bract

These colorful parts of the plant, often referred to as flowers, are actually modified leaves called bracts.

Just as most plants are fading at the end of the growing season, hydrangea flowers, technically long-lasting bracts, are at their best, maturing to deep blue, purple and a flight of wines.

Each flower is held in a cuff of threadlike bracts — the “mist” — and appears in spring and early summer.

Arching stems produce delicate white flowers and dusky pink bracts throughout the growing season, and the entire plant takes on burnished hues with cool weather in fall.

Multicolored red-orange flower bracts that will bloom in the late spring and summer.