My favourite thing about hydrangeas is the blend of colours on a single flower. So, while fresh flowers have a particular type of loveliness, in some ways hydrangeas improve when Autumn throws a restraining hand on the foliage, adding pink, purple and yellow where there was only green.
The flowers both brighten and fade, losing some of their stiffness and gaining a more soulful air.
Since the effect of Hydrangea flowers comes mainly from their sturdy, colourful bracts, they outlast many other flowers, easing us northerners into the greyer landscapes to come.
Towards the back end of the year, flowers need not be perfect to stop us in our tracks: even sparse, moth-eaten ones get all their due credit. It was a treat to see these blue lacecap hydrangea flowers still going strong in the middle of November.
Shared for Cee’s Flower of the Day.
Susan Rushton 
We’ve had a bad year here with hydrangeas, yours are lovely. I think mine died completely about a month ago,
Has it been too dry, perhaps?
How wonderful that your hydrangeas still provide so much color in November – truly beautiful!
They are getting towards the end by now – gradually turning paper bag brown as Tony, one of my blogging pals, described it. I still like them when they are brown though, especially when they go lacy.
The late fall color of the oak leaf hydrangea is among my favorites. I love that pink dotted one you captured, looks like it has a case of the measles (which we thankfully seldom see anymore).
Thankfully. Measles is more becoming on hydrangeas.
An enlightening collection
I am resisting the season.