Hydrangea 'Miss Saori'

Royal Horticulturist Society Chelsea Flower Show Plant of the Year 2014

Hydrangea 'Miss Saori' was bred in Kyoto Japan by a young horticulturist named Ryoji Irie. He put a lot of love into this variety, naming it after his then fiancé and current wife.

'Miss Saori', a dwarf bigleaf hydrangea, is a woody deciduous shrub offering year-round interest. A classic type, creating a season-long floral display, it blooms in showy mophead inflorescences on old wood, beginning in summer and lingering into fall. The large, globose clusters of white, pink-edged double florets are held aloft fleshy, elliptic, serrate to dentate leaves on long, strong stems. The flowers are long lasting and make excellent cuts for fresh and dried arrangements.

After the first frost, flower clusters turn tan to caramel, and along with the shredding and peeling papery brown bark on mature plants that reveals glimpses of the underlying cinnamon hue of stems and branches, they add a textural element to the winter garden, especially pleasing in a snowy landscape. The hollow stems also provide nesting habitats for bees.

With cain-like growth, this multistemmed, suckering shrub has a compact, rounded, bushy habit and a rapid growth rate. Easy to grow and maintain, Hydrangea 'Miss Saori' prefers some morning sun and afternoon shade; rich, medium moisture, well-draining soil; and plenty of water. A shade-loving shrub, hydrangea can tolerate more sun if the soil is kept consistently moist.

Hydrangea macrophylla change colors with the pH of the soil. They turn pink in alkaline soil and blue in acid soils.