Didrangea

More Information About Didrangea

In the horticulture world, there are strange folks who take plants in related genera and attempt to cross them just to see if they can. Most of the time, these crosses do not produce any offspring, or the offspring are too inferior to be useful. Every once in a while, though, an intergeneric cross results in a hybrid with garden potential; one that retains interesting traits from both parents and is vigorous enough to survive without special care. In 2005, researchers at the USDA (Jones, et. al.) reported they had successfully crossed the relatively unknown evergreen Nepalese shrub, Dichroa febrifuga, with the widely popular deciduous shrub, Hydrangea macrophylla, to create a Dichroa x Hydrangea intergeneric hybrid. These crosses are given special genus names that merge the parental genus names together, so in this case we have Dichroa x Hydrangea = x Didrangea.

Read More about x Didrangea This cross is interesting because the x Didrangea offspring retain the cold hardiness and beautiful lacecap flowers of the Hydrangea parent and add to it the persistent, metallic-blue fruit of the Dichroa parent. Some of the x Didrangea offspring are deciduous and others are semi-evergreen. Although, Hydrangea flower clusters are larger than Dichroa flower clusters and contain many more florets, the individual florets of Dichroa are larger than Hydrangea. x Didrangea flowers are intermediate between the parents. x Didrangea is not pH sensitive like its Hydrangea parent, but rather produces blue flowers in any soil pH. Therefore, as far as gardeners are concerned, x Didrangea is a Hydrangea with two seasons of interest instead of the usual one. x Didrangea flowers delight gardeners in summer and its winter berries also delight. When you are ready to buy x Didrangea for your garden, check out our online list of x Didrangea for sale.