Hydrangeas Are Coming Back Into Fashion

I think hydrangeas are the heroes of late summer, but they’re sorely under-rated here in Britain.

If you travel through northern France in August and September, you’ll see hydrangeas in almost every front garden. There is a hydrangea garden called the “Shamrock Garden”, and most gardens open to visit feature hydrangeas in a big way.

Here in Britain, garden designers love the huge white pom-poms of Hydrangea arborescens “Annabelle”, but coloured hydrangeas have been out of fashion for a while.

But hydrangeas are so easy to look after and you can often enjoy their flowers from July to December.

Don’t dead-head hydrangeas in autumn.they dry on the stem, creating beautiful winter flowers in vintage silk hues. The time to snip their flowers off is February to March.

If you’ve got gaps in your borders, now is a good time to plant hydrangeas. My latest favourite is Hydrangea macrophylla “Miss Saori”, a former Plant of the Year.

It has double pinky-white frosted blooms and the leaves are tinged red in autumn. It has proved almost indestructible in a large pot on my terrace, in spite of sporadic neglect. Available from both Thompson & Morgan and Crocus.