Hydrangea aspera Rosemary Foster

The Hydrangea aspera 'Rosemary Foster' is a wonderful cultivar of Hydrangea with flat flowers obtained in England by Maurice Foster who dedicated it to his wife. It is characterized by a compact habit, rapid flowering, and beautiful colors. This small bush is truly extraordinary with its long leaves that change from brown to green with a purple underside and its large violet to purple-pink umbels scattered with white florets. This long summer flowering, whose color is little influenced by the nature of the soil, will be followed by beautiful autumn colors. It is a very hardy variety and easy to grow in well-prepared ordinary garden soil. A very beautiful discovery, which is very difficult to resist!

Originally from a large part of southern and eastern Asia, where it shows great variability, the Hydrangea aspera is a large and hardy shrub belonging to the hydrangea family. It is a close relative of hydrangeas with large leaves and ball-shaped inflorescences.

The Hydrangea aspera Rosemary Foster is a small bush that grows about 1.20 m (3 ft 11 in) in all directions. It has a very bushy habit; its flower heads are flat and particularly dense. The corymb consists of small flowers arranged in umbels, carried by dark red peduncles. The sterile flowers are larger and fewer in number, forming a sparse crown around the fertile flowers. The fertile flowers resemble small clustered buds of a reddish wine colour and open into tiny violet flowers from the outside to the inside of the corymb. This particular arrangement is called a "grandmother's bonnet." 

The foliage of this hydrangea is deciduous, falling in autumn. It consists of elongated, lanceolate leaves with very fine teeth, slightly downy, more so on the underside. The leaves are marked with fairly deep veins. The young leaves are chocolate brown, while the mature leaves are greyish-green on top and purplish to brown on the underside. In autumn, the leaves take on golden to amber tones.

Hydrangea aspera Rosemary Foster likes cool shady or semi-shady environments, but is one of the few, along with Hydrangea quercifolia and its varieties, to be quite tolerant of limestone and to tolerate slightly sunny exposures. Naturally, it will also thrive in an ericaceous bed alongside other hydrangeas, Kalmia, or Chinese Azalea. Pairing it with a small red rose or with Four O'Clock Flowers (Mirabilis jalapa) is quite charming. This hydrangea, with its small size, is ideal in gardens of all sizes. It can be planted in flower beds, along a path, near an entrance, or even in a large pot on the terrace.