I posted about colour-shifting hydrangeas last week but since they’re so beautiful and in the middle of their annual costume change, I’m visiting the same topic yet again but this time regarding a different type of hydrangea.

An hydrangea that shifts from red to purple, blue or purplish-blue and back to pink or red again is a “Bigleaf” hydrangea that is reacting to soil ph levels. In one of the city parks there’s one of those; it puts on a magnificent colour show all summer long and well into autumn.

This hydrangea is not to be confused with the “Cardinal” hydrangea that blooms red and stays in that colour zone throughout the summer, though. I posted about that type of hydrangea a couple of years back.

Above and below are a series of pictures from this spring and summer showing its beautiful progression. All photos show the same hydrangea shrub.

When it completes its final metamorphosis back to red I’ll post more pictures of this beautifully variable hydrangea.

Happy Friday.