FALL IN LOVE WITH HYDRANGEAS
Choose one of these billowy blooms to suit your garden style
The most famous hydrangea is the billowy, blowsy mophead Hydrangea macrophylla, but this family of shrubs is large and diverse and worth taking a closer look at. Expert Maurice Foster has been growing them in his plot in Kent for the past 40 years and breeding them for 20, so we asked him for his tips on choosing the perfect hydrangea for your garden.
BEST FOR MOST GARDENS
‘The paniculatas are the most tolerant hydrangeas of all, so they really are suitable for any setting,’ says Maurice. His recommendations include the strawberry-and-vanilla-toned ‘Sundae Fraise’, bright cream/green ‘Limelight’ and the delicate ‘Chantilly Lace’ and ‘Phantom’. You can control the flower size by how you prune them – harder pruning will result in fewer but larger blooms (see How to Prune, opposite).
GOOD IN COOLER SPOTS
They may look fragile but arborescens hydrangeas, including ‘Annabelle’ and ‘Invincibelle’, are tough customers – originating in the Appalachian woods of North America, they are ideal for colder gardens. These stems tend to loll and flop in the wet, so they do benefit from some support. Alternatively, ‘Incrediball’ is a stronger-stemmed, more upright cultivar of ‘Annabelle’.
GREAT FOR COLOUR
While the mopheads and lacecaps can be damaged by late frosts (especially if you remove the old flower heads too early), they are fabulously flamboyant shrubs and have the widest colour range. ‘Madame Emile Mouillère’ is the most vigorous and reliable white, while the compact ‘Lanarth White’ is good for any garden.
‘Merveille Sanguine’ has crimson-purple flower heads and dark leaves, while in acid soils ‘Cote d’azur’ produces dark blue and ‘Endless Summer’ light blue flowers. The eyecatching lilac-like clusters of flowers on ‘Ayesha’ are stunning, but it’s the Teller Series of lacecaps that
Maurice particularly recommends – two of the best being ‘Rotschwanz’ (Redstart), a compact red, and ‘Blaumeise’ (Bluetit), which is an outstanding blue – because they’re sturdy and produce such strong, clear colours.
YEAR-ROUND INTEREST
There’s a hydrangea for practically every season, with either the flowers or foliage lending colour and interest to your plot. H. aspera ‘Hot Chocolate’ has pink and violet flower heads, and foliage that adds a striking chocolate-brown colour to the garden in spring.
The Japanese serratas are relatively unknown, despite being some of the prettiest and easiest to grow, with a long flowering season from June onwards. Look for the elegant and understated white ‘Fuji-no-taki’, while ‘Miyama-yae-murasaki’ bears clusters of starry blue flowers over a long period when grown in acid soil.
Aspera hydrangeas are striking architectural plants that bear large dinner plate-sized blooms in late summer and early autumn, and have a beautiful peeling bark in winter. And the foliage of the Hydrangea quercifolia – best known for its attractive upright white cones of flowers in summer – turns the most glorious rich shades in autumn. ‘Alice’ and the double ‘Snowflake’ are two fantastic plants to look out for.
‘There’s a hydrangea for every season, with either flowers or foliage lending colour and interest’