Latest News
Royal Horticultural Trial Team Visit
The Royal Horticultural Society run extensive Plant Trials and use the Award of Garden Merit to recognise plants of proven garden-worthiness. Hydrangea Derby are trialling 24 varieties of hydrangea for them so a Trials Team visited us to review and monitor the...
Open Day 2015
The sun shone, the flowers bloomed and the visitors came; 64 in all for the tours and lots who just came for a look. 'What a hidden gem, absolutely fantastic collection, thank you for the inspiration.' 'Stunning gardens. Congratulations to all involved.'...
Community Green Flag Award
We got the flag again. It's for being a welcoming place, being healthy, safe and secure, clean and well maintained, it's sustainable, we consider biodiversity and heritage, it's a community project and being creative and innovative. And we enjoy it too! The Mayor...
Gates Completed
The Rolls Royce apprentice, 5 from UK and 5 from Germany completed the task with the final flourish of the art work for the middle static gate which give diverse viewing points of the walled garden. The walled garden is now open and the plants ready for viewing. ...
New Gates for the Walled Garden
Today, 10 Rolls Royce apprentices with the help of Derby Homes came to the garden and started to build 3 new gates for the entrances into the walled garden. Five of them were from Germany on a cultural exchange to help towards a Derby community project. Melissa, the...
Open Day 2015
This year's open day is on Sunday, 9th August 2015 from 10am to 4pm. There will be conducted tours of the collection at 11am, 1pm and 3pm. Meet at the Terrace Café and no need to book. There will be no charge but donations are very gratefully received. Directions...
Hydrangea Derby 2015
The new season is beginning. The plants are already shooting out shoots. Community Payback have spent many appreciated hours mulching the beds to protect the collection from frost, weeds and drought. We have set up our gardening timetable of Tuesday and the 4th...
American Hydrangea Society Visit
Six members of the American Hydrangea Society on a garden tour of Europe and Britain stopped off in Derby to visit the National Collection of Hydrangeas in Darley Park. It was the last stop on their tour and agreed that it was the best of the lot. It is a bit too...
Open Day Cancelled
It's pouring with rain, the café is closed and although the hydrangeas are loving the tail end of Bertha, we humans aren't so waterproof. So we gathered with our marquees, tables, posters, etc to decide on a plan. The rain defeated us however, so we made the unhappy...
A brief history of the macrophylla cultivars
A BRIEF HISTORY OF HYDRANGEA MACROPHYLLA H = Hortensis = Mop Head L = Lace Cap USP: = Unique Selling Point The original macrophyllas introduced from Japan & China 1788 : macrophylla (H) Introduced from Japan as Hortensia by Sir Joseph Banks, renamed...