very blue hydrangeas

REMF33

I have this very beautiful hydrangea at my house in Normandy (it gets no attention whatsover and predates our ownership - we bought in 2007 - It must like the soil) which I might attempt to take cuttings from but I am not terribly hopeful of success. (Can one even still import plants?) Can anyone recommend a very blue hydrangea? And is it really possible to achieve this colour in a pot using ericacious compost?
I am asking partly because I don't trust pictures on the interent. You can usually tell when the saturation's been ramped up by looking at greenery, but not always.

Liriodendron

It's no longer legal to move plants (or seeds) between the UK and EU without a phytosanitary certificate, so I wouldn't bother with cuttings, tempting though it is...  Better to go with a new plant as similar as possible to your lovely French one. 

You could try emailing your photo to a specialist nursery in the UK (I don't have personal knowledge of any, but Ashwoods have a large selection and a good reputation) and see if they can identify it.  I used to grow 'Teller Blue', which was quite an in-your-face blue, but I don't remember the central fertile flowers being such an outstanding colour as in your photo.  Good luck!

Pete.8

Chances are your soil in Normandy is quite acidic.
If you took a cutting and grew it back home in the UK, unless your soil is as acidic as the soil in Normandy it would be much paler blue or, if your soil is alkaline, it would turn pink.
You can buy bluing agent (aluminium sulphate) for hydrangeas - widely available.
As far as I know, it's more to do with the soil chemistry then the variety

REMF33

Thanks, yes I appreciate that. The best I can hope for is that ericacious compost and appropriate feed would maintain the colour. However that'as assume a cutting would work (and survive the trip home. Probably wouldn't take before I got home). Which is partly why just buying one seems sensible if I can get similar.

ah I just saw @Liriodendron's comment...

REMF33

Damn, wish I had got round to doing this last year...

thevictorian

Cuttings do take a good while to become decent sized plants and given that the soil can change the colour of them, I think it's easier to go to a nursery and choose one there. The colour agents do work and you can normally keep the colour with these if you keep it in a pot.

Nollie

Have you seen edhelka’s thread on hydrangeas? There are some lovely blue ones on that that could be a good match:

https://forum.gardenersworld.com/discussion/1066802/show-me-your-hydrangeas/p1