Known by the name hydrangea or hortênsia, it is native from Japan an China but now is cultivated as an ornamental plant in all temperate and subtropical regions. There are different species presenting blue flowers or pink ones depending on the soil PH, in acid soils there are blue flowers but in alkaline soils are pink ones. My hydrangeas are pink so it means the soil is alkaline. You can have a multicolored field of hyndrageas (hortênsias) if you control the ph of soil in different areas. Hydrangea can be shade or semi-shade plant. It is very difficult to have beautiful hydrangeas on a dry environment, hydrangeas only can survive on a hot and sunny climate if it has high humidity. Attention to winters too, they can't be too cold, temperatures lower the -3ºC the hydrangeas can freeze and burn because of it. They can recover just with a heavy pruning. In colder environments we can protect the stems with leaves wrapped in plastic from the late spring frosts. Thankfully in Portugal, this winter wasn't too cold and it was full of rain so we'll have beautiful hydrangeas because the well is full too for the summer.
