A very robust shrub with soft blue to dusky pink sterile florets and deep blue fertile ones. I am very fond of the way the color on the sterile flowers is stained irregularly, as if it were actively infusing the petals with ink. It flowers heavily and repeatedly from mid-summer onwards and is a good lacecap for drying. The name Blue Wave was applied by Haworth-Booth in the 1950s, but it was first introduced in 1904, one of three original seedlings of the old Japanese cultivar Mariesii that were raised by the French nurseryman Lemoine. Lemoine called it Hydrangea Mariesii Perfecta, and Haworth-Booth renamed it to accord with international rules of horticultural nomenclature. Description Courtesy of Vintage Gardens.