Bigleaf Hydrangea, Lacecap 'Coerulea'

I bought this like maybe 10 years ago. It was teeny tiny. Every year it got a wee bit bigger but this year it went completely insane. We...Read More’ve had 2 mild winters in a row - maybe that’s why it grew so much? But it’s getting gigantic. In fact it’s taking up garden space I used for nectar plants & I'm a bit peeved by this. I hope it doesn’t get much bigger.

Extremely hardy! Nonetheless, blooms on old and new wood, and repeats! Probably the best reblooming lacecap on the market, although not w...Read Moreidely sold. Highly recommended.

From the source "Hydrangeas for American Gardens," by Michael A. Dirr (2004): Medium growth habit with abundant, delicate flowers, always...Read More consistent. Pink to mauve in alkaline soil, blue in acid. Continuous blooming from late spring until frost. AKA 'Coerulea Lace', 'Caerulea'.

The tiny fertile flowers of this lacecap are a deeper color than the sterile flowers, which are a lighter to white color around the outside edge creating an interesting bloom. The flowers are nestled among tapered leaves which become very colorful in the fall adding to the appeal of this plant. Credit is given to Joseph Dalton Hooker for the discovery of this very ancient Japanese variety in the 1800s. Coerulea is of the same hybrid parentage as H. serrata, and is noted as being hardier.

Van Gelderen in "Encyclopedia of Hydrangeas" claims that this cultivar is also called, 'Curtis' Legacy', which replaces the "illegitimate" name of H. japonica 'Coerulea'. Curtis describes it as a variety of H. japonica in 1846. The plant is a cultivar and now also treated as such.