Ajisai

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.

 
 

Hydrangea macrophylla ‘Shooting Star’

This is not an out-of-season post even though hydrangeas normally do not bloom in winter. I bought this elegant lace-cap just before Christmas. It now resides in the home of a dear friend and neighbour who will transplant it to her garden in the spring. I will remember this plant for many reasons but especially because not a single petal was damaged while it was stored in the trunk of my car during an unexpected tow home on Christmas Eve.

Colour in the early November garden

“Most people, early in November, take last looks at their gardens, and are then prepared to ignore them until the spring. I am quite sure that a garden doesn't like to be ignored like this. It doesn't like to be covered in dust sheets, as though it were an old room which you had shut up during the winter. Especially since a garden knows how gay and delightful it can be, even in the very frozen heart of the winter, if you only give it a chance.”

~ Beverley Nichols

Hydrangeas, mid-October

“I like spring, but it is too young. I like summer, but it is too proud. So I like best of all autumn, because its tone is mellower, its colours are richer, and it is tinged with a little sorrow. Its golden richness speaks not of the innocence of spring, nor the power of summer, but of the mellowness and kindly wisdom of approaching age. It knows the limitations of life. ”|

~ Lin Yutang