Add some late summer color to your landscape with easy care hydrangeas. These beauties bloom when so many other shrubs are done for the season. Whether its color, low maintenance or year round interest your garden needs – hydrangeas are the answer. Mix them with perennials to extend the color, increase texture and add year round beauty to the garden.
Annabelle-type hydrangeas have long been stars of the shade garden. Their large white flowers brighten shady areas and they combine nicely with hostas, ferns, astilbe and other shade loving plants. Annabelles prefer moist well-drained soil and partial shade. You can grow them in full sun as long as you keep the soil moist. These hydrangeas bloom on the current season’s growth so you can prune them during the dormant season and still enjoy their luxurious blooms in summer.
You’ll find relatively new hydrangea varieties that provide an update to the look of this old fashioned favorite. Create an impact with the 12-inch spherical flowers of Incrediball®. Fill small spaces, containers, or the front of the border with Invincibelle® Wee White. It only grows 1 to 2½ feet tall but has large flowers despite its small size. Add a bit of pink to the landscape with Invincibelle® Spirit II. It is hardy, reliable and produces pink flowers no matter your soil pH.
Consider panicle hydrangeas when looking for a multi-stemmed shrub or small-scale tree for full-sun or partial shade locations with moist well-drained soil. The hardiness, reliability and many new varieties make this a must-have plant for every landscape. Flowers form on the current season’s growth, are cone shaped (panicles) and most start out white, fade to pink or red and then brown.
The low maintenance panicle hydrangea requires minimal pruning adding to its appeal. Just pick the variety that fits the available space once it reaches full size. Limelight® is a popular variety with large lime green flowers that transform to white then fade to shades of pink and red then brown. Its tall stature limits its use in some landscapes. Grow Little Lime® with the same flowers but on a shorter 4’ tall plant. Extend the panicle hydrangea flower season with Quickfire®. This earlier blooming panicle hydrangea grows 6 to 8’ tall and wide with white flowers that fade to pink then red and eventually brown. Quickfire® continues the show as the leaves turn from green to golden-burgundy in fall.
If you are looking for big pink and blue hydrangea flowers of the Southeast and Northwest, it is likely a big leaf hydrangea. These beauties have pink flowers in alkaline soils, like ours, and blue flowers in acid soils or on plants treated with aluminum sulfate. Look for repeat blooming types like the Endless Summer® series. These bloom on last year’s stems, if any survive, and the current season’s growth. This repeat blooming nature allows northern gardeners an opportunity to enjoy their flowers even when the plants die back to the ground over winter.
Grow big leaf hydrangeas in full sun with some afternoon shade and moist well-drained soil. Make sure the plants receive sufficient moisture and fertilize with Milorganite once in spring. The low nitrogen won’t interfere with blooming and as the micro-organisms release the nutrients in Milorganite throughout the summer, they also make some of the phosphorous and potassium bound to the soil available to the plants. The phosphorous helps promote flowering.
Select the Endless Summer® variety that complements your garden design. ‘Blushing Bride’ has double white flowers that fade to pink. For a change of pace try ‘Twist and Shout’ with lacy flowers and dense dark centers of pink or blue depending on soil pH.
With so many choices you are sure to find one or more hydrangeas to boost your landscape’s beauty.
Written by gardening expert, Melinda Myers. Melinda Myers is a nationally recognized gardening expert with more than 30 years of horticulture experience. She is a wealth of knowledge and we are pleased to share Melinda’s Beginner Gardeners’ Guide with you!
