Here's a close-up of last weekend's bridal bouquet, "hot pinks" ordered by the bride's mom. For this wedding we did only the bridal bouquet and the groom's boutonniere, and it came in at a very affordable $80. You can spend a bundle if you want, but you don't have to!

I love the greenhouse-forced hydrangeas we're seeing now. However, being from the greenhouse, they're not as hardy as those from the garden centers.

I've had good luck transplanting them to my yard, but I do baby them a bit. After the first blooms fade, I transplant them into a large enough pot so their roots have room to stretch. The pot goes into a shady outdoors spot where I can give it lots of water. By this fall or next spring the new roots will be established enough to plant into a shady or semi-shady spot in the ground. Hydrangeas are thirsty plants, so be sure to give them plenty of water during their first years in the garden.