A colourful asset: 450 new hydrangeas for Meise Botanic Garden

Since 1999, the Hydrangea Demonstration Garden managed by the Belgian Hydrangea Society (aka Hydrangeum) has been located in Destelbergen, East Flanders. In a limited space of 1000 m2 more than 200 different hydrangeas are planted and displayed, including varieties and cultivars of Hydrangea aspera, H. heteromalla, H. paniculata and H. quercifolia. In addition to this demonstration garden, the Belgian Hydrangea Society also held a large collection of potted plants.

In order to reduce the huge workload of the manager, Mr Georges Piens, Hydrangeum needed to find a new home for the potted plants. Meise Botanic Garden was very happy to take over this part of the collection. In Spring, a total of 459 plants from around 130 different cultivars were moved to the Botanic Garden. These are mainly cultivars of H. macrophylla, but H. arborescens, H. aspera, H. heteromalla, H. paniculata and H. quercifolia are also well represented. In order to exhibit these plants appropriately we will expand our Hydrangea forest with new plant compartments.

We are very excited about this acquisition and hope to be able to display our extensive collection in 2021. One thing we do know: it will be colourful!

For more information about the Hydrangeum Demonstration Garden, visit www.hydrangeum.com.