Blushing with Pride
Last year for my birthday, NoNoSays gave me a beautiful pink hydrangea in a 4-inch pot. I planted it in my front yard in a partly shady spot and it has easily quadrupled in size. Its leaves are a charming light green and it’s just beginning to bloom in time for my birthday again.
When I was a little girl, we had a clump of irises in the front yard near our mean neighbors’ house. I rarely visited that side of our yard because the neighbors had big, mean dogs, teenaged mean boys, and a pinched, mean mommy. Every year, though, right around my birthday in May, those irises would burst into the most magnificent purple you ever saw. My mother called them my birthday flower, and over the years, whenever I would begin to get antsy and excited about my impending birthday, she would say, “Go check your birthday flower and see how it’s doing. If it’s blooming it’s your birthday.” For several weeks of the year, I would brave daily visits to that side of the yard to check the progress of the buds.
I’m very happy to have a beautiful birthday flower again. Next week, the day after my birthday, NoNo graduates from CSU Sacramento with a coveted and hard-won design degree. I know that pink hydrangea is blooming for both of us. Thank you, NoNo, and congratulations!
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| Birthday Flower |
May 16, 2008 at 1:51 pm
Yay. Thanks for posting a picture. I remember agonizing over giving you a birthday plant. It seemed like the right thing but also some pressure to keep it alive. I’m glad it’s doing well. I’ll come visit it next weekend when I’m a grown up college graduate.
May 16, 2008 at 4:07 pm
Yay! Beautiful! I keep my NoNo bday plant in my room since it was indoor plant:) I love to watch it as well….and I love this story, so great! Did you know you can change the color of your hydrangea by adding certain things ot the soil? I think if you add more limestone or something, it will turn more blue? I will look it up and see if I can find that again….would be neat to make it whatever colors tickled your fancy!
May 17, 2008 at 12:02 pm
Yay! Can’t wait for you to visit. I hope we get to spend lots of time together this summer.
May 17, 2008 at 12:04 pm
I have my NoNo hydrangea planted next to a couple of blue hydrangeas, so I’m happy to let it stay pink. I wish I could have all the flowers in the WORLD blooming around me constantly! (I’m a freak that way.)