BOSTON – Have you seen the hydrangeas this summer? All across Massachusetts, they are exploding with color.

It's been such a great season that people are posting photos of their gorgeous plants on social media. Some have pointed out that this is a stark contrast to last year, when their bushes didn't bloom at all.

Hydrangeas in full bloom

So what is behind this year’s blossoming?

Rick Harper, a professor of urban forestry at the University of Massachusetts, said the extreme cold last winter and spring created harsh conditions for hydrangeas, fruit trees and other plants.

“It's important to think of the growing season like the chapters of a book where the previous growing season influences the current growing season,” he told WBZ-TV.

“If we think back to the 2023 growing season, specifically late winter and early spring, we had a late freeze. In mid-May last year, temperatures dropped below freezing and that killed a lot of flower buds,” Harper said.

Nature will make up for it in 2023

“But this year nature is somehow making up for it.”

“We're thinking about our fall fruit crops, our peaches, our apples, nectarines and things like that. Last year was really quite a flop year because the blossoms were all lost,” he told WBZ. “This year we've had a wonderful spring blossom and early summer blossom.”

“We're hoping to have some incredibly bountiful harvests this fall and enjoy things like flowering from our plants all year round. I'm definitely looking forward to it.”

Harper said we can also look forward to a colorful foliage season this fall.