Bloom forms can be as varied as the hue, if that's something you like. My favorite is 'Ayesha' which has heavily rounded, tightly cupped blossoms. When seen en masse these blooms appear to form a fabric, almost like that of a heavy woven tapestry. The effect is quite striking, particularly when contrasted with different foliage textures.
The oakleaf hydrangea shown below is also widely used in the south. This is the 'quercifola' featured at Specialty Ornamentals. It displays the treeform foliage and paniculated flowering habit shared by all cultivars of this specie. Some cultivars of these plants can become quite tall, and are sometimes used as hedges, while others have been hybridized into compact forms.
As the season prgresses, the blooms and foliage alike begin to show rosy pink and red tones. They are just gorgeous in September. When fall colors start to come out, nothing elsse shines like the drying flowers on these beautiful plants.
Propagation of all hydrangeas is simple, at least for me; I don't worry about which of the varieties is sterile, or mess with seed collection. All I do is bend a branch of a plant until it just begins to split, and secure it to moist ground with a handy rock. I keep the earth damp around the rock, and find it rooted at the end of the season. I've put green stems which have broken off directly into the ground, and as long as they stay moist, they sprout tiny leaves and take hold after a month or so.
If you have a hydrangea plant you love, it's easy to root it in pots over the winter in your garage (for those of us who have yet to acquire a greenhouse...) if you take the ends off the branches in the fall. DO NOT take the whole branch, because hydrangeas bloom on wood from the previous year. Hard pruning will yeild a sparse show when spring arrives.
One of the most elusive bloomers--for yours truly and several other long-time gardeners---is the hydarangea anomala, the petiolaris "climbing" hydrangea. I've had several of these in my garden for years and they grow so slowly that I'd swear they were dead if I didn't know better. There's enough information in the pluses and minuses of this one to merit a full feature.
Hydrangeas are sturdy, pest resistant plants with a hardiness which makes them good selections for gardeners in all but the coldest climates. I can't think of a reason NOT to have them in my garden!
