With enough lime addition lacecap Hydrangeas Kardinal, Rotdrossel (Red Wing), and Fassan all can be nice impressive reds. They sometimes end up deep pink instead.

Consider Selina too. It has nice bronze color to it's leaves, especially with new to mid growth. Photos shown. It starts out with light center and darkens. Typically more of a hot dark pink than red.

If you like red and would like a very compact dark red mophead, 'Hot Red' has been awesome for us. Starts with green centers and colors up nicely.

We also picked up a new variety patented by Bay City Flowers (CA) called 'New Wine'. The variety has amazing flower pigment density and petal substance. We initially picked two up to make a good deep purples, which are hard to find. It likes to be a purple, and looks like it can possibly be an excellent deep red (or blue?) too.

We are now working to shift one with lime addition towards red.

Good news! Today I came across another couple starts of H. 'New Wine', some in past prime colors. They've washed out a bit in density, but this gives more insight to the color potential. The 5 heads below are all on the same plant in a 6" pot. The variety has handsome strong dark green leaves that make a nice backdrop.

Helping justify my excitement, the large individual florets are 2.5 to 3" each in diameter and borne in large oval mopheads, much like a H. Merritt's 'Beauty' or 'Supreme'. Having 3 plants now, I'm going to grow them as a deep red, purple and blue (as I can get).

Of the Teller like series, Rotdrossel is perhaps the most natural red for us. Kardinal needs alot of lime push to be a clear red for us and Fassan acts more like a deep pastel pink.

Kardinal has among the larger flowers and if you don't push tbe lime too far, you can get a reddish flower with blue small fertile flowers in the middle. Not my photo, but found one on line like this. Hydrangea macrophylla 'Kardinal'. Always brave to try to get us the best, Wayside Gardens featured bicolor photos like this a few years ago, when we picked one up. A lot of folks likely had a lot of different surprizes with it because its colors change a lot with pH and it can be hard to get this bicolor effect. Bur so worth it when you do!

It's a bit late but 'Teller Red' is the Americanized name for 'Fasan', aka Pheasant - I guess the German just confuses us dumb Americans :-)) It can be a true 'red' in alkaline soil but will often be more of a violet color in lower pH soils. Unless very well situated, it might be more pink than red.

And color intensity is also highly dependent on location. The photos beautifully illustrated by gfleatham above are very indicative of the intensity of hydrangea flower colors we get here in the PNW, a nearly ideal hydrangea growing location where even in midsummer, the sun is quite mild and this tends to encourage very deep coloration. Hydrangeas may not develop this intensity of color in all parts of the country.

A tad OT but a question for gflaetham - how many hydrangeas do you grow?? Your gorgeous photos indicate a pretty extensive collection. Do you have a large property? Whereabouts in Seattle are you located........I might like to drop by during flower season :-))

We have 80 carefully collected and researched varierties. Now growing just south of Seattle. Sorry not open to viewing yet. We moved and are establishing a new yard, so will be a wait.

Among our plants are also a few unlabeled Fred Myers, McLendon's plants and florist varieties that are standouts, and drive me crazy as unknown's. I suspect that wholesale growers are always testing new things in WA and OR and sometimes outlet some unlabeled plants this way. Standouts can thus become unknowns. Heck tag 'em and just charge more please!

Point in case ... these huge 8" flowers heads were among four mopheads on the same one gallon plant. When viewed carefully like nothing else I have or have seen.

Another case with HUGE mopheads with complex petal shading, starting white and coloring as it develops. Wondering if this is 'Pink Sensation'?

Places like Molbaks can bring in amazing things in their gift plant area, many with Bay City Flowers tags.

An example is 'Multi Blue', a small leaved plant in 4" pot fully covered with small petal flowers. Can't wait to see how it develops in the yard.

I also monitor for past prime color effects in my selection of plants. I so kick myself for not picking this one up.

Trying to track this down, and think it might be a pink called 'Royalty' in past prime stage from Bay City.

'First White' from Europe was a nice find at Carpinito Bros farm store in Kent. I appreciate how they keep things labeled right. We have a few nice white macrophylla, this one having very large heads of bright pure white flowers with rounded petals. By the way, it goes reddish later, by shading not spotting, so keeps shifting and looking nice.

We have one nice unlabeled pink/white bicolor something like 'Peppermint' or 'Red Ace', but less distinct color lines, and more intriguing. Need to see it bloom again and photograph it.

It the process of installing plants now. Our yard had thin topsoil and rocky dry highers clay sand quite rocky subsoil. Must hand dig with iron rod! Found soil quite dry in the summet so digging deep root pits to ensure success. Hand screen the rock out. Using compost at 20 to 50% (50% for hydrangeas). One maddening result was the pH of the compost shifted almost all our red and blue hydrangea to pink. So chosing now what to change back.

We are a testament to Cedar Grove compost. We should be their featured demonstration site! Used 20 cu yards so far and next 20 yards is now here.

First step was to dig a deep fishpond, for garden interest. Final effect should be stunning we hope!

The panicle hydrangea is H. paniculata 'Fire & Ice' behind our fish pond before it shifts pink, then red.

Internet grower's photo showing shifts.