Hydrangea 'All Summer Beauty'

'All Summer Beauty', a bigleaf hydrangea, is a deciduous flowering shrub offering year-round interest. Super-floriferous, creating a long, seasonal floral display, 'All Summer Beauty' blooms in showy mophead inflorescences on old wood in midsummer and reblooms on new wood into fall. The large, globose clusters of *pink or blue florets are held aloft fleshy, elliptic, slightly serrate, bright green leaves on long, strong stems. The flowers are long lasting and make excellent cuts for fresh and dried arrangements.

After the first frost, flower clusters turn tan to caramel, and along with the shredding and peeling papery brown bark on mature plants that reveals glimpses of the underlying cinnamon hue of stems and branches, they add a textural element to the winter garden, especially pleasing in a snowy landscape. The hollow stems also provide nesting habitats for bees.

With cain-like growth, this multistemmed, suckering shrub has a compact, bushy, rounded habit and a rapid growth rate. 'All Summer Beauty' is perfect for small gardens or for a patio container. Easy to grow and maintain, hydrangea prefers some morning sun and afternoon shade; rich, medium moisture, well-draining soil; and plenty of water. A shade-loving shrub, it can tolerate more sun if the soil is kept consistently moist. Deadheading faded flowers promotes new blooms.

*Hydrangea macrophylla change colors with the pH of the soil. They turn pink in alkaline soil and blue in acid soils.