The Sad Hydrangea

It is early November and we have just had our first hard freeze. The morning after the freeze, I opened the back door to let the dogs out and found my huge Dooley hydrangea drooping from the frost.

It has had a hard year. And, to me, it seems fitting.

University of Georgia coach, Vince Dooley, was a master gardener. He created a hybrid hydrangea that is hardy enough to withstand a late spring freeze and still bloom. My enormous plant was given to me by Dooley. One night, 15 years ago, I was having dinner at their house. It was in hot, hot August. I mentioned in passing that I’d like to have a Dooley hydrangea.

Later, Barbara and I were talking and we realized that Dooley had disappeared. “Where did Vincent go?” she asked.

In a bit, he came in the back door, dripping with sweat and humidity, and he was holding a substantial plant that he had dug up from the original plant. He told me how and where to plant it. Hydrangeas need gentle sun. They will not survive in harsh sun.

Dooley died last October. My hydrangea has mourned him all year long. We had a late spring freeze and it looked like it was dead. I had never seen it take a late Spring freeze that hard. All the green leaves leaped back to life but no blossoms. Not at all this year.

Every time I looked at it, I felt sad. My heart has hurt so much over losing my precious Dooley.

The bush felt it, too, and refused to bring forth any blossoms this year.

Somehow, it felt fitting.