Hydrangea serrata BLUEBERRY CHEESECAKE mountain hydrangea, tea of heaven

BLUEBERRY CHEESECAKE is a beautiful and hardy variety of mountain hydrangea from the Flairs & Flavours® series bred by Timothy D. Wood of the Spring Meadow Nursery in Michigan, USA, in 2009. It a slow-growing, compact shrub with large, bright green, deciduous leaves. It produces flat inflorescences composed of showy, blueberry-purple, sterile flowers on the outskirts, and tiny, fertile flowers with stunning indigo blue stamens in the center.

It blooms profusely from early June and forms nice, dense, dome-shaped to mounding shrubs. Flowers lack fragrance. It blooms on previous year's wood, so if you need to prune it, do so before the end of July at the latest so that its branches mature by the end of the season to produce flower buds for the following year. Blue-coloured hydrangeas require low pH – acidic soil.

The leaves are deciduous, broadly ovate, serrated at margins, and do not wilt in summer heat like those of mop-head hydrangeas. In autumn they take on rich crimson colour with a few orange tones. They contain phyllodulcin, a natural sweetener owing to which this plant is sometimes also called the 'tea of heaven', and they are used in Japan to make Amcha tea with which they celebrate the birth of the Buddha.

Hydrangeas love humus-rich, constantly moist but well-drained soil. Mulch the roots well to retain moisture. For pink shades make sure the soil is neutral or alkaline. Peat-based (acid) soil will make the flower turn violet-purple. You can use selective fertilizers to encourage flowering. Mountain hydrangea is much hardier than mop-head hydrangea and BLUEBERRY CHEESECAKE is suited to USDA zone 5b as it withstands frost down to at least -25 °C, perhaps even more (not tested yet).

Last update 03-07-2023