This hydrangea has quite the personality. It’s big, bold and tenacious. It oversteps its bounds. We cut it back, and it laughs. We couldn’t love it more!
The birds and I feel quite happy about the guys forgetting to trim off the large, cone-shaped clusters of flowers during fall clean-up but for different reasons. I find they add a welcome softness to the winter garden — a stark contrast to the harsh bare branches nearby. Birds love sheltering in the dense forest of flowers — safely hidden from hungry hawks. We’ve called our Hydrangea paniculata ‘Tardiva’ “The Beast” for years, and the beauty of The Beast always causes me to pause — even from indoors.
Pausing to really notice and see
beauty everywhere
is to notice God right here.
— Ann Voskamp
