All four species of hydrangea in my garden burst into leaf about two weeks ago, stirring anticipation of their enduring floral display, which begins with the climbing hydrangea in May, in the US.
The slow unfurling of the leaf also serves as a reminder that this is the most perilous time for the most popular of the hydrangeas — the mophead and lacecap varieties of the bigleaf hydrangea.
A late-season frost can spoil the bloom but two new varieties — Endless Summer and Blushing Bride — get around this problem and break all bigleaf hydrangea rules by flowering on new growth.
Most varieties bloom from buds that develop the previous summer, so winterkill, late frost or poorly timed pruning will all result in a loss of blooms.
New varieties
Endless Summer is a classic pink mophead. I prefer the elegance of Blushing Bride, its creamy, pink-tinged blooms flowering continuously from May to November.
Both, however, are just the start of the reinvented hydrangea.
Bailey Nurseries, which developed them, is planning
the introduction next year of the first reblooming lacecap, a variety named Twist-n-Shout.
Another line of reblooming hydrangeas, developed by a Japanese breeder (and rock guitarist) named Ryoji Irie, is finding its way to garden centres in the United States.
Marketed as Forever & Ever hydrangeas, the series consists of seven varieties developed for colour and form.
David Wilson, who represents one of the licensed growers, Overdevest Nurseries in Bridgeton, New Jersey, said four of the Forever & Ever varieties have done particularly well in growing trials: Red, Pink, Blue Heaven and Together.
Typically, mopheads grow blue in acidic soil and pink in alkaline ones, with a violet hue when soils are slightly acidic, which they tend to be in the Washington region.
He said Blue Heaven responds well to acidic soil amendments.
“If you've never been able to grow blue hydrangeas, this is the one to try,''
he said.
Removing faded ones
All these reblooming varieties perform better if you remove the flowers when they begin to fade.
Hydrangea blooms last so long because the mopheads don't consist of true petals; rather, they are the calyxes of sterile flowers.
Lacecaps, by contrast, consist of large sterile flowers surrounding a dome of tiny fertile flowers.
These reblooming hydrangeas are a good thing: It is cheering to see fresh mopheads in September and October and good to know that a freeze won't spoil the show.
And these varieties are bound to ensure a healthy future for one of the sweetest shrubs in the garden.
I hope, though, that we won't turn our backs on some of the older varieties, which were selected not for their quirky flowering habit but for the beauty of their flower, leaf and overall form.
I plan to remove three viburnums that have grown too leggy next to a north-facing wall and replace them with some lacecap hydrangeas.
Thumbing through catalogues and books, I'm spoilt for choice.
The classic lacecap Blue Bird is one of my favourites, though I am being pulled to pictures of other blue lacecaps, Aigaku, Belzonii and Forget Me Not.
Refusing to die out
Elsewhere on the north bed, I have a Hydrangea aspera that has been limping along for a decade.
It is not really hardy there but every time I think it's dead, it sprouts the odd branch or two and offers a scant lacecap bloom sometimes.
I saw a magnificent specimen in Europe last summer and vowed I would put mine out of its misery.
The leaves are impressive — large and pointed, and they look and feel like velvet.
The climbing hydrangea on the east wall is going gangbusters.
This is a terrific self-supporting vine for people with a bit of patience. I planted it 11 years ago and it is now up to the eaves, 18ft above the ground.
In winter, the bark is orange, flaking and quite stunning.
Like all hydrangeas, it likes moisture, detests dry soil and prefers shielding from the afternoon sun.
It flowers for a month in May and then the lacecaps slowly fade and wither. This is agreeable enough.
