Coffee won’t turn them blue,

Rusty nails false too,

Banana water a big waste of time,

Growth will be the best,

Starting with soil test,

So you’ll know to add sulfur or lime.

In Hydrangea Happiness, Cape Cod’s leading gardening expert C.L. Fornari shares her expertise and offers her advice with a dose of humor. “My job, as someone who communicates about plants and gardens, should be to make this plant so easily understood that the joy and excitement about growing them far exceeds any confusion,” she says. The humor comes in the form of a short poem at the start of each chapter, which Fornari did with the intention of helping the information easily remain with readers, “The poems were a chance to make some of the important concepts more memorable in a fun way.” 

As a radio host, gardening consultant and administrator of a Facebook page devoted to the Cape’s beloved plant, Fornari knew firsthand that there was much confusion about hydrangea. She wanted to simplify the differences between the six most commonly grown hydrangea and help you select the one that will thrive best in your yard. “Over the years many more varieties of hydrangeas have been introduced and most of these have been selected for improved flowering,” she notes. Further, she wanted to write a book that shared plants that are commonly sold, “So many books have great eye-candy shots of lovely plants that are no longer widely available. I didn’t want people to get excited about plants that they can’t buy,” she says.