… IN SHRUBS
1 Let’s Dance ¡Arriba! reblooming hydrangea
Hydrangea בSMNHSC’
Proven Winners ColorChoice Flowering Shrubs
The new addition to the Let’s Dance series of hydrangeas is touted as its most reliable, quick growing and floriferous. Its round, dense flower-heads vary in color depending on the pH of the soil and its phosphorus and aluminum levels. Acidic soils (lower than pH 7.0) bring about blue or purple flowers. In higher pH, the flowers appear hot pink. Either way, the color is rich and gorgeous, and with time it fades to mauve.
This plant is a hybrid between bigleaf hydrangea (H. macrophylla) and mountain hydrangea (H. serrata), with the latter contributing extra hardiness. A first round of flowers appears in early summer, from buds that formed the previous year. About three weeks later, another flush of flowers begins to open, from buds that developed on new growth.
¡Arriba! reaches two to three feet tall and wide, although it may grow a bit larger in the longer growing season of the South. There, it requires some afternoon shade; elsewhere it can take either full or part sun. USDA Zones 4–9.
2 Fairytrail Bride cascade hydrangea
Hydrangea בUSHYD0405’
Proven Winners ColorChoice Flowering Shrubs
New to the American market, this unique hydrangea won Plant of the Year at the UK’s Chelsea Flower Show in 2018 (under the name Runaway Bride). It produces flowers at every leaf node, so its stems are lined with the pure white blossoms. Fairytrail Bride can be planted to great effect in a tall container, atop a retaining wall, amid landscape stones on a slope—or in any other position that will show off its unique cascading growth. Ushio Sakazaki, known for creating Surfinia, the first trailing petunias, and for his work in Supertunias and Superbells calibrachoas, bred this hybrid hydrangea.
Fairytrail Bride grows four feet tall and wide. The flower buds are set on both old and new wood, but the plant should never be pruned, save for removing dead (not dormant) pieces. Provide full to part sun. Zones 7–9.
3 Elizabeth Ashley bigleaf hydrangea
Hydrangea macrophylla ‘Hokomarore’
Plants Nouveau
Named in honor of a cherished, joyful young woman who tragically died
