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Hydrangea aspera Villosa Group

What sort of name is this for a queen among late-flowering shrubs? An indication, perhaps, that even botanists are not quite sure? That there are too many variations to give it a proper name? It rubbed along nicely for years as Hydrangea villosa; let’s settle for that.

For those of us frustrated by alkaline soil from growing the glorious blue hydrangeas the soft blue-purple of H. villosa is deeply satisfying. Everything about the plant is soft, almost as though it were just out of focus. The long narrow ovate leaves are velvet-textured, tinged with yellow at first, then deep sage green, soon dusted with minute debris from the flowers that cover the bush. Their colour is impossible to pinpoint, the central dome starting blue-purple (some call it violet-blue) and gradually turning pinker, while the sterile ‘ray-florets’ that surround it are closer to pink from the start and fade to a faintly pink parchment.

The whole effect has a sort of dowager femininity (beautifully groomed old ladies achieve it; no one else) and yet it is a strong bush with a permanent structure eight feet high and more across. Pink Japanese anemones surround the plant here and add to the feminine effect. In spring the new shoots are sometimes frosted, delaying flowering, but not in this garden for the past three years.

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