Flower Quiz

Hydrangea

You gather small flowers into one big ball, and your plant spreads a little wider every year.

Lots of small flowersCatch the eye with colorBuild on each year

The hydrangea is a flowering shrub that blooms in Japan's early-summer rainy season. Most of what looks like its flowers are called “sterile florets” — they're actually enlarged sepals. Lots of small flowers gather into one big, round head. It has almost no scent — it's a flower that catches the eye with color.

Hydrangea colors are known to change with the soil they grow in. In acidic soil they're said to turn bluer, and in other soil pinker. You dip a little into many things, then pull them together into something people can see from far away.

Hydrangeas send out new branches from the same plant every year, growing larger year by year. They grow so readily that a cut branch pushed into the soil will take root. You carry on from last year, adding flowers little by little. But spreading out into so many things, you can lose sight of which one mattered most.

Strengths

You can move several things forward at once, a little at a time
You can pull what you've gathered into a form that's clear at a glance
You can steadily build on what came before

Where you may stumble

You spread yourself so wide that the season changes with everything still half done
The overall shape stands out, so each individual piece gets overlooked
With so much you've kept going, there's no room left to start something new

Sounds familiar, Hydrangea?

The magnets on your fridge door have multiplied bit by bit until there's no space left
You put photos from a get-together into one album and share it with everyone
Your hobby supplies have grown a little at a time over many years

Where you shine

Pulling lots of small tasks together into one, keeping the records for a group that's been meeting for years, and decorating for an event.

Tips for “Hydrangea”

Before spreading out further, count how many things you have on the go
From everything you've gathered, pick one piece and show it off
Once a year, give one of the things you keep doing a rest

Matches

See every match in the Flower Quiz compatibility chart →

Easy together

Lavender — Lavender is another low shrub that covers itself in small flowers. The Hydrangea pulls things together into a form clear at a glance, Lavender quietly reaches those nearby — different ways of getting things across that bring out the best in each other side by side. You both value building up over the years, so you agree on how to move things along.

Easy together

Cosmos — The Cosmos also shows off lots of flowers in color. The lightness of the Cosmos, which grows from seed every year, reminds the Hydrangea, with so much kept going, how fun it is to start something new.

May clash

Lotus — The Lotus opens one big flower fresh from the mud each year and draws people in with scent. It's the opposite of the Hydrangea, who gathers small flowers, spreads year by year and shows itself in color, in how it blooms, how it draws people and how it grows — so it's hard to see what the other one values.