Bryan's Ground Hydrangeas - Living Souvenirs Walled-Garden Nurseries - Kelway's Peonies Mollie Salisbury Remembered - The Passing of a Great Colourist Cornwall's Magnolia Magnificence

摘要

Our hydrangeas have been spectacular this season. Now numbering more than two hundred and fifty different varieties of, mainly, H. macrophylla, H. serrata, H. paniculata and H. quercifolia, the pani-culatas and quercifolias bearing predominantly whiteor cream flowers, some fading to glorious enigmatic shades of dusty or old-rose pink as autumn approaches, are less thirsty and more sun-tolerant than the others. Thanks, seemingly, to lashings of naturally-occurring aluminium in our not overly-acidic (on average 6.5 pH) soil we are achieving blue flowers that range from a pleasing pale cerulean to deepest indigo. Examples can be seen on the Hortus 131 Picture Gallery on our website (hortus.co.uk). More commonly-seen pinks and reds are rare with us, the varieties most likely to show those colours give way instead to some heavenly (excuse the pun) Vatican purples. We might well plan a few late-season open days next year so that we can show ofF these beauties and offer for sale a few of our own propagations. Watch this space.