Ajisai in bloom —
showy sepals delight eyes,
tiny flowers hide.

Ajisai is the Japanese name for the shrub known as Hydrangea macrophylla in Linnean botanical nomenclature. Spurred on by a challenge to “decolonize the garden” ( I’m still exploring what this means), I’ve been learning about the history, botanical structure and cultural meaning of this flowering shrub. I already knew it was an introduced species, but I did not know from where and when. After learning about this shrub’s provenance — Hydrangea macrophylla is native to Japan and was introduced (via China) to Europe in the 18th century (source) — I felt compelled to commit the name to memory and begin using it.