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| Many people remember hydrangeas from their childhood. Today we are falling in love with them all over again. It's easy to find hydrangeas that will bloom in almost any location since the selection is now so large. |
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| Hydrangeas have a truly unique history, that begins with an early settler in America, John Bartram, who is credited with the discovery of the species and its introduction to "New World" gardens in the 1730s. He began to explore the wilderness in his quest for plants, travelling thousands of miles, including trips through dangerous frontier country, into the wilds of the Appalachian Mountains and as far south as Florida. |
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| In later years, his son accompanied him on his travels and they discovered a hydrangea species native to Georgia. The two set up a five-acre botanic garden at the Bartram home in the Philadelphia area. Bartram exported plants from the Oakleaf variety to England and eventually became the "the King's Botanist" to George III. In the U.S., he is regarded as "the father of American botany." |
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 Hydrangea, the name, comes from the Greek words "hydro" or water, and "angeion," or vase -- water vase. Much as we would like to say that it's descriptive of how the flowers can be used, the name actually relates to the shape of the plant's seed capsule. Fossils show that hydrangeas grew in North America 40-70 million years ago and up to 25 million years ago in Asia. |
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| The first hydrangea in Europe was Hydrangea arborescens, imported into England in 1739. The plant was found growing wild in the colony called Pennsylvania by a botanist named Peter Collinson. The plant was popular immediately and quickly spread from England to The Continent. |
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| While Europeans, notably the French, have put the plant "on the map" in the last century, they did it with imported plants as the hydrangea is native only to the North American and Asian continents! Hydrangea arborescens and Hydrangea quercifolia are native to America; all others are native to Asia. |
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In the early 1800s, specimens of Hydrangea macrophylla, Bigleaf Hydrangea, started to show up in Europe. It is this plant, with its colourful blue to pink hues which was interesting to botanists, collectors and later, to hybridizers.
One of the first was Dr. Philipp Franz von Siebol, a physician and botanist, who spent two long periods in Japan. He imported numerous hydrangeas and other plants and created a botanical garden and nursery in France and display gardens throughout his native Germany. It is Dr. von Siebol who is credited with being the "Father of the European Hydrangea Movement." |
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| It was the French who began hybridizing Bigleaf Hydrangeas to give us the rainbows of Summer colour we enjoy today. Hydrangea macrophylla 'Mariesii Perfecta,' hybridized by Victor Lemoine in 1904, was one of the earliest hybrids on the European market. |
