House Plants.

I remember when I was a little girl in my late grand mama’s house she had many flowering plants inside her house as one of her decorations or ornaments. She place it everywhere she thought it looked good. It surely gave a stunning look in the house. Live plants helped freshen the air and also add beauty. My folks back home (Philippines) are fond of adopting different kind of flowers. They use tin cans to plant their flowers; examples include, paint cans, coffee cans and any tin can they can find. Now in my time I found some of the house plants that my late grand ma had in her house. I thought I would get some plants to help me remind of her love of flowers. I have been adopting the ones she loved for about a year now and they are still very healthy. I placed them everywhere in my house and I am hoping they will live a long time. I water them once a week or just feel the dirt and I will know if they need water.

Hydrangea.

This flower caught my eye when I first came to the states. It was beautiful, with a bunch of colors in one plant. I was amazed how lovely they are with large flower heads and I remember those kind of flowers back home, we call it Millioners. When I ask my mother in-law the name of the flower, she said Hydrangeas, she had it in her yard. I always admire it every time I visited them. My Mother was fond of flowers as well and that reminds me of her. We use to have a Millioners or Hydrangeas so it occurs in my mind that I am going to plant them this time in our own yard. Before I plant them I ask my mother in-law what she put in the soil to make them different colors.

I learned that it depends of what kind of soil we have, like acidic soils will produce blue flowers and the neutral soils produce very pale cream petals. Alkaline soils will results in pink or purple flowers. This is caused by color change of the flower pigments in the presence of aluminum ions which can be taken up into hyper accumulating plants. Isn't that interesting? I didn't know till I plant hydrangeas.

Hydrangeas are popular ornamental plants grown for their large flower heads. Some are best pruned on an annual basis when the new leaf buds begin to appear. If not pruned regularly, the bush will become very 'leggy', growing upwards until the weight of the stems is greater than their strength, at which point the stems will sag down to the ground and possibly break. I am hoping mine will survive and we will have beautiful flowers that will help remind me of back home.