By Mary Dawn Jones, Provisional Master Gardener 2004
As an unabashed hydrangea lover, my pulse quickened when I found “Hydrangeas: A Gardener’s Guide”. This comprehensive book is a timely publication for those of us who have always adored these gorgeous plants and for gardeners who have a renewed enthusiasm for them.
Introductory chapters deal with the plant's long history, natural distribution, and cultivation. The bulk of the text is a descriptive list of cultivars, offering meticulously detailed information on each plant's height, flower and leaf, and flowering time. Each listing has a tantalizing color photograph and an illustration of leaves and sepals.
You'll also find up-to-date advice on pruning, watering, planting, fertilizing and propagation. The authors unveil the secrets of how and why hydrangea blossoms change color, and how to nudge your pink hydrangea to turn blue (or vice versa). Charts detailing the flower head, types of subspecies and cultivars, as well as flowering times are included along with a glossary of terms, illustrations of various terms used in the text, and a list of gardens worldwide that have a good display of hydrangeas and are open to the public.
Authors Toni Lawson-Hall and Brian Rothera are English; therefore English spellings (colour, favourite, etc.) are used throughout the text – however this is not necessarily a drawback. Hardiness ratings are based on Royal Horticultural Society categories and not on USDA categories, although charts comparing hardiness zone temperature ratings for both are included. What is missing is a discussion of how to use hydrangeas in the landscape and companion plantings, but this omission is nearly excused by the thorough treatment of so many species and cultivars.
The authors state that the book was written for two purposes. Firstly, to promote a genus whose attributes are not generally appreciated and, secondly, to provide a source of ready reference so that more varieties can be recognized and less familiar forms can increase in popularity. Lawson-Hall and Rothera have admirably succeeded in fulfilling their objective. This book does more than entice — it provides an abundance of information on how to grow hydrangeas successfully and is a recommended addition to your library.
Hydrangeas: A Gardener’s Guide by Toni Lawson-Hall and Brian Rothera, Timber Press; Revised edition, Portland OR, February 2005, 176 pages, $23.07 hardcover, ISBN 0881926698.