Oakleaf Hydrangea

Beautiful! Mine's few days behind yours and nowhere near as big...but, it's still only a baby. It's one of my favourite things in the garden.

All of mine are 3 feet or less still, this one was growing in Indiana. One of my favorite plants too, I have at least 5 oakleaf varieties and still want more :) My Burgundy oakleaf really impressed me last year, the closest to purple I have ever seen on a plant in fall.

Oh, you're so lucky to have so many, Rk! I have to take what I can get...

...I'd love to have a paniculata next...

It has taken me years to collect oakleaf hydrangeas! Most of them are cuttings or divisons that I grew on. Can you not find H. paniculata either? I would think Vanilla-fraise would be common there? I have trouble sometimes too. Go to some gardens and steal some cuttings haha. If you can't buy them, cut them :)

Hydrangeas are very popular in France, but really only the ones which are colourful and "showy"...
...and my addiction to buying plants means that I can only order things from my wish list, when I haven't overspent on everything else during the week!

Vanilla-fraise...that's got to be around here somewhere...lol!

Yes, I was hoping so with the french name! It has nice flowers but not the best form. I only buy half the plants I have, so many are acquired through trading and propagating.

Haha! I found it yesterday - accidentally!
Went out to get some Mediterranean plants and came home with Vanille Fraise!!

I don't have enough yet to propegate...we only moved to this house the year before last and had much renovating to do first. The garden was a building site until last March...and I lost loads this past Feb...so, I'm still on spending sprees!

You'll like Vanilla-fraise, the flowers are pretty impressive! Sorry to hear you lost so many plants, was it a bad winter?

It was an extraordinary winter...
I was in West Africa with my husband and left my garden in the capable hands of a neighbour. There was only one garden gate key, so I left it hanging in a safe place. In the first two weeks of Feb, the temps soared to 22°C, so my neighbour removed all the protective blankets...then it snowed and the temp plummeted to -20..everything was frozen for almost two weeks...
...and my step-daughter had taken the key away, so the neighbour couldn't get back in! I don't know how much it would have helped, though, as everything had started.

The same thing happened here this March, temps went into the 70's for a while and then dropped back into the 20's. Plants started growing and then got frozen again. I was lucky, I potted plants when it warmed up and moved them into a heated barn. The sudden changes in temperature can do a lot of damage, most of the cherry and apple growers here are going to have big losses this year. Seems like it has been happening to everyone.

Oh dear, the weather has been a bit erratic for the last couple of years...
Last year from the end of Feb it was hot, hot, hot and no rain until July...this year, freezing, flooding, we've had it all!