Katy's Garden

Finally the days of hydrangeas have come. Even some of the most frost damaged are trying to contribute a few blooms to the show, it is really a great relief.

I wonder if they can be "trained" to flush a bit later in future years, or if like M. Dirr says after a given number of chilly days they will get into vegetative frenzy whatever the weather. We shall see.

A great show is definitely coming from Ayesha, which is curious, since it is in theory one of the less hardy macrophyllas. But she clearly did not read the books because she is covered with blooms.

"Ayesha" is an almost unique hydrangea, with spoon shaped sepals remembering lilac flowers. It is of Japanese origin, and it is not sure when exactly it was imported to Europe. For a great long while it was one of the very few unmistakable macrophillas around. Recently a somewhat similar cultivar was introduced, the Hovaria Hopcorn, but this is smaller and has much deeper colours. Ayesha is beautifully pale, shell pink or soft blue, or everythingin between. Like "Otaksa", "Joseph Banks" and "Sea Foam", all of them close relatives, it is supposedly not very frost hardy, but extremely resistant to wind and sea spray.

This beautiful macrophylla came without a label, but it is very probably "Selma". The foliage is a dark dark wonder, flushed with the deepest crimson. The inflorescece will alas develope in a rather boring deep pink mophead, but at this early stage it is wonderfully 'different'.

"Romance" is a surprise. It opens like the daintiest lacecap, similar to "Hanabi" (but smaller and more compact, and obviously not white) but in the course of the season the froth of small green flowers in the middle keep opening and developing, and it ends up in a truly majestic mop head. The pointy double flowers keep it from becoming boring though. It is a real beauty. It belongs to a recent series together with "Emotion", of which I had a cutting, that I have lost.