Hydrangea anomala subsp. anomala 'Winter Glow' BSWJ2411

This is a pretty interesting selection of climbing hydrangea we received from the intrepid plant hunting duo of Bleddyn and Sue Wynn-Jones of Crug Farm Nursery in Wales. They collected this on a plant hunting trip to Sikkim and found this in the forest near the town of Yuksom. This has the typical small coral-green lacecap flowers and will self-adhere to a wall or tree-trunk as do the others but what sets this selection apart is the generally evergreen leaves which turn purple in the winter. Admittedly, Crug is in a mild portion of Wales which helps with the evergreen nature but what a nice bit of unexpected ornament. This was not collected at a particularly high elevation and we have no idea how hardy this will prove to be but for that sheltered spot in need of winter interest, gotta try it! Especially if grown on a wall, hardiness should be greatly improved and we expect this to be good to zone 7 anyway.