Alexandra Campbell shares her love for the exotic hydrangea

Alexandra Campbell shares her love for the exotic hydrangea.

I’VE recently been talking to Naomi Slade, garden designer, biologist and author of a new book called “Hydrangeas”. It follows on from her previous book, “Dahlias”.

Both are illustrated with photos from photographer Georgianna Lane.

Naomi and I agree that hydrangeas are a wonderful addition to our gardens, but that they’re not universally loved.

“I never used to like them myself,” she admits. “I thought they were great lumpy things.

“But as you get more experienced as a gardener, you start to see the nuances of plants.”

Hydrangeas have an exotic background.

Most were discovered in Asia by plant hunters in the 19th and 20th centuries.

Naomi tells some of their stories in “Hydrangeas”.

Two popular hydrangeas – Hydrangea arborescens and Hydrangea paniculata – were discovered over in

North America in the 18th century.

Botanists think there are still undiscovered species in the more remote parts of South America.

The plant is prehistoric, dating back to the time when the Americas and Asia were one land mass.

The most familiar hydrangeas are the macrophyllas.

These divide into round mop heads, sometimes called Queen Mother’s hats, and lace caps.

They have an outer circle of bracts that look like larger petals and an inner heart of tiny flowers.

The mop heads aren’t actually flowers – they’re sterile bracts, bred to look showy – so they’re no good for bees, but the lace caps have real flowers at their centre.

It’s the macrophyllas that are blue or pink, depending on whether your soil is alkaline or acid.

In fact, it’s not the ph of the soil itself that affects the hydrangea’s colour, but whether it can access the aluminium in the soil.

“There are lots of folk remedies for making your hydrangeas turn blue, but I’d be very cautious,” Naomi says.