A loving gardener's hydrangea bush comes back bigger and better each year

EAST CANAAN — Who to vote for, the price of gas, school schedules and lunches. Just when it all started to be a bit overwhelming, Florence Vining Thomen called this reporter from East Canaan. Maybe the paper wasn’t interested, she said, but she has a peegee hydrangea bush in her yard covered with snowy white blossoms “as big as your head.� Maybe we’d like to get a photo.

What a delightfully, well, fluffy idea! And the perfect antidote to all the other stories I was working on. There would be no talk of the economy, or Sarah Palin.

A visit was quickly arranged, as storm winds and rains were en route and would likely have their way with the flower heads. The blooms are actually clusters of hundreds of delicate flowers that mimic a large specimen.

On a clearing in the steep hillside where Thomen’s little house is set among a lovely garden and yard, we joined the bees buzzing around a bush large enough to hide in. Sunlight made its giant snowball-like flowers glow. Branches shot off from the main stem, bearing huge flower heads that pointed up into  the sky.

Like a proud parent, Thomen cradled a giant white flowerhead in her hands (which disappeared into the floral cloud).

Thomen is a vibrant and intelligent woman, and not a person who has nothing to do but stare at flowers. At 95, she still writes about area history.For many years, she was a regular contributor to The Lakeville Journal.

But she doesn’t overlook the present day and the small wonders all around her. She’s been whiling away the hours recently on her front porch, admiring the hydrangea bush, which is just far enough across the yard to be appreciated in all its glory. And she insists on sharing cuttings.

This hydrangea plant is a piece of unwritten history. Thomen shares what she knows — she’s pretty sure it’s the real story.

“I grew up in Colebrook. When my family moved to East Canaan, to the house next door to this one, I’m fairly sure my father brought this bush with him. It’s not that it was special, but my dad wouldn’t have spent the money on a new one when he already had one. I’m sure he dug it up and moved it with us.�

That was many, many decades ago. The bush was moved again in 1964, to the property where Thomen has lived since then.

So, does she have a secret for getting such amazing growth from her hydrangea?

Nope, she said. Maybe it’s the good location, or the soil. Or maybe this is a particularly hardy specimen. Maybe it’s just that it’s lived a good long life. She doesn’t know. She doesn’t worry about it. She just enjoys.

The only thing she does do  is cut it back severely each fall. She demonstrates her technique for following the arching branches deep into the plant, where she prunes as far as she can reach. That done, she goes back in for a final cutting.

“I cut back to about 2 inches,� she said. “All that’s left are the nubs. And every year it comes back bigger than ever.�

Seasoned gardeners among our readers are invited to send in letters with their opinions on why these blooms are so healthy. Thomen’s theory is that her vigorous and early pruning allows the plant’s last energy of the growing season to go into the only place left: the roots, which are continually being enlarged and strengthened. The bush that emerges next spring will have that much more vitality.

Best of all, it’s a spectacular example of the beauty and resilience of nature, and a reminder to us all that in spite of the bad economy, the stormy weather, the many accidents that seem to have plagued so many people in the past week, that things will ultimately, probably, turn out OK after all.