It's been an outstanding year for hydrangeas in Massachusetts. Here's why.
BOSTON - Have you seen the hydrangeas this summer? They're exploding with color across Massachusetts.
It's been such a great season, people are posting photos of their vibrant plants on social media. Some have pointed out that this is a stark contrast to last year when their bushes didn't bloom at all.
Hydrangeas in bloom
So what's behind the bloom this year?
Rick Harper, an extension professor in urban forestry at the University of Massachusetts, said extreme cold last winter and spring created tough conditions for hydrangeas, fruit trees and other plants.
"It's important to think about the growing season kind of like chapters in a book, where the previous growing season impacts this growing season," he told WBZ-TV.
"If we think back to the growing season of 2023 and really even specifically late winter, early spring, we had a late frost. So the middle of May last year, it dipped below freezing temperatures and that killed a lot of flowering buds," Harper said.
Nature "making up" for 2023
"But this year, nature's kind of making up for it."
"We think of our fall fruit crops, our peaches, our apples, nectarines, those sorts of things, we had really a kind of a bust year last year because they lost all that bloom," he told WBZ. "This year we've seen wonderful spring bloom, early summer bloom."
"The hope is this year is that we're going to have some incredible fruiting crops this fall and continue to enjoy things like the blooms of our plants throughout the seasons. I'm excited for it for sure."
Harper said we can also look forward to a colorful foliage season this fall.
