Hands holding a purple mophead hydrangea bloom - 1
  • What Does the Word “Hydrangea” Mean?
  • Historical Hydrangea Meaning
  • Hydrangea Symbolism in Different Cultures
  • Hydrangea Flower Meaning by Color
  • Hydrangea Care Essentials

Teo Spengler is a master gardener and a docent at the San Francisco Botanical Garden, where she hosts public tours. She has studied horticulture and written about nature, trees, plants, and gardening for more than two decades, following a career as an attorney and legal writer. Her extended family includes some 30 houseplants and hundreds of outdoor plants, including 250 trees, which are her main passion. Spengler currently splits her life between San Francisco and the French Basque Country, though she was raised in Alaska, giving her experience of gardening in a range of climates.

  • Kathleen Walters Content Editor
  • Amy Draiss Digital Community Manager
panicle hydrangea in snowy yard  - 2
  • Hydrangea Cold Tolerance
  • What Is Winter Kill?
  • How to Prepare Hydrangeas for Winter
  • Hydrangea Winter Care
  • Winterizing Potted Hydrangeas
  • Can I Prune Hydrangeas in Winter?
  • Shop Winterizing Essentials

Mary Ellen Ellis has been gardening for over 20 years. With degrees in Chemistry and Biology, Mary Ellen’s specialties are flowers, native plants, and herbs.

  • Teo Spengler Writer
  • Molly Lavins Writer
Brown hydrangeas in fall - 3

Laura Walters is a Content Editor who joined Gardening Know How in 2021. With a BFA in Electronic Media from the University of Cincinnati, a certificate in Writing for Television from UCLA, and a background in documentary filmmaking and local news, Laura loves providing gardeners with all the know how they need to succeed, in an easy and entertaining format. Laura lives in Southwest Ohio, where she’s been gardening for ten years, and she spends her summers on a lake in Northern Michigan. It’s hard to leave her perennial garden at home, but she has a rustic (aka overcrowded) vegetable patch on a piece of land up north. She never thought when she was growing vegetables in her college dorm room, that one day she would get paid to read and write about her favorite hobby.