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Tesselaar Gift Hydrangeas

October_Gardens
12 years ago

If you live in the northeast US and visit Lowe's or Home Depot in the next month or so, you're likely to find these inside:

Strawberries & Cream (pink lacecap with white middle) 'Jon01' PP18266

Blueberries & Cream (blue lacecap) - utilizes Blaumeise

Blackberries & Cream (purple mophead) - unnamed hybrid (??)

They come in a 6" pot (which should be 1-gal pots to accommodate the rootballs of these plants!) placed inside a colored tin pot which is lined by a colored sheet of cloth.

There being the already common Blaumeise, and Jon01 not growing all that large, my attention quickly turned to the 'Blackberries' plant, which is said on the tag to grow to 4' in height - and, some had large florets on new stems coming from the crown! Seeing this, I selected one with this this trait, but also with 3 successful old stems and a little more new base growth. They are supposed to be hardy to zone 6, but if they can bloom from the base, what does anyone have to lose??

Also, these 'Blackberries' plants are so new that nothing has been published anywhere, not even tesselaar.com. There are press releases about the lacecaps but not the mophead. I'm thinking about writing them to learn more about exactly where 'Blackberries' came from. The plant itself is definitely not related to ES, but is more like the plants in the Forever & Ever series, with thick stems and large leaves.

I'm also amused by the extremely cautious nature of the instructions for the plants, which are elaborated on further online. It's all about don't do this - don't do that! "Don't plant outside until after flowering or early summer!" I guess they want to ensure customer satisfaction. However, I haven't yet had a problem growing florist hydrangeas outside, providing the selections have a reputation for being hardy enough for zone 6. Besides I would like to think that getting the plant used to cooler & warmer weather + sun should start earlier than later, and definitely not early summer!

Anyhow, if anyone buys these I'll be curious to know how they do. Mine is now in a 5-gal pot in front of the house in dappled sunlight. It may or may not go in the ground this year.

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