Nostalgic Scenery in Rainy Day

Now Japan is in the middle of one-month-long rainy season.  What I associate the most with the rainy season is this scenery where hydrangea flowers are in full bloom in rain and a snail is resting on the leave. Sorry, not the leave, but the stalk. I feel it nostalgic.

Hydrangea flowers are nurturing tiny creatures. 

A baby snail is peeking the world under a leave.

These Hydrangea flowers are in my naighbouring area. The flowers are everywhere and it tells us the flowers are deeply loved by Japanese people.

 

I happened to see one elderly gardener who was a kind man.  According to him, hydrangea flowers are originated in Japan. They were  introduced to western countries, developed there and reintroduced to Japan as Western Hydrangea or Hortensia.  The native hydrangea flowers in Japan are Big-leaved Hydrangea or  Hydrangea  macropylla.  It is said that the first introduction of Hydrangea  macropylla to Europe  was 1789 when J.Banks, English scholar,  brought them to Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew of United Kingdom.

Big-leaved Hydrangea or  Hydrangea  macropylla.

 Western Hydrangea or Hortensia　

The old gardner also told me that at the beginning,  all of the flowers are white and gradually turn blue, pink, purple or more.

What color will you turn?

I'm turning pink!

I am turning purple! 

I was fascinated by their beauty and amazed to find varieties of hydrangea flowers. " All of them are Hydrangea!!"  It is said there are more than 200 different kinds of Hydrangea and I wonder how many I can encounter in my life.

This tiny hydrangea  is the one which Siebold, German physician,

 introduced in his book. He loved Japanese hydrangea

and said to have called them "Otakusa" naming  after his Japanese lover. 

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