After admiring the calla lilies at Zhu Zi Hu, welcome the vibrant hydrangea season of Yangmingshan.

By MOOK Scenic Spots Family (compiled and reported)

Zhu Zi Hu is world-famous for its sea of calla lilies. During the annual Calla Lily Season, it attracts over 600,000 visitors. In recent years, with the growing flower-appreciation trend among Taiwanese tourists, hydrangea fields have also become a must-see for both domestic and international visitors from May to June; after May, the yield of calla lilies begins to decline, and the flowers in the fields gradually enter their summer dormancy period. This makes it the perfect time to shift to enjoying the hydrangea blooms and welcoming summer.

After the second half of mid-to-late May, the romantic white calla lilies start to fade, and the farms of Zhu Zi Hu begin to greet the vibrant purple-blue hydrangea seas. There are 7 to 8 varieties of hydrangeas grown in Zhu Zi Hu, offering a diverse color palette including pure white, pink with red edges, pink, purplish-red, light blue, and blue. Both large-flowered and medium-flowered varieties are distributed across the farms, creating richly layered and vivid colors—perfect for visitors to take photos.

The vase life of a hydrangea is about a week. For harvested hydrangeas, it’s best to soak the entire flower in water for more than half an hour, then wrap the blossoms in thoroughly damp newspaper to ensure they remain bright and vibrant after bringing them home.

The hydrangeas commonly seen in the market are of the Western hydrangea variety. Originally from Japan (known in Japanese as "ajisai"), their hybridization did not take place in Japan. Instead, it began in the latter half of the 18th century after eight varieties native to Japan—including mountain hydrangea, calyx hydrangea, and red-eyebrow hydrangea—were introduced to Europe. In the early 20th century, France produced the first superior varieties, followed by Germany, the Netherlands, and Belgium, which conducted hybridization experiments and developed 400–500 varieties with richly colored, large flower heads in shades of red, pink, and reddish-purple. These were later exported back to Japan under the transliterated genus name “hydrangea,” distinguishing them from native varieties.

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