As I am a boy, I'm not so interested in flowers as girls. I know few Japanese flower names, and I know much less in English. I'm shocked to count up my vocabularies of flowers. Cherry blossom, rose, lily, tulip, and that's all! Sure I'm not to work for flower shops but I had better know many more words. As you know "hydrangea" is the name of this flower, which I have never heard in my life while I have seen it repeatedly in the summer season both in Japan and Canada. I assume that "hydra" is related to water and this flower comes out in rainy season. In such way, my vocabularies are gradually increasing.
I looked it up for you. It's from Greek words hudra and aggos meaning water and vessel -- named after the cup shape of the parts of the flower.
An interesting thing about hydrangeas is that for the normal kind, the flowers are pink or blue depending on the amount of aluminum in the soil.
http://www.hydrangeashydrangeas.com/colorchange.html
Posted by: Aviatrix | July 06, 2005 at 02:13 AM
Thank you for the interesting information about hydrangea. As I wonder which part of this flower looks like a water vessel, I looked it up and found that the seed capsule is the part that looks like a water vessel, but I have never seen it. Anyway, I think I never forget this word.
Posted by: mochi | July 06, 2005 at 07:21 AM