Colour in August

August can be a pretty difficult time to rely on shrubs for some colour but one group of plants which must hit the top spot, or thereabouts, are hydrangeas. Probably not in fashion with many due to poor maintenance but if properly pruned and subsequently fed they give so much pleasure.

One of my favourites is the furry leaved Hydrangea villosa.  Fergus, from Great Dixter, kindly gave me a cutting a few years a go and it now fills a shady corner of a clients garden. Its luminescent flowers provide a stunning, dazzling effect and is a magnet for bees; invariably too many to count.

If you haven't got a hydrangea in your garden, maybe you should reconsider.