July 2026
Forgive me for picking up where last month's NQG left off, but there's simply no sense in writing about anything else when the garden is so dominated by one particular flowering plant.
There hasn't been an explosion of blooms like this for a decade. By mid-June every shrub had an abundance of small, tight flower heads, that - as I said a few weeks ago - only began to take on colour with Canada Day on the horizon. What happened to turbo-charge them between June and July is anybody's guess, but hundreds of them now exceed the size of Napoleon's head. Lots of sunshine has helped, of course, as has the occasional thunderstorm, but both are typical of July and don't explain this year's phenomenon. As far as I know, hydrangeas don't flower in cycles, and on the evidence of the ones that happily line the roadsides in much of Galicia, neither do they really demand pruning, despite the countless articles dedicated to that subject.
A mystery, then, but on the 'gift horse' principle, I'll just accept this year's exceptional display with thanks, and while it lasts, enjoy the delighted astonishment of visitors. (Yours too, so will keep this short and let the photos speak for themselves.)
