‘When love is not madness, it is not love.’
Pedro Calderón de la Barca
hen American decorating doyenne Martha Stewart chose hydrangeas as her flower of the new millennium, she instantly changed the fortunes of these shade-loving shrubs. Previously hydrangeas were considered a bit common – particularly in New Zealand, where they colonised our grandmothers’ gardens with contemptible familiarity – but Martha’s endorsement created a black market boom for stolen blooms, as hydrangea heists made headlines from Cape Cod
