Say hydrangea and most people envisage scraggy bushes in unloved suburban front gardens. There are plenty of them around and I always used to dismiss them as granniated flowers. But that was before I discovered them as cut flowers. Fantastic from summer to winter, they keep on producing dense heads which change colour throughout the season. Just look at the ones below - from the same bush, but the paler one, growing in the shady centre and the pinker one growing in a more exposed part.
They also make an excellent structural framework for short arrangements like this one (in a jam jar) and hold other, less sturdy flowers in position. I'm converted.
When the weather gets colder, the flowers will darken to a deep red outer ring, with a greenish centre and look stunning in autumn arrangements.
Even the crispy heads look good in their own right when they give up the ghost after the frosts arrive. These beauties will hold (but eventually lose their pinkish colour) all through the winter 'til you chop them off to welcome the new buds in the following spring.
Have I managed to convince you yet????
I have two of these one white and one pink, although I hear you can change the colour of the flower by adding alluminium to the soil. They can be different colours each season or if the plant is moved to another area. The white one I have was pink last year and they can take harsh cutting back, which makes them nice and bushy next season.
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