Hydrangea luteovenosa var. luteovenosa ("Kogakutsugi")

Japanese name: コガクウツギ （小額空木）
Scientific name: Hydrangea luteovenosa var. luteovenosa

[Overview]
A small deciduous shrub up to 1.5 m tall, found on slopes in bright hills and low mountains.
The bark peels off in strips.
Young branches are tinged with reddish purple and glossy.
Leaves are simple and opposite, oblong to broadly lanceolate, 3–5 cm long.
On the underside of the leaves, white hairs grow in clusters in the vein axils.
The leaf margins are serrated.
Cymes 2–7 cm across are produced at the branch tips.
The inflorescence has 1–3 showy sterile flowers, white to pale yellow, around the edge, and 10–20 white to pale yellowish green bisexual flowers in the center.
The sepals of the sterile flowers number 3–4, vary in size, and are round to ovate.
The bisexual flowers are 5-petaled, but the petals fall easily.
There are 10 stamens, of differing lengths.
The fruit is a capsule 4–5 mm long.

[Cultivation]
Propagate from seed or by cuttings.
It prefers fertile, well-drained soil in sun to partial shade.
It is unsuitable for places where the soil becomes extremely dry or that receive strong afternoon sun.
For potted plants and plants in the ground for less than 2 years, water thoroughly when the soil surface dries.
Established plants in the ground need no particular watering, but if the soil dries out during the high temperatures of summer, water in the morning or evening when the temperature is low.
In addition to a base fertilizer, apply slow-release chemical fertilizer around the base of the plant in winter.
There are no particular pests or diseases.

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