US (MA): Testing hydrangea varieties that are easier to grow

Once considered old-fashioned and even stodgy, hydrangeas have undergone a massive revival among gardeners and are currently the focus of a 10-day Cape Cod festival ending Sunday.

“It’s the most Googled flower,” said Heritage Museums & Gardens President and CEO Ellen Spear.

The addition of the test garden — which includes more than two dozen new varieties never seen before by the public — to an existing collection established in 2010 gives Heritage “the most comprehensive collection of hydrangeas in the country at a public garden,” Spear said.

“Every time the public comes they’ll see the newest plants that are being developed,” Spear said.

The winter of 2016 — in which mild weather followed by a February deep freeze killed the buds on the deep blue macrophylla hydrangeas traditionally associated with Cape Cod — demonstrate the importance of developing heat and cold-resistant “repeat bloomers” in the new North American Hydrangea Test Garden, said Mal Condon, hydrangea expert at Heritage.

Read more at the Cape Cod Times