I may have posted about this before, but it has never been so apparent as it has this year: there are hydrangeas in my garden that I didn’t plant.
Mind you, I am not complaining, particularly since hydrangeas are one of my 2 favorite flowers (roses are the other).
And, due to a series of “unfortunate incidences,” as I am now referring to things, I haven’t been out in my gardens in any meaningful way since at least 2016–perhaps earlier. It’s getting hard to remember the last time I was really able to garden properly.
So I am blessed that the gardens are almost self-sustaining. And if I can’t do things–or hire people to do them exactly the way I would like them to be done, oh well. Some people have real problems.
So this is a real treat, and the thing that tipped me off to the fact that, yes, indeed, this is a self-sown hydrangea. Where else are you going to find 2 different color flowers on the same shrub?
I checked–all the pink ones that I planted are accounted for (and further, I do know where I planted them). I am less clear about my whites, but that’s not the issue since I have pink and white blooms on the same shrub. Clearly, my bees have been busy!
This is a close-up of just the pink flower on one of these shrubs. As far as I can tell, there are at least 3 of them.
What’s not to like?
Gardendaze 
Pink and white flowers would need to be two different plant. Pinks can be blue, and blue can be pink, but white is always white. Bees only pollinate. They can not change the genetics of a plant, and certainly can not change the genetics of the blooms. If you follow the stems, you will find that they originate from two different root systems, even if they are right next to each other. It is common practice to stick three or more cuttings into each pot, both to get fuller plants, and also if multiple colors are desired. Although it is possible that they could have seeded, it is more likely that new plants came up from roots, or stems that layed down on the ground and rooted.
These are the “Annabelle” kind, not hydrangea macrophylla so I think it is entirely possible that my two varieties of Proven Winners hydrangeas haven hybridized (and why not, since they themselves are hybrids of “Annabelle”?)
The two varieties that I suspect intermingled are Incrediball and Invincibelle Spirit.
I DO know what you mean about plants rooting themselves by layering–I have seen my macrophylla types do that.
I should have been clearer in my post about my pink hydrangeas being non-macrophylla types. It’s just not something I generally think about here in New England where we can only grow blues or purple big leafs because of our acidic soil (even when I had a “Forever Pink,” it wasn’t pink for me–it was purple!)
On the other hand, my sister in Oklahoma can only grow pink ones, even if she buys them blue–same reason–soil.
Thanks for sharing, Tony.
Karla