I concur that "Karl" would be a could choice but I have not had any problem w/ "Karl" collapsing when covered w/ snow. We are ready to start cutting back our grasses this week and Karl is one that we do not have to "gather" up to get to the base for cutting. We also have Panicum virgatum "Heavy Metal" that is on the fringe of being shaded (not total all day sun) and "Heavy" seems to be growing well. If anything it does not get the vibrant deep wine color in the fall and it is not quite as thick as the other bed of "Heavy" that is in full sun. Jake

IME any of the H. paniculatas would work, or as others have suggested, a mix of them is a really great idea. Here they have thrived in full sun without irrigation, unlike the H. macrophyllas and H. arborescens, which like afternoon shade and periodic water. I would visit nurseries and look at the flowers of various types of H paniculata since the panicle's shape, density, and color varies a lot. I have Quickfire and Pinky Winky and prefer QF: the longer bloom time, the looser and more rounded panicles, and the color, which starts with white flowers around July 7-11, slowly shifts through a pale pinkish, and ends with a glowing cerise that lasts until hard frost. Pinky Winky starts later, has very dense pointed panicles, and still has a lot of white at this time of year. I am not overly fond of Limelight's fall color fade, though the summer is stunning, so having it as part of a mix would be a way to emphasize the positives of each while letting the less attractive aspects fade into the background, letting the ones that are at their best capture attention. My H. paniculatas leaf out with the majority of the other deciduous woody plants in my area, not early or late, so you will have time in the spring when you want to be outdoors but they don't provide as much privacy. My computer is in for repair, so I don't have normal access to photos, but I will look for some and add to a followup.

By 'depth' NHBabs meant the front to back measurement of the bed, not how deep the planting hole is. You don't need to dig an 8ft deep hole for an 8 foot tall shrub!! Whatever the height of the eventual shrub the hole it is planted in only needs to accommodate the root ball of the infant specimen. So if the shrub will end up 6 feet wide you need to plant it half that distance ie 3 feet from the wall plus a few feet for getting behind the shrub to maintain the wall. So a 6 foot wide shrub needs to be planted about 6 feet from the wall.

In my yard I have an Annabelle (same species as Incrediball) that gets sun from about 9:30 am until 2 pm. It will wilt if we have a dry period. So my experience is that they do better with shade during the hottest part of the day, even in my area where it only occasionally reaches the 90’s and cools down at night. Bloomstruck is a macrophylla aka bigleaf hydrangea. They tend to do best in maritime climates. Tootsie’s comments are spot on for this species in many parts of the country, so unless you live on Long Island or Cape Cod or in the PNW or similar climates that have water masses to moderate temperature swings, you may not find these easy to grow and get successful flowering many years. In my area paniculata hydrangeas do well in full sun, but in KS you may want to give them some shade during the very hottest part of the day. The ones Billy listed are all quite large, 8’-12’, depending on the cultivar, but there are smaller ones ranging from Bobo at 3’-4’to midsized ones such as Little Quickfire, Little Lime, Little Lamb that are in the 5’-6’ range.