Hydrangea macrophylla 'Madaket Lace' (bigleaf hydrangea)
Madaket Lace is a very special lacecap from Mal Condon and his famous Hydrangea Farm nursery on Nantucket.
We are impressed with what a good, tough hydrangea bush this is in the Deep South and how it's consistently flowered for us the three years we've been observing our group of them (in containers in our nursery). We now have a few released for sale.
The bush is nice and all, but the flowers are the big deal, of course. They are hefty, showy lacecaps with an interesting journey through different stages of coloration, depending on pH of your soil, of course.
- Opening creamy or cream tinged with pink or blue;
- They richen in color, but stay light pink or blue;
- Finally, they age to a creamy color often with red "antique" spots and flip upside down when the fertile flowers are pollinated.
Madake Lace's flowers keep me coming back for more - every day I go check on her flowers for a little dose of beauty. These pictures don't do them justice; I've been trying to capture them, but this is one of those you must enjoy in person to be pulled in by their gravitational appeal.
This cultivar is considered a modified lacecap - something between the dome of a mophead and the flatness of a lacecap, with the sterile florets sometimes intersperse more amongst the fertile ones.
- modified lacecap flower with double sepals
- single specimen and accent use
- large container use
- grouping and massing - large swaths
- flower and shrub borders
- tolerant of salt spray so great for maritime climates
- heat tolerant
- Spring: medium green
- Summer: medium green
Yes, I've come to the conclusion that Hydrangeas don't like to have their flower color profiled and clinically categorized like we humans try to do to everyone and everything. Please keep in mind that flower color varies widly and wildly depending on soil pH and the amount of aluminum actually in your soil, the amount of time aluminum has been availalbe to the plant (did you add Al only last month?), the unique propensity of how each cultivar reacts to Al, and if the flower heads get a touch of sunshine as they age.
The flower color is not as you described, it seems darker to me.
Same issues as when it's paler; say after me, "a-lum-i-num-a-vail-a-bil-i-ty plus time plus cultivar plus a touch of sunshine."
This is science for sure, but also a whole lot of art. Enjoy the outcome Mother Nature deals!