Madonna’s utter disdain for hydrangeas!

Posted by Emily Exton on 09/08/2011 at 3:50 PM News Photo: josiejose via flickr (hydrangeas), Ian Gavan/Getty Images (Madonna)

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Madonna’s utter disdain for hydrangeas made news over the weekend, largely because of her failure to realize such a public display of snobbery was caught on tape, as well as the ridiculousness behind her bemoaning such a gift. A quick recap: flowers were presented to Madge by a fan during a press conference for her new film W.E., to which she not-so-quietly proclaimed: “I absolutely loathe hydrangeas.” Never meet your idols, kids. After the world exploded with viral riffs and humorous musings on Her Madgesty’s comment, which has likely led many devout followers to rethink their own floral preferences, a spokesperson issued an official response to the non-controversy. “She’s entitled to like any flower she wants and she didn’t want to hurt the feeling of the hydrangeas of the world. No disrespect to the hydrangeas lovers of the world but she prefers different types of flowers,” Madonna’s rep said in a statement.

Maybe we don’t get a lot of flowers around here, but the whole things sounds a little ungrateful to us. But maybe not. Hydrangeas might just be a really, really terrible breed of flowers that have secretly been responsible for some of the worst happenings in world history (or just music, specifically). We’re not florists, which is why we threw this one to the professionals, hoping to discover if loathing is the typical reaction one might have in the presence of such (seemingly pretty) flowers.

“Everyone has their personal preferences when it comes to flowers, but I will say she is the only person I’ve ever heard of that hates hydrangeas,” said Jeff Leatham, notable floral designer to the stars. While Leatham lists orchids, calla lilies and roses among his most popular client requests, hydrangeas have been an American garden staple since beings transported from England in the 1700s, later becoming a fixture in mainstream households thanks to the Tao of Martha Stewart. While their Northern European origin alone should satiate the notorious Anglophile’s craving for all things born and bred across the pond, hydrangeas are frequently used in both Japanese herbs and teas, leading us to demand an ingredients list for wherever her fountain of youth creams and potions come from.