Hydrangea serrata Cotton Candy - Mountain Hydrangea

Hydrangea serrata Cotton Candy ('Mak20') is a novelty originating from the USA. It is a compact and floriferous bush, capable of flowering on the current year's wood. It produces flat-heads with semi-double sterile pink florets with a green-yellow heart. Very resistant to cold.

Hydrangea serrata Cotton Candy (from the Flair & Flavours series) was created in 2012 by Tim Wood in Michigan by crossing Hydrangea macrophylla with Hydrangea serrata. Also called "mountain hydrangea", the latter has passed on its excellent frost resistance. Moreover, Cotton Candy is capable of flowering on the current year's wood. This guarantees that its unique flowering can appear every year, regardless of the weather!

From June-July, it produces inflorescences composed of fertile flowers in the centre surrounded by a row of larger, decorative sterile flowers. The sterile flowers are semi-double, with a bi-colour effect of bright pink/green-yellow at flowering; an unprecedented contrast in hydrangeas! The colour changes to pale-pink. Cotton Candy is a new perpetual variety, which flowers several times in succession during the summer. At the end of the season, the foliage takes on a very attractive autumn colour.

Endowed with a beautiful dark green foliage, sometimes tinged with burgundy, it forms a compact bush about 0.80 to 1.20 m (3 to 4ft) high and wide at maturity. With these proportions, it will easily find its place in all gardens but also in a pot on a terrace or a balcony. It accepts a shady to relatively sunny exposure as long as you avoid midday sun and keep its base cool. It requires good non-limestone garden soil. Its hardiness allows it to be grown successfully even in the most difficult climates.

Combine it with other ball or paniculate flower hydrangeas to play with contrasts of form, such as the new pink varieties of Hydrangea arborescens or Hydrangea paniculata. To highlight its small green heart, why not plant alchemillas at its base?