I bought penny mac ( blue snowball rebloom) Mine bloomed all summer. I believe they are one of the smaller hydrangeas.
The problem I see with your planting space is the hydrangea will be to close to the house. You should have a few feet behind it where it can get air circulation. Ideally, No foundation planting should touch the house.

Remember, any hydrangea can be pruned down to size - as long as you do it immediately after it's done flowering. I love my Endless Summer and prune it throughout the season. You can prune this particular hydrangea at any time as it blooms on old and new wood. The more you cut the dead flowers, the more appear on Endless Summer. It's very forgiving. The space you've got would be just fine for it. In fact, too small a hydrangea would look lost. You need something substantial to fill that corner. Plant it closer to the brick border rather than the house.

I have a Pia, which is really a nice little hydrangea, and for me it has a deep pinkish purple color.

However, I'm thinking that it might be TOO small for your space. I'm kind of with Nancy on this one, that you need something to fill the space.

Good luck!
Dee

Here is a link that might be useful: pia

Janet, I think that you have an excellent spot for a macrophylla. They will produce "snowball" type of blooms, and they can be very colorful (blue or pink). I think that will be very lovely against your house.

Since Pee Wee is a paniculata hydrangea, it will be white and the blooms will be less dramatic than the macrophyllas. That said, it is also a lot hardier and reliable in its blooming abilities in your zone 5 yard. However, the only thing is, it has WHITE blooms, and I am not sure if that would look nice against your whitish siding, unless you grow other perennials or shrubs that are very, very colorful around there to off set the white-on-white color scheme there...

If you go with the macrophyllas, see if you can find the other remontant types (i.e. bloom on old wood) rather than Endless Summer. I believe there are some new ones coming out but I am not sure if they have reached your local market yet - certainliy I do not see them in Cleveland.

Good luck and let us know how it goes!

Small correction to the previous post, Pee Wee is an oakleaf, not a paniculata. Accordingly, it may or may not bloom in z5 IL, especialy in a wind-exposed location.

you might also want to ask on the shrub forum.
best,
mindy

I read the other link and posted to that one by mistake. Here's what I posted on the hydrangea forum:

I've had Endless Summer for 5 yrs. The 2nd yr was the worse on it. Very few blooms. But for the past 3 yrs it's done very well. Mine dies down quite a bit during the winter, but it comes right back when it gets warm. If you would get this one, and you'd have it facing the north, I would mound about 12" inches of soil/compost/mulch around it for winter. I really like this one. The flowers get huge.
Good luck on your choice!

Kat

On the nursery's website they have two Pee Wee's listed.

Hydrangea pan. 'Pee Wee'
and
Hydrangea quer. 'Pee Wee' (oakleaf)

Some other's that are listed that sound like what I might be looking for are:

Hydrangea m. 'All Summer Beauty'
Hydrangea m. 'Color Fantasy'
and , of course, 'Endless Summer'.

I really appreciate everyone's thoughts.

Janet

Janet, there is a Pee Wee that is a paniculata and another Pee Wee that is a quercifolia. Which one were you thinking of?

Also, with our comments above, what are your thoughts now as to what you want in your bed?

My apologies to Ostrich and you, there is indeed a less known cultivar of H.paniculata named 'Pee Wee', but it is just slightly slower grower than a well known PG. Visualy they are undefined. Put 7 y/o PW next to 5 y/o PG (both unpruned) and you'll not tell them apart.
H.quersifolia 'Pee Wee' on another side is distinctly smaller in all aspects than regular oakleaves and size-wise will be perfectly suited for your space, though hardiness issue still remains.
Good luck.

I agree that the white blooms would probably not look the best against our pale yellow house, but since I was looking for a smaller H. I didn't realize I'd have many other choices.

I like the idea of blooms on new and old wood. It seems a relatively safe bet that there will be blooms on it at some point. Also I want to make sure of hardiness, although I will have no problem protecting it with a good mulching before winter.

I also think some color would be nice. The Pee Wee I was thinking about, I believe was an oakleaf and I thought I read that it's leaves change color in the fall? But hardiness could be a problem, especially with the northern exposure it will get. The paniculata Pee Wee says it gets white blooms that age pink and into fall until frost. It seems an appropriate size at about 5' x 5' and is more hardy to zone 4, so should not be a problem here.

Does anyone have any experience with any of the above H's I mentioned that may be available at the nursery?
'All Summer Beauty' or 'Color Fantasy'
both are macrophyllas and supposedly hardy here and they look lovely in the pictures.

Thanks everyone for all your suggestion and ideas.
Janet

George, there is no need to apologize! Janet was indeed talking about the quercifolia! I should not have assumed that she meant the paniculata... :-)

Anyway, Janet, have you thought about a Limelight? It does have blooms with a wonderful lime to creamy white color, and it is incredibly hardy in our northern zones! The only thing is, it can be rather big. I wonder if that would work? Please do a search on that and you may be pleasantly surprised...

I was also looking for a smaller, more compact hydrangea. It seems that, aside from PeeWee, the new Cityline series, especially Cityline Berlin, is supposed to be fairly small (as far as hydrangeas go). I can't speak from experience as I haven't found Berlin yet in a nursery near me . . .

I think Oakleaf hydrangeas require more sun that what it sounds like that area will have, and I agree that white blooms against a white house might not be all that spectacular.

Most macrophyllas in your zone will not bloom without winter protection because they bloom on old wood, which will die in the winter. However, Endless Summer is an excellent macrophylla specimen, which blooms on new wood. You don't need to worry about pruning it because it will die down every winter and resprout in the spring, essentially self-pruning. If you want pink blooms, leave it as is, but if you want blue, you'll need to acidify the soil. Plant it out 1 1/2 - 2 feet from the foundation so it'll get the rain.

Deanna