Limelight is one of the best-selling hydrangeas on the market. Photo courtesy Proven Winners/ColorChoice Plants
Hydrangeas have white or pink flowers and sometimes, the enviable blue. Flat flowers are called lace caps and those that look like balls are mop heads. Some have cone-shaped or panicle flowers. Hydrangeas are the shrubs of summer, calling to us from the garden this time of year. They are great for cut flowers, too.
Panicle hydrangeas
These hydrangeas (H. paniculata) offer multiple season, low maintenance beauty in the garden. White panicles of flowers start blooming in early summer and continue for several weeks. As the flowers age, they turn pink. True to their name, Quick Fire and Little Quick Fire turn pink very quickly after they bloom.
Little Quick Fire panicle hydrangea works well in a pot. Transplant the shrub to the ground in fall. Photo courtesy Proven Winners/ColorChoice Plants
‘Limelight’, the award-winning, best selling panicle hydrangea, is 6 to 8 feet tall and wide. The flowers on this variety start out lime green and turn pink by the end of summer.
Fortunately, breeders have reined in the size with Little Lime, another award winner, which has the same characteristics, but in 3 to 5 foot package. Even smaller is Bobo, a strong blooming plant that’s about 3 feet tall with a 4 foot spread.
Bobo panicle hydrangea is a blooming machine. Photo courtesy Proven Winners/ColorChoice Plants
Panicle hydrangeas prefer eight or more hours of full sun, but will do well with four to six hours of direct sun. If sited correctly in the landscape, especially for its size, a panicle hydrangea is very low maintenance. If trimming is needed, do so in late winter or early spring. It blooms on current season growth. These hydrangeas sometimes are available in tree form or standards.
Big leaf hydrangeas
This is the hydrangea (H. macrophylla) that can form blue flowers, but only if given the correct soil additive. Ask your landscaper to treat the plants with the proper acidic fertilizer, aluminum sulfate, or do the work yourself with a readily available soil acidifier from garden centers. Always read and follow the label directions.
Consider growing Endless Summer and other big leaf hydrangeas in a pot for summern enjoyment. Photo courtesy Bailey Nurseries
These hydrangeas want to bloom pink (or white) because they are growing in Indiana soil, which tends to be alkaline. It may take a year or two to alter the soil enough to turn the flowers blue. Some gardeners buy the plants with blue flowers and grow these long-blooming plants for the summer in a pot.
Since so many of the popular big leaf hydrangeas are the reblooming types, such as Endless Summer, customers always want to know if and when to prune them. Holeman experts recommend not pruning until all leafing out has occurred in spring. Then, remove all dead wood back to new sprouts.
The hydrangeas discussed in this blog come from other lands. A previous Holeman blog talks about native hydrangea that thrives in the gardens of Indiana and the Midwest.