😘🥰 🎄☃️
PS/And daily watering once it is planted, to feed those roots!
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Thank you. I was planning to wrap the root ball/cutting base in wet cloth and plastic for travelling. Buying the bucket was an afterthought, but has worked well to revive them overnight.
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Looks good so far. And another advantage over a salmon is that if it/they die, they won’t smell. 🙂 Of course you can’t eat them, either
janet
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Thanks Janet. Luckily my stepmother also gave us some chutney, so we shouldn’t starve either. 😀
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Good luck with the hydrangea, Su! Let us know how it fared when you planted it in your garden. Have a great week!
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Thank you Peter. Hope your week is going well too.
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You’ll have to keep us posted as to how they are doing Su.
Leslie xoxo
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Will do Leslie.
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I would love to have seen the receptionist’s face when you checked in with your hydrangea!
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😂 Small family hotel — very laid back. She remembered that last time I stayed here I was carrying haggis and white puddings for my Dad. 🤣😬
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Now that is funny 🙂
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They could be more problematic!
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Certainly smell more on their way out.
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I am a big fan of Hydrangeas, especially the blues. So, I can understand all the fuss of taking them home with you, I would’ve done the same. Happy planting, Su 🙂
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Thanks Suzanne. I love them too.
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I love this!! 🙂 🙂
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Thank you 😊
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enjoying traveling with you and your plants – you have a great step-momma to share like this – and once they are at your place – family vibes will be with them always.
=-
years ago – I dug up some herbs and made my nephew take them home with him (2 hours away)
big ol basic plant and small snippets with roots of a few others.
not sure how they made it –
anyhow, safe travels
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Thanks Yvette. This is definitely the farthest I’ve transported plants. I suspect these are hardy hydrangeas — my step-mother took them with her from their old house when they moved a few years ago.
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Oh so they must be hearty – in the 1990s – our first house was in the same neighborhood as my husband’s grandparents – and they had peonies all around their 1958 house – I guess transplanted from early 1900s and heirloom – we were offered some and at the time – this might sound bad – but I did not like the look – they were mops and too heavy and the short display bloom time – did not appeal.
I still do nkt love peony – but would take a few of those root balls for sure! Just to have the connection
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I get that. I take any heritage plant cuttings I’m offered because it’s so nice to have connections to the past — and to save plants that aren’t “mainstream”.
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Good idea — 😉 the only other thing I might try to get is my brother has some heirloom seeds for veggies – attained from friends at garden clubs years ago – and would maybe like the try growing a few –
🍅🥬
and wishing you a nice day Su
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That sounds great.
Hope your week is going well Yvette.
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I love hydrangeas and I do hope this one survives the trip!!
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We’ve made it home and we managed not to let the dry out, fall out of the bucket or get decapitated in the car door. I’d say that was a result. 😉
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They’re going to a happy home, and I had a good chuckle at Umberto 🙂 🙂
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He was a genius!
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A little ziploc with some warm water, seems to do the hydrangeas well. Or you can just put them in a soda bottle with water. . Or hmm, hang them upside down on a dryer and they will dry out having beautiful dried flowers. They do not dry exactly the color of the flower, usually darker colors. But, hey, hydrangeas are beautiful any way all the time. Merry Christmas peace
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Thanks. Merry Christmas to you.
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Your picture reminded me of the last hotel room my sweetheart and I stayed in. He had cuttings of hardy chrysanthemums from a friend around the sink and a scorpion in the car. Hydrangeas really do signal to us when they are thirsty. Your new ones look very beautiful.
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A scorpion? That is a story that desperately needs telling.
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We think it hitched a lift along with some plants. If so, it must have been in the car for almost a week, crawling off the plant before we took them out. My sweetheart found it sitting a little dazed on the edge of a book and said ‘I’d like to save it because it’s a nice one’. I have to say he looked rather dazed too! He thought at the time it had been sent with the books and was not too happy about that. The plants made more sense.
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So funny. What happened to the scorpion?
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Ha! I already saw that your hydrangeas made it – I couldn’t have stand the cliffhangers! 😄😉
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That’s where the photo was taken, Debbie. My niece was somewhat terrified of the exhibition (she can’t watch sci-fi or horror), so she was courageous coming along with me. I think she felt sad that nobody else in the family would go with me, and she didn’t want me going on my own.
flights to vegas
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Well some time has passed
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…so how is the hydrangea? Hopefully settled in new home in ericaceas compost….really not sure if I spelt that correctly…!
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It is doing really well.we had beautiful flowers for weeks and now there is a lot of new green growth.
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