Roses and paniculata hydrangeas in the same bed, anyone?

16 years ago

I am in the process of creating a new flower bed in a a full sun area. Originally, I was going to have just a mixture of paniculata hydrangeas (Limelight, Little Lamb, Pinky Winky, Pink Diamond, Quick Fire) with some colorful perennials. However, the more I think about it, the more I thought that it would be great to have roses in there, to provide the bed with some much needed early and long-lasting colors, since these paniculata hydrangeas bloom later in the summer and their blooms are mostly white and pink.

Here's the kidney-shaped area in question (it is still full of grass yet but will be converted into a bed soon!):

I wonder if anyone has successfully created a bed with such a mixture of paniculata hydrangeas and roses? Are they good companions? I already have a Julia Child, Day Breaker and Pink Knockout Rose in pots and I can easily plant them into the bed.

I would very much appreciate your opinion please!

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Comments (6)

dublinbay z6 (KS)
16 years ago
If the roses will get at least 6 hours of sun and those are the type of hydrangeas that can be grown in that much sun (I always forget which ones can), then I see no problem. I have some Annabelle hydrangeas (white) in part shade not too far from William Shakespeare 2000 and some other Austins which get sun, and the look is great.

My memory is that the late summer hydrangeas can get very large with time. Don't know about the ones you selected, but you might double-check mature sizes on everything so you don't have a tangled mess on your hands later.

Let us see pics next year--I'm looking forward to them.

Kate
ostrich
Original Author
16 years ago
Thanks, Kate!

Yes, these paniculatas are the hydrangeas that can tolerate full sun in the north (where I am) and they do grow quite big without pruning!

I should get sufficient sun there for roses. If I put in roses, I will reduce the number of hydrangeas in the bed, so that I will have enough space for everyone...

I wonder how big Day Breaker, Pink Knockout and Julia Child can get? Different websites list different sizes so it's hard to tell which one is correct! Does anyone have any idea please?
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Looks like sagging from too much water/rain (especially looking at the leaves). Trim the long stems to ~36" in the offseason they will become thicker year after year, to support upper foliage/blooms. Consider "mounding" the bed a little and raising the root ball a few inches if too much water is a potential issue. Here is close cousin Great Star. It's approaching 7' and a little sprawly, blooms bend over the stems after heavy rain. I'm going to trim to about 40" max (the fence is close to 48"). Should make for a fuller branch structure next time around.
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'Carol Mackie' is officially going on my list. :-) We love fragrant plants, its the first thing I look for. I can never have enough of them. I love mums. I usually only cut back once and they stay at a pretty good height. I find if I cut them too late, they don't bloom early enough to enjoy them. They are very long lived in my garden. Regardless of weather over the winter, they usually have new basal foliage going into the winter. I usually leave the dead foliage until spring, just to give them more protection. Seems a pretty low effort way of helping them get thru the winter. I really enjoyed mine this fall. And I had a white one in the back that was just doing very little in not enough sun, so I divided it into three and added those to the full sun bed out front. I wasn't sure I would enjoy white with the other more muted fall color mums, but I seem to have managed to get them in lucky positions where they really shined. Not by plan. [g] They were small this season but next year, they should be much bigger. Like everything else in that bed. [g] Wow that's a lot of blooms on Endless Summer. I have never had that many on mine. I will try your suggestion for pruning in the spring. I think I may have been doing that any way. I get a lot of die back for some reason and I cut back to buds that appear alive. What direction are your neighbor's ES facing? Sun/shade? I wonder if it could be that, or like everything else, it might just be all the Maple tree roots sucking all the moisture out of the ground around my property.
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redsox_gw
16 years ago
Hi, I have the paniculata Limelight. It came with our house and I must say it is huge! You are in a very different zone, but Ohio is our neighbor here in KY. This year was a drought year for us and the limelight looked great for a while but in the past 2-3 weeks, not so good. But the season is over...and this was not a typical year.

I don't mean to hijack but are you very familiar with Limelight? Do you cut it to the ground in Fall? Or just prune it lightly? I have heard if you cut back at the right time, you get fewer flowers, but larger ones. Like roses, I guess.
ostrich
Original Author
16 years ago
Hi Redsox,

It's OK - I don't mind talking about Limelight here, but then it's the Rose Forum!!! LOL!

Anyway, I did not really prune my Limelight last year (it was planted just last year). However, though there were many blooms, the stems were weaker. I am going to prune it next spring, so that there will be fewer blooms, but the stems will be stronger and the blooms will be larger.

If you search in the Hydrangea Forum, you will find some interesting and helpful information there. Some also recommended pruning some of the branches only, leaving the stronger ones behind, so you will have a nicely balanced plant that will be full and maintain a vase shape. I think it will grow back if you cut it to the ground, but the goal is to maintain a nice vase shape so you should prune it in such a way to achieve that. I also understand that with paniculatas, you should aim to achieve a strong, single-trunk structure too in order for it to look its best.

Now, do you have roses as companion plants next to your Limelight? How tall and wide is your Limelight? How old is it?
redsox_gw
16 years ago
Ostrich, sorry for the errant post! I will send you an
e-mail about the Limelight but these GW e-mails don't always work so if you don't receive it in a day or so, let me know over here.
ostrich
Original Author
16 years ago
Hi Redsox,

Guess what? The e-mail did you come through! You may want to just use this address:

ostrich_001@yahoo.com

I look forward to hearing from you soon!

Roses and paniculata hydrangeas in the same bed, anyone?

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dublinbay z6 (KS)

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Roses and paniculata hydrangeas in the same bed, anyone?

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