Northwest Blooms · Shrubs
Hydrangea macrophylla ‘Horwack’ Pistachio
Horwack Pistachio Big Leaf Hydrangea
- Family
- Hydrangeaceae
- Height
- 3 to 4 feet
- Width
- 3 to 4 feet
- Flower color
- Violet to scarlet-red with blue eye
- Foliage color
- Green
- Bloom time
- Summer
- Light
- Partial to full shade
- Water
- Regular
- Maintenance
- Low to moderate
- Growing zone
- Zones 5 to 9
- Wildlife
- Attracts butterflies and bees
About this plant
Hydrangea macrophylla 'Horwack' Pistachio produces rounded mophead flower clusters from late spring through summer and often into fall, opening chartreuse green before developing vivid scarlet to violet-red centers, green margins, and tiny blue eyes. Glossy, broadly oval dark green leaves form a lush backdrop for the unusual multicolored blooms. Flower colors continue evolving as individual clusters mature, creating combinations of green, pink, red, violet, and purple on the same shrub.
Bred in Dresden, Germany, 'Horwack' originated from a 2004 cross between 'Green Shadow' and an unnamed Hydrangea macrophylla selection and was chosen in 2006. Its compact, well-branched habit and reblooming character make it well suited to mixed borders, foundation plantings, containers, mass plantings, and specimen settings, where the changing flowers provide months of colorful garden interest.
Works well in
Shade Gardens · Foundation Plantings · Cut Flower Gardens · Cottage Gardens
Companion plants
Yew · Astilbe · Ajuga · Sweet box · Anemone · Oregon grape
Design tip
Let ‘Pistachio’ supply the color complexity in a planting rather than surrounding it with equally colorful elements. A simpler composition allows its unusual progression of chartreuse, violet, scarlet-red, and blue to remain the clear focal point.
Where to see it
This plant can be seen at the Bellevue Botanical Garden.
