
Hydrangea serrata 'Fuji-no-Taki' (mountain hydrangea)
Are you a cloud watcher? Or do you only like plants?
If you like both, Fuji-no-Taki mountain hydrangea is for you. The sterile florets have a double row of sepals and the individual sepals are rounded so that, with the double rows and the roundedness, the sterile florets have a soft, puffy aspect, like clouds or pillow stuffing.
These cloud-like flowers start out greenish white (or mottled green-white), then open white, remaining white as they age.
Do you need a hydrangea with yellow fall color? Fuji-no-Taki is true yellow. Not butter yellow, burnt yellow, mustard yellow, or golden yellow, but true bright pure yellow. Check out the picture. 2018 was not an exceptional year for fall color and Fuji-no-Taki's leaves positively glowed in the garden and on our 1-gallon container plants.
Something else I love about Fuji-no-Taki hydrangea is how well it branches out when pruned to make them denser. I took cuttings for propagation right before we went into a late Summer heat wave and the 1-gallons didn't miss a beat (and 99% my cuttings took). The plants put on new growth and the plants exploded in width.
Fuji-no-Taki is a serrata species and therefore more reliably cold hardy than many macrophylla types.
- double white florets on a mophead-like head
- 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: green
- Summer: green
No, it's not the same. 'Fuji Waterfall' is a lacecap with sterile florets on long pedicles, so they dangle or waterfall down a little bit. Individual flower sepals are pointy, giving the sterile florets a star-like look. 'Fuji-no-Taki' has double florets on what apears to be a small, weird-shaped mophead. There is no dangling of anything and the individual sepals are rounded and cloud-like.
While both cultivars have white flowers that include double sterile florets, they are uniqely and distinctly different. Both are lovely.