Heaps of Colour
Amateur Gardening|May 28, 2022
Hydrangeas offer great structure, huge blooms and late-season colour in semi-shade. Hazel Sillver explains how to grow them and looks at 16 of the best types
Hazel Sillver
Heaps of Colour

FOR ease, flower power, and size in semi-shade, hydrangeas are hard to beat. In late summer, they provide mounds of lush foliage and huge flower heads that can be a handful or more in size. Many of these blooms go through attractive colour mutations as the seasons change and make superb-cut flowers, too.

The 75 species are native to Asia and the Americas, with almost 2,000 cultivars. There are three types to choose from: cone-shaped 'panicle' flowerheads (including H. paniculata); rounded 'mopheads' (such as H. arborescens); and 'lacecaps' (such as H. aspera), which look like doilies.

Magnificent mopheads

The ubiquitous mophead forms of H. macrophylla - which are usually pink, but can be blue in certain soil conditions - tend to induce a love them or hate them reaction. For those who loathe them, there are plenty of gorgeous alternatives, such as the ivory H. arborescens 'Annabelle' and the white-flowered climbing hydrangeas, which have a more subtle beauty with refreshing green and cream tones.

Paniculata hydrangeas are an alternative that are loved by garden designers. "If I want a flowering shrub of around 6ft (1.8m) in sun, I rely on H. paniculata 'Fire Light"," says landscape designer Carolyn Gange: "I love how it fades from white to soft maroon."

Oakleaf variety

هذه القصة مأخوذة من طبعة May 28, 2022 من Amateur Gardening.

ابدأ النسخة التجريبية المجانية من Magzter GOLD لمدة 7 أيام للوصول إلى آلاف القصص المتميزة المنسقة وأكثر من 9,000 مجلة وصحيفة.

هذه القصة مأخوذة من طبعة May 28, 2022 من Amateur Gardening.

ابدأ النسخة التجريبية المجانية من Magzter GOLD لمدة 7 أيام للوصول إلى آلاف القصص المتميزة المنسقة وأكثر من 9,000 مجلة وصحيفة.