Bigleaf Hydrangea, French Hydrangea, Mophead 'Alpengluhen'

Alpengluhen and glowing embers are in fact the same plant. I work at a garden center where customers often ask for the purple hydrangea,w...Read Moree point to alpengluhen which is always pink in the containers we sell.when we explain to them it will turn purple in our acidic soil here in R.I.we have never had one returned.All macrophylla are ph sensitive although not all will change from true pink to blue or blue to pink.Keep in mind that it may take a few years for a hydrangea to find it's true color in your soil.If you want a purple plant treat it with a acidic fertilizer and or aluminum sulfate,remember less is more in this process.

According to the authors of "Encyclopedia of Hydrangeas" (2004 - Timber Press), 'Alphengluen' is NOT the same cultivar as 'Glowing Embers...Read More'. True Alphengluen are described as "red or dark pink, late in the season. It does not become blue on acid soils, but remains rosy red. A very reliable cultivar with a very bright color." It goes on to say that 'Deutschland' is very similar but has larger leaves. Bred by Brugger, Germany in 1950. The picture shows a plant which I would describe as hot pink in color - identical to the first picture in this database entry.

I purchased a hydrangea in 2001 from an online nursery, which was sold as Alphengluen / Glowing Embers (I have also seen them called the same at other nurseries). After studying the pictures and descriptions, I find that mine is definitely a 'Glowing Embers' not Alpengluen. Since nurseries are tending to lump these two together, please note that they ARE different cultivars and the color is somewhat different.