Nurseryman’s favourites: July

Hydrangea macrophylla ‘Merveille Sanguine’

The plantsman John May took my son and me to see an overgrown specimen of this at Logan Botanic Garden in Dumfries and Galloway. It had cobalt-blue flowers unlike anything I had seen before. Twelve years later I got it from a French nurseryman. In my growing conditions the colour is more attractive than at Logan. The leaves have a deep red cast that intensifies in late summer and the flowers are an equally deep red. I hadn’t thought about the name until it was pointed out that it roughly translates as ‘Bloody Marvellous’. That’s that then!

HEIGHT/SPREAD 1.4 x 1m.
ORIGINS Japan
CONDITIONS Shade or half-shade with reliably moist soil that's not too limey.
SEASON Late summer and autumn

To see eight more plants looking stunning this month, chosen by Bob Brown, buy the July issue of GARDENS ILLUSTRATED (Issue 163) available 1st July.

_{Bob Brown owns Cotswold Garden Flowers, a mecca for plant lovers, which stocks a huge range of rare and beautiful plants.}

_{Photograph by Torie Chugg}