New growth on the smaller of my road-trip hydrangeas. Image: Su Leslie 2020
The hydrangea bushes (well, full-sized plant and little stem) brought back from Whanganui are both looking healthy and have new growth.
New flowers on the larger road-trip hydrangea. Image: Su Leslie 2020
Not quite knowing how to care for my gifted plants, I’ve read and tried to follow advice both online and in print. For now, it seems that lavish amounts of attention and water have been enough.
A belated contribution to the Ragtag Daily Prompt | hope
Monday Macro
#proactivehopefulness
Zimmerbitch 
The flowers look beautiful and cared for!
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Thank you; lots of love and enthusiasm 😀
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You are welcome! Love and enthusiasm is a winning combo. 😀👍🏼
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That’s true 😀
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We all need hope in this day and age. Thank you, Su.
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Thanks Hannah. Proactive hopefulness is my new mantra — e.g. working at the things I can affect in the spirit of hope.
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Yes. Similar to my effort to be kind to the people in my building that are crabby. Some days I’m more successful than others. 🥴
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That’s such a nice thing to do; bet its a bit thankless sometimes.
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Ummmm….. yeah. Some days I go out of my way to avoid the crabby ones because I just don’t have the energy to make that extra effort😖. And I have to just stay away from the few that have turned cruel as they’ve aged. Luckily that’s only a couple of people.
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That’s sad.
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Congratulations on bringing them back to life
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Thank you 🙏
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Yay…..road trip update. Certainly looks like a survivor
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I was pretty worried for a while 😬
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I wasn’t 🙂
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How wonder-full…. I’m SO glad for you. Hydrangeas are a bit of a ‘buggar’, they want conditions ‘their’ way and you do so well. That red is quite spectacular. It will get much lighter later on and fade to a beautiful green-pink.
It’s these small signs of hope that (which?) keep us going. Thank You
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Thank you. It will be interesting to watch these plants that I’ve invested so much of myself in. 😀
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I agree with Kiki. I love hydrangeas but they are such princesses. I’ve finally clued in that lots of water seems to be the key. I should have guessed so much sooner from the ‘hydra’ in their name!
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😂 yeah; I hadn’t thought of that either, but they do seem to need a lot of watering.
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Yeah❣️ New growth, new beginnings❣️
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It’s (partly) making up for the fact that my herbs are being decimated by something I can’t identify ☹️
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Ick! 😱 My sympathies, and best wishes for locating the critters. 🤞
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Thanks 🙂
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New growth is always exciting, unless it’s a weed or an invasive plant, of course. These look like they’ll give you much joy. I did chuckle a little because with the title I thought maybe it was something clever about coffee. LOL.
janet
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Thanks Janet. Forehead slap; I didn’t think of that. I read yesterday of someone in Auckland harvesting coffee from the tree in their garden — unheard of a few years ago when it wouldn’t have been warm enough here. Perhaps I could to plant some coffee trees here!
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And don’t hydrangea like coffee grounds in their soil? Or is that azalea?
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Not sure.
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Title and pictures fit perfectly together, Su!
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Thanks Peter 🙏
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Mine are starting to bud up again, hope they haven’t started too soon!
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Are you having a mild winter so far? My mum says it’s been almost warm (but rainy) up where she is.
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It’s usually mild here and wet, but it’s been raining pretty much since August! Lots of storms this autumn too and the first of the year today.
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☹️ hope the storm’s not too bad
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I’ll keep away from the sea front!
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Oh! Good idea.
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Definitely new growth there Su. You’ll have a lovely plant there.
Leslie xoxo
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Thank you Leslie; it is so nice watching the new buds as they grow.
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It is exciting and I’m so glad you share the photos with us, Su.
Leslie xoxo
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Yay! Come on, little fella! You can do it 🙂 🙂 (the poinsettia tree I was gifted last year looks distinctly unhappy, Su 😦 )
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Thanks Jo. Poor poinsettia — I’ve never had one so I don’t know much about them. 🤔
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🤗💕
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A good combination of magical finger crossing and your green fingers at work 🙂
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With emphasis on the finger-crossing … 😂
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Something is making them look very happy.
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Lots of water is our current strategy.
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Hi Su…
The new growth is exciting –
And all of my hydrangea are gone – have been for years now – When we were in Pennsylvania there was this huge one in from the of the B&B and it reminded me that some shrubs – location is key to survival –
I skimmed the comments too and the hydra was a good point
My shrubs always did better when left in a pot and nkt the ground –
–/
Also / for your herbs – you might have tried it already – but rinse them well with a soapy solution . – it could help – I did that years ago when something was attacking shrubs –
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I’ve found that many things benefit from lavish water and attention: flowers, kids, animals… 😄 So happy for you that your hydrangeas are thriving! xxx
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That’s so funny. When I read it, I thought of the boy-child and his friends setting up a huge sheet of plastic, covering it with detergent and water and making a slide. Our lawn is quite long and has a bit of a slope so it was perfect. They had so much fun, then I’d have half a dozen soaking wet boys to clean up. Hehe.
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Hehe! Sounds like enormous fun indeed! 😄
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Given my comment about wasting water, I should point out that we couldn’t do that nowadays 😂
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Obviously! 😂
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Thank you very much for this great post! I really enjoyed reading it! I have recently published an article on the importance of hope and it’s role within society. If you have time, it would be great if you could check it out and let me know your thoughts! Thanks 🙂
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Will do; thanks.
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