Meet the “Hostarangea”

June 27th, 2013

   Plants do some interesting and unexpected things when they get together in the garden.

The hydrangea has dropped a blooming arm into the lap of the hosta, creating a “hostarangea.”

   Intermingling is one of them, and that’s the answer behind the “mystery plant” I wrote about here earlier this week (see below).

   The plant I noticed in my front yard had a round blue bloom growing out of the center of a variegated leafy cluster.

   Alert reader Deborah Albericci was the first to correctly answer my mystery quiz by recognizing this was a hydrangea bloom growing through a hosta plant.

   I’ve got a ‘Forever and Ever Blue Heaven’ hydrangea and a ‘June’ hosta plant growing side by side in the shade of a cherry tree.

   ‘Forever and Ever’ decided to send out a low arm that snaked into the middle of the neighboring ‘June’ and then popped up one of its beautiful blue flower balls.

   It couldn’t have been a more perfect placement. The flower was sitting dead center in ‘June’s’ lap.

   Serendipity is the big word for it.

   I thought it was a fun surprise and one of those things that makes gardening so intriguing.

   I think a good name for my “new” plant is “Hostarangea interminglis.” I call this particular cultivar ‘Forever June.’