He called hydrangeas purple. And they were.
Not fixed and deadly, (like a curving line
That merely makes a ring).
It was a purple changeable to see.
And so hydrangeas came to be.
Wallace Stevens – first stanza of Anecdote of the Abnormal
Is that hydrangea purple, or dark pink? Is that a dark blue or purple? Dark blue or blue blue? Walk into the Sun Valley warehouse this time of year and be prepared to join the grand hydrangea color debate. This might sound silly but it really is a challenge, since our customers need words to describe what often times is really hard to describe. Here is a recent quote from Sales Rep. Barbara Haskins, "The head of the hydrangea is baby blue, with hints of sky blue, over on the left side it gets towards Navy blue, and the other side goes towards lavender." |
| What color is this hydrangea? |
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Words may not be able to do justice to the eclectic color pallet of a hydrangea, so then we start taking photographs. This opens up another conversation, since every computer monitor, printer and camera is going to see the various shades of color in any given hydrangea differently.  |
| Feel the Pink! |
So what to do? First of all, know that we are getting as close as we can to your color requests. The crews are separating by color out in the fields, under natural light. They place different shades of a certain color and variety in different buckets, so you will get consistency in your order. |
| Team member Ray Lugo is in charge of our hydrangea crop. |
Then, let your customers know that hydrangea are a a multifaceted flower and to expect some variation...and celebrate it. We pride ourselves on big bold heads, so these will naturally represent more colors.The worst thing you can do is stray away from these gorgeous blooms. Don't fear the wild colors, embrace them! Flowers are meant to be colorful, not shades of gray, let the color flow and roll with it.  |
| Hydrangea Rainbow! |
Don't fall down the path of pop diva Madonna who was quoted saying, "I absolutely loathe hydrangeas." after a fan gave her a hydrangea bouquet in 2011. Jeez!Madonna might have been wise to embrace the hydrangea like we do at Sun Valley, since in folklore there are references to the mighty hydrangea being able to break the curse of a witch. Perhaps this why we haven't hear much from the material girl lately? |
| "The Blue Island" in the Azores. |
Sun Vally has a great selection of inventory, and our Sales Reps will do their best to give you a good idea of the colors, just dive in! The only other place on earth that may compete with us in the hydrangea department is an island in the Azores named Faial. This island is known as "The Blue Island" because of the huge amount of hydrangeas growing there. If there were any florists on the island, it would probably be named "The Bluish Lavender, with a hint of Pink Island."
