Hydrangea Meaning: Gratitude, Understanding and Abundance

Hydrangeas mean gratitude, heartfelt emotion, understanding and abundance. One stem gives you a whole cloud of tiny flowers, so a hydrangea looks generous even on its own, and its meaning is just as full.

This guide covers what hydrangeas symbolize, where the meanings come from, the hydrangea flower meaning for each colour, why some hydrangeas change colour and when to send them. For the varieties florists use and the arrangements we deliver, see our hydrangea guide.

What does a hydrangea mean?

The core hydrangea meanings:

• Gratitude: a hydrangea says "thank you for understanding me".
• Heartfelt emotion: sincere feeling, freely given.
• Understanding and apology: especially blue hydrangeas, through a Japanese legend.
• Abundance: all those clustered blooms on one head.
• Boastfulness: an older Victorian meaning, now mostly forgotten.

Where hydrangea meanings come from

The name joins the Greek words hydor, water, and angeion, vessel, after the cup-shaped seed capsule. It's a fitting name, since hydrangeas are very thirsty. The bigleaf hydrangea, the round-headed kind most florists use, is native to Japan, where it's called ajisai and blooms during the early-summer rainy season. Temples known for their hydrangeas draw crowds every June.

A Japanese story says an emperor once sent hydrangeas to the family of a woman he loved, to apologize for neglecting her in favour of his duties. That's the source of the hydrangea's meanings of apology, understanding and heartfelt emotion. In the Victorian language of flowers, the meaning was less kind: boastfulness or vanity, because the showy heads produce few seeds for all their flowers. Most people today read hydrangeas warmly.

Why hydrangeas change colour

Some hydrangeas really do change colour with the soil. In bigleaf and mountain hydrangeas, the colour depends on how much aluminum the plant can take up, which depends on soil pH:

• Acidic soil (low pH) frees up aluminum, and the flowers turn blue.
• Neutral to alkaline soil (higher pH) locks it away, and the flowers turn pink.
• In between, flowers can be purple or a mix of shades on one plant.
• White hydrangeas, including the smooth and panicle types, stay white whatever the soil. Panicle hydrangeas often blush pink as they age.

Gardeners nudge the colour with soil amendments, such as aluminum sulphate for blue or garden lime for pink, though results take time. On Canada's coasts, in places like coastal B.C. and Nova Scotia where many soils run acidic, garden hydrangeas often bloom a deep blue. Cut hydrangeas from a florist have their colour set already, and some are tinted.

Blue hydrangea meaning

The blue hydrangea meaning is understanding, apology, calm and gratitude. It's the colour most tied to the Japanese legend, which makes blue hydrangeas a gentle way to say sorry or to thank someone for their patience. Blue also reads as peaceful, so blue hydrangeas suit sympathy, get-well wishes and anyone who loves cool, calming colours.

Here's to You pairs blue hydrangea with yellow roses and red gerberas, and Once Upon a Daisy sets light blue hydrangea with yellow gerberas and white daisies. For other shades, She's Lovely is a soft pink hydrangea and rose design, and Calming Breeze pairs white hydrangea with white roses and blue delphinium. Our blue flowers collection has more, and our flower colour meanings guide covers blue across other blooms.

Hydrangea flower meaning by colour

Each colour has its own message:

• Blue: understanding, apology, calm and gratitude.
• Pink: heartfelt emotion, romance and love. A lovely Mother's Day flower.
• White: purity, grace and abundance. A favourite for weddings.
• Purple: royalty, abundance and a deep wish to understand someone.
• Green: renewal and good health. "Antique" hydrangeas fade to green and dusky shades late in the season.

When to send hydrangeas

Hydrangeas suit warm, sincere occasions:

• Thank-yous, for gratitude. See our thank-you flowers.
• An apology, with blue hydrangeas.
• A fourth wedding anniversary, traditionally a hydrangea year. See anniversary flowers by year.
• Weddings, especially white hydrangeas. See white wedding flowers.
• Mother's Day, with pink hydrangeas. Our Mother's Day flowers guide has dates and ideas.

Hydrangeas at weddings and in sympathy

White hydrangeas are a wedding workhorse. One big head fills the space of several smaller flowers, so they bulk out bridal bouquets, centrepieces and arches without looking sparse, and they pair easily with roses, lisianthus and greenery. Florists keep them well hydrated right up to the ceremony, since a thirsty hydrangea is the first flower to droop on a hot day.

In sympathy work, white and blue hydrangeas say peace, calm and heartfelt feeling. They often fill standing sprays and casket pieces, and a vase of hydrangeas sent to the family's home feels gentle rather than formal. Our funeral and sympathy flowers include many hydrangea designs.

Keeping cut hydrangeas from wilting

Hydrangeas drink through their stems and even their petals, and they wilt fast when they run dry. Keep the vase full, recut the stems at a sharp angle every couple of days and keep them out of sun and heat. If a head droops, submerge the whole bloom in cool water for 30 to 45 minutes; it often perks right back up. With care, cut hydrangeas last about a week. Our guide on how long flowers last has more.

The ASPCA lists hydrangeas as toxic to cats and dogs, so see our flowers safe for cats for pet homes.

Sending hydrangeas anywhere in Canada

Flowers on Demand delivers across every province and territory through a network of local florists, who arrange and hand-deliver each order. Delivery is a flat $19.99. For same-day delivery, order before 1:00 PM in the recipient's time zone, Monday to Saturday; there's no Sunday delivery.

Start with our hydrangea arrangements, or find the town you're sending to on our delivery cities page. Local florists occasionally swap a stem for one of similar style and value when a flower is short, so if one flower matters most, say so in the card or delivery note.