Hydrangea aspera 'Elegant Sound Pavilion'

Description

We are delighted to enter into cultivation a beguiling mophead form of the ever beautiful Hydrangea aspera from a plant I collected in Sichuan Province in 1998. The velvety long and narrow foliage of this species, carried on a rounded framework to 8 ft., is almost handsome enough to merit growing it, however things get really interesting as it begins to flower in mid- to late summer. The full rounded heads of flowers begin in deep tones of green, ultimately producing blousy heads of ivory colored flowers with pinkish overtones, and then fading back to green. Though mophead flowered forms of this species have been reported in the past, and perhaps introduced to cultivation, this is to our knowledge the only one of its kind currently in cultivation. It is named for the Buddhist temple of the same name, near where this plant was found.