Heaps of Colour

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

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