Bigleaf hydrangea

Bigleaf hydrangea is a rounded deciduous shrub from Japan, grown worldwide for its huge domed clusters of blue, pink or white flowers and glossy toothed leaves. It thrives in cool, moist, mild climates and has naturalised so thoroughly along roadsides in places like the Azores that it has become a landscape trademark.

• Flower colour depends on soil chemistry: acidic, aluminium-rich soil gives blue blooms, alkaline soil gives pink.
• The showy 'petals' are actually sterile bracts; the true flowers are tiny and tucked in the centre of the cluster.
• In the Azores, hydrangea hedges line thousands of kilometres of roads and field boundaries, planted originally as livestock fences.

Care
Give it moist, well-drained soil and shade from hot afternoon sun, and prune only right after flowering since next year's buds form on old wood.

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