Plant Database

Other Names:  Mountain Hydrangea

Description:

A beautiful compact shrub that features showy lacecap flowers that change from white to light-pink to red-pink; serrated leaves are tinged with dark purple in the fall; a wonderful choice for the flower garden

Ornamental Features

Beni Gaku Hydrangea features bold pink lacecap flowers with white overtones at the ends of the branches from mid summer to early fall, which emerge from distinctive powder blue flower buds. The flowers are excellent for cutting. It has dark green deciduous foliage. The serrated pointy leaves turn an outstanding plum purple in the fall.

Landscape Attributes

Beni Gaku Hydrangea is a multi-stemmed deciduous shrub with an upright spreading habit of growth. Its relatively coarse texture can be used to stand it apart from other landscape plants with finer foliage.

This is a relatively low maintenance shrub, and should only be pruned after flowering to avoid removing any of the current season's flowers. It has no significant negative characteristics.

Beni Gaku Hydrangea is recommended for the following landscape applications;

• Accent
• Mass Planting
• General Garden Use

Planting & Growing

Beni Gaku Hydrangea will grow to be about 5 feet tall at maturity, with a spread of 5 feet. It has a low canopy, and is suitable for planting under power lines. It grows at a medium rate, and under ideal conditions can be expected to live for approximately 30 years.

This shrub does best in full sun to partial shade. You may want to keep it away from hot, dry locations that receive direct afternoon sun or which get reflected sunlight, such as against the south side of a white wall. It prefers to grow in average to moist conditions, and shouldn't be allowed to dry out. It is not particular as to soil type, but has a definite preference for acidic soils. It is somewhat tolerant of urban pollution, and will benefit from being planted in a relatively sheltered location. Consider applying a thick mulch around the root zone in winter to protect it in exposed locations or colder microclimates. This is a selected variety of a species not originally from North America.