Hankering for hydrangeas

Hydrangeas are my new undisputed favourite flower. I ordered a box of plants from Glyn Church at Woodleigh nursery in Taranaki late last year and they haven't stopped flowering since they hit the dirt. I've planted a long border of hydrangeas, interspersed with hellebores, under a row of Michelia 'Mixed up Miss' on my shadiest boundary. I'm not sure if my soil is acidic or alkaline but I figure the hydrangeas will soon let me know. In the meantime I must also confess that my new favourite hydrangea is 'Ayesha', a distinctive variety that has the charming common name of "popcorn hydrangea" because of its unusual florets. We featured it in New Zealand Gardener last May but I've never seen it for sale. So when I walked past a carparking building in central Auckland a couple of days ago and spotted it flourishing among the weeds, it seemed, well, um, hardly a crime to do a little judicious pruning. I now have six cuttings in pots on the windowsill. There's a good reason why I drive around with a pair of secateurs in the glovebox...