Hydrangea macrophylla

Today's the day ........................ to change colour

You really get your money's worth with a lacecap hydrangea. The flowers are huge and go on for ever - and you get two for the price of one. You get the big petals on the outside which are a flower in itself - and then an inner bit with much smaller flowers. They look as if they will open out into the big petals but they never do - it's all a bit of a mystery.

Then, of course there's the colour thing. The blossoms can be either pink, blue, or purple shades, depending on what sort of soil you have. You can plant a blue hydrangea only to find that it has changed colour all on its own as it adjusts to its new environment.

You can try to change its colour - it is much easier to change a hydrangea from pink to blue than it is from blue to pink. Changing a hydrangea from pink to blue entails adding aluminum to the soil. Changing from blue to pink means subtracting aluminum from the soil or taking it out of reach of the hydrangea - much more difficult.

But no matter what colour it is - you will end up with a wonderful seed head which can look really dramatic in a dried flower arrangement and will last all through the winter .........................