IZUMO, Shimane Prefecture--Five new hydrangea species developed here are so sought after in the Tokyo metropolitan area that flower fans there call them "phantoms" since they sell out so fast you'll be lucky to get one before they disappear.

Behind their popularity lies the inconspicuous efforts of local farmers to compete with producers in other regions across Japan, as Shimane Prefecture is home to fewer hydrangea cultivators.

At a greenhouse in Izumo one late April day, Toshio Takuwa, 62, who is head of the Shimane Hydrangea Club, comprised of hydrangea farmers in Shimane Prefecture, was gearing up for the delivery of potted red and blue flowers.

“I'm too busy to have holidays from mid-April through Mother’s Day,” said Takuwa, who is churning out 12,000 potted flowers a year.

His tight schedule stems from the growing hydrangea boom in the season. The flowers began getting more popular as Mother’s Day gifts four to five years ago, according to leading Tokyo-based wholesaler Ota Floriculture Auction Co.

The trend generated a lot of interest in Shimane's original hydrangea varieties.

The magnificent patterns and rarity of the five species the prefecture has developed to date are reportedly so popular that they attract three times more orders every year than the number of the flowers produced.

Among them, the Mangekyo (Kaleidoscope) species stands out as "unparalleled and at a different level," Takuwa said.

The first newly created species bloomed in 2012 and is characterized by its peculiar color arrangement.

The hue in center of the petals becomes gradually lighter toward the periphery, and flowers that overlap produce an effect like the view seen through a kaleidoscope, giving the Mangekyo its name.

The hydrangea variety nabbed the Flower of the Year prize in the Potted Plant Division in the Japan Flower Selections, the largest new variety competition in Japan.

The third new species, Ginga (Galaxy), which began being shipped in 2017, has also won the top award, and Shimane's second new variety, Mikumo (Elegant cloud), and fourth, Akanegumo (Red cloud) won prizes.

Mikumo started being delivered in 2013 and Akanegumo in 2020.

All the new species, including the fifth, Hoshiatsume hydrangea, introduced this year, have seen rising sales.

Previously in Shimane, cyclamen production had been big business during the winter. But farmers selling the flowers have been hit by decreased demand for them and skyrocketing prices for fuel to use at greenhouses.

The prefectural government turned to growing hydrangeas, which can be shipped in spring, as a way to better their financial situations.

The Shimane Agricultural Technology Center committed itself to developing new varieties of hydrangeas from 2005 after it learned that not much effort had been made to devise new varieties through breeding.

In a bid to realize designs that could not be found elsewhere, it created about 20,000 kinds of hydrangea via crossbreeding to produce smaller flowers with many overlapping layers of petals.

Mangekyo was completed by careful sorting so that it could survive even in areas where temperatures are low and land receives sunlight for fewer hours during winter.

Toshitaka Hirasa, 55, and Tetsuya Kako, 39, at the Shimane Agricultural Technology Center, said the variety is “ideal for Shimane's climate” though its weather conditions are “generally regarded as unfavorable.”

Farmers also teamed up to produce the new varieties, pooling their expertise. Six producers in 2010 founded the Shimane Hydrangea Club so its members could hold meetings on 20 occasions annually to check the growth of the flowers and share culturing techniques.

The farmers don't compete with one another, and instead pack off their products to the market at the same prices. They also agree at the club’s plenary gathering on how many flowers should be raised by each farmer and where their productions will be delivered.

Those who newly join the group are supposed to refine their skills for three years and are not allowed to sell the prefecture’s original species during the training period.

“The local mechanism works well because the farmers share a common vision of how fewer producers in Shimane Prefecture can vie with other regions throughout the country,” Kako said.

Though Shimane's number of hydrangea producers has risen to 15, that's still one-fourth that of Japan’s largest producing area of Aichi Prefecture.

This year, 60,000 Mangekyo pods are expected to be shipped out, quadruple the first business year's shipment, meaning a total of 120,000 hydrangea pods, including both original and common variants, will be sold.

Shimane Prefecture is looking to raise the shipping volume to 200,000 pods with an eye toward increasing its domestic market share to 25 percent from 10 percent.