英語の後に日本語が続きます。
Hydrangeas in my neighborhood have started to bud, but this one did about a month ago (3rd and 4th photos) and is already in full bloom (1st and 2nd photos). It's too early so I thought at first it might be a viburnum but the leaf shape is different and the flowers with frilly petals have changed the color from greenish white to pure white. I'm still not certain it's a hydrangea but couldn't find anything indicating otherwise. (What look like petals are actually sepals and the real flowers [petals] are the cream part in the center.)
Hydrangeas always remind me of a crime fiction I read when I was a kid, in which their pink to blue color change led to the finding of a murder weapon, a gun. The color of hydrangeas depends on the pH level of the soil with higher acidity levels resulting in blue flowers and alkaline soil producing pink flowers. But this doesn't apply to white hydrangeas as they don't have anthocyanin, the pigment that changes the color.
White hydrangea symbolizes "purity," "grace," "abundance," and "boasting" in the U.K. while "tolerance" in Japan. Floriography came to Japan after the country opened its borders in the late 19th century, but since then, it's been used by the Japanese flower industry for commercial purposes, evolving along a different path.
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