We are rejoicing at our house much like the rest of New England because our three hydrangea bushes are in full bloom this summer. These bushes have produced gorgeous foliage over the years but no blossoms. The flowers make me feel at home.

Hydrangeas are quite common in the Azores, especially on the island of São Miguel, where I was born. The Azores are a North Atlantic archipelago of nine islands that make up an autonomous region of Portugal. The islands are about 2,300 miles from Boston and 900 miles from Lisbon. They are the most western point of Europe.

While my island is also called Ilha Verde (Green Island), blue hues permeate its landscape. Hydrangea bushes line properties — pastures, fields, and meadows — and roadsides. It is claimed that the hydrangea bushes are a natural fence, keeping grazing cattle in the pastures because the cows don’t like to eat this plant.

In addition, the bushes soften the volcanic-stone walls and the great landholding inequalities that people of São Miguel, the largest of the nine islands, has endured.

Over the past two centuries, many people have left the island and headed westward to Massachusetts, Rhode Island, California, and Toronto. More Azoreans live in the United States and Canada then in the archipelago. Some call Southern New England the Tenth Island.

Many men left the island to work on whaling ships of Nantucket in the early 1800s. Other people left for the factories of Fall River, New Bedford, and Providence in the late 1800s and 1900s. Like other immigrants, many would never return to their island, so they took a bit of it with them. Azoreans brought traditional food items, vegetables, fruits, seeds and plant cuttings.

While the hydrangea is originally from Japan, it has been part of the Azorean landscape for a long time. Perhaps these plants were brought to the islands by mainland Portuguese and other European settlers.

The islands were known to many European countries, but the Portuguese claim their discovery in 1427. At that time, no people lived there.

These plants thrive in the archipelago’s semi-temperate climate and mineral-rich volcanic soil, bathed with sea mist and rain. The blooms last from late April to early September.

The Azoreans are credited with bringing the hydrangea to Massachusetts. The Nantucket Historical Society’s book on “The Other Islanders,” for example, maintains that the Azores provided whaling ships with provisions and crewmen. Hydrangeas were one of the many gifts these Azoreans brought to the island.

While recently visiting Nantucket, I heard a story about an islander’s grandfather who immigrated to Southern New England. He brought hydrangea cuttings wrapped in cloth. He made sure that the cuttings were watered to endure the cross-Atlantic journey by ship. She said that he tended to these cuttings like swaddled babies. They survived the trip. Today they grow on the Tenth Island.

Hydrangeas are easy to propagate. I learned this technique from my father, Jacinto Bento Botelho, a horticulturalist, lay healer and beekeeper, who could make anything grow in Massachusetts.

Cut a tender stem from a bush with at least three leaf nodes. Trim all leaves accept the ones on the top of the stem. Place these cuttings in moist potting soil. Make sure that you water them often so they can root in the soil. About two to three weeks later, they can be transplanted to your garden patch. This process can be done from late spring to late summer.

As we have learned this spring in New England, hydrangeas love water, so make sure they are well watered. They also like a break from the sun, so plant them where they might get some shade in the afternoon. If you are getting a cutting from a hydrangea beyond where you live, make sure to ask permission. Plant a bit of the Azores in your garden.

Maria José Botelho of Amherst is professor of language, literacy & culture at the College of Education of the University of Massachusetts Amherst.