Name: Hydrangea macrophylla ‘Hokomarevo’ aka Hydrangea Everlasting Revolution

Type of Plant: A mophead hydrangea with pink to blue flowers depending on the pH of the soil. Hardy in zones 6-9.

Why I Love This Plant:  In my warm Zone 6 garden this Hydrangea flowers reliably. I love how sturdy the stems are – no flopping after a rain for this mophead! I also love the large the flower heads are, formed from dozens of infertile flowers. These hydrangea blooms are a combination of flowers that look both delicate and showy at the same time.

Although some websites say that this plant will grow 5 to 6 feet tall and wide, that has not been my experience, nor is it what’s reported by my friends at Plants Nouveau. In my garden, over the past six years, this shrub has only grown to three feet tall and wide, so a compact plant.

A Word to the Wise: Like other reblooming Hydrangea macrophylla varieties, this shrub blooms most from the buds formed the previous summer. So never cut it back, or do any pruning other than the removal of dead tips or canes.

Like most mopheads, as the flowers develop in early summer they change from white to pale yellowish hues and then to blue, purple  or pink. I have my Everlasting Revolution hydrangea growing by a stone wall, so the pH of the soil is undoubtedly near neutral near the stones, but naturally acidic two feet away. This plant normally has a range of pink to blue flowers as a result.

Everlasting Revolution flowers are tight and tidy… although still called a “mophead” type, these less floppy than others in this species. I’d call this a “densehead” hydrangea, not that this is likely to catch on…

I love watching the colors develop on the flowers. from white to cream, then to shades of blue, lavender and pink.