They are the flower thief's
favorite quarry. Hydrangea blossoms have been known to vanish
overnight from front-yard gardens and public parks. With
just a few dried stems selling for over $10, it's no wonder
these fabulous clusters known as "mopheads" are
so highly coveted. Are the thieves just cash-strapped flower
arrangers, or is there a florist's black market in hydrangea
that is driving the disappearances? Probably both.
What makes hydrangeas so different is their longevity. The
mophead hydrangea creates a huge moplike head of sepals
that are not fertile. This is the result of early French
breeding of lacecap wild Hydrangea macrophylla that came
west from China in the 19th century. With lacecaps, a cluster
of insignificant fertile flowers is surrounded by a ring
of showy colored sepals that attract pollinators. Hybridizers
sought more sepals because they produced the color. Eventually,
they bred out fertile flowers altogether, making mopheads
sterile.
This has great significance in the garden. What makes all
flowers fade is pollination. This signals the plant that
it no longer needs bright color to attract a bee or hummingbird.
With their purpose fulfilled, petals fade and dry up, falling
away as the plant shifts gears to begin producing seed in
the flower ovary.
With mopheads, the sepals are never pollinated, and therefore
no signal reaches the plant to indicate it's time to quit.
The result is that a single mophead flower cluster can live
on for up to six months. This means summer-blooming flowers
remain on the plants into autumn. As temperatures fall,
the flowers change and become what growers call "antique."
This means that the sepals take on new colors in irregular
ways. For example, white may turn pale green and blues may
even sport shades of burgundy. Compare that with the few
weeks of flower life for other plants and you see what makes
the hydrangea so incredibly neat.
On top of this, hydrangea flowers dry easily if they are
cut and hung upside down in a dark closet. Not only do you
enjoy extended garden life, the flowers continue on through
winter indoors as dried material. This is why mopheads are
stolen out of gardens. They can be dried and sold weeks,
even months later. When the hydrangea blossoms take on their
antique fall color, theft rates rise dramatically.
Mophead hydrangeas originate in a coastal climate and benefit
from steady moisture. Where conditions are drier, plants
require generous daily irrigation. This ensures lush green
foliage and the largest possible flower heads. The availability
of aluminum in acidic soil influences how blue a hydrangea
flower becomes. In soils of high PH, around 7.0 to 7.5,
you'll get the best reds and pinks. For good blues, a PH
of 5.5 to 6.5 is ideal. Growers feed twice a year with aluminum
sulfate to ensure they get the bluest flowers.
Hydrangea macrophylla prefers winters of USDA Zone 6 or
7, but there are exceptions. New Endless Summer and white
"Annabelle" are very hardy to USDA Zone 4. Blue
"Penny Mac" and "Nikko Blue" are two
examples of forms that take winters to Zone 5. Varieties
suited to your garden will be available in large sizes at
your local garden centers.
In the garden, hydrangeas are truly magnificent bloomers
that produce big color in the shade. This is a rare commodity,
particularly in midsummer after the rhododendrons have faded.
Their preference is very bright filtered light or morning
sun followed by afternoon shade.
This has made mopheads real problem-solvers for home sites
beneath high canopies of very old street trees. Some of
the finest old specimens of hydrangea can be found in Victorian
neighborhoods, where they were coveted foundation plants.
But be careful if you plan to follow suit, because the hydrangea
thieves are out there ready to steal your mopheads in the
dark of night.
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