I well remember interviewing one of my horticultural heroes at Chelsea Flower Show a few years ago, (when the marquee was canvas, and creaked like a ship at sea) I raised the microphone and looking around at all of the new plants surrounding us I asked Roy Lancaster, “does this fill you with a sense of excitement, being surrounded by all of these wonderful new plants? Lanscaster’s reply has stayed with me all these years, – “not necessarily, new does not always mean better”. In other words, would a new gardener be better to fill their garden with plants awarded with the Royal Horticultural Societies Award of Garden Merit rather than the latest from our plant breeders?

It is with those words of warning dining in my ears that I went to look at some new plants last week…

The plant is question is one of a new series of Hydrangea macrophylla named “Harmony”

There is no questioning that the plant looks wonderful in it pot, with its multi-coloured flowerheads.

According to the website of the plant breeder this is but one of a series of new Hydrangeas, which have been bred to look beautiful in every season, and in the Plantaria at Cowells Garden Centre in Newcastle they did look stunning.

The images above are of Hydrangea macrophylla “Harmony”

So what does this new Hydrangea offer?

According to the breeders website:

• Stronger petals which, mean the flowers last longer on the plant and as cut flowers
• The flower colour changes throughout the season, which fits in with the current plant breeding goal of breeding plants that will look wonderful through the year in our new smaller gardens.
• The flower starts as in the images above, and develop a deeper colour later in the year, see image below, which is taken from the breeders website.
• The plant is described as strong, and able to cope with sun, rain and frost.

The images above are taken from the breeders website, (just click on them to check this out) and show the the flowers in both pink and blue.

There can be no doubting that this new series of Hydrangea are stunning in pots in the plantaria of a garden centre, but only time will tell how they perform in the garden. For that reason alone it has not yet made the cut into the 100 Trees and Shrubs…