Hydrangea serrata 'Akishino temari'
This is undoubtedly one of the most beautiful floriferous hydrangeas from Japan.
The shrub is medium-to-small, and has an elegant, willowy shape. Its light-green leaves provide an attractive contrast with the small spherical inflorescences. The young flowers are a greenish cream white and gradually shade into pink, starting from the tip of the sepal. The fertile flowers look like a little button, and their pink hue is more intense than that of the sterile flowers; when they open, they release the stamen and show their inside, which is an even more intense shade of pink. On the ramifications of a same floral stem, even in a very young plant, there may be several inflorescences at different stages of maturation; and on a single inflorescence some flowers may be completely open, while others are still immature. The flowering is extraordinarily prolonged, particularly if the autumn and late autumn are mild enough.