How to travel with a hydrangea

/ Su Leslie

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.

53 thoughts on “How to travel with a hydrangea”

  5. 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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  12. 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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      • 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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  16. 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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  17. 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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  20. 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.
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