Curious Oak Leaf Hydrangea
Single Bloom (Left) and Double Bloom (Right) growing on the same plant.
Gardening has made me much more observant. When I wander the garden, I crouch down to see smaller plants up close and stand up on my tip toes to see trees and shrubs that now tower over me. One of the things about a garden that amazes me is how much a plant can grow and change in appearance in the span of just a few days.
Even though I consider myself to be very observant, only recently did I make the keen observation on our Oak Leaf Hydrangea shrub that not all of the blooms look the same! In the photo above, you notice a much more dainty, lace-like bloom on the right. After a bit of research, I found out this is called a “single bloom.” While these blooms are beautiful, especially the few we have that are tinged with pink, I can’t help but favor the more rare “double bloom” featured on the left in the photo above and in the photograph to the left of this text. The “double bloom” is bold and it’s stark white color stands out vividly against the Oak Leaf’s large green leaves (for size reference, many of the leaves can grow to be 2-3x the size of my hand). I haven’t yet been able to find an explanation online of why this particular Oakleaf (which variety unfortunately we did not take note of when planting) has a combination of both single and double blooms. One theory is that two plants were accidentally potted together.
This Oakleaf has certainly taken over this shady spot in our garden and is growing around the hellebore planted at its base. It looks quite a bit silly right now and will need significant pruning once it finishes blooming! We plan to cut back more of the "single bloom” so that the “double boom” has room to grow and becomes more prolific year after year.
