This is such a helpful post!! I've just read through all the comments/photos. I'm feeling stuck and my husband says I'm overthinking things (true), but I just don't want to make the wrong decision. We are doing a complete overhaul in the front entrance to our tudor-cottage style house. My original plan was to plant Annabelles, with boxwood in front, along the new path to our front door. This is on the north side of the house, getting sun in the afternoon. We're in zone 5b (western MA) and we get lots of snow. A landscaper at our local nursery came out to look at the area and suggested limelights, with a long hedge of little limes to go along the west side of our home (not shown below). I know LLs are hardy, beautiful, etc, but my one major concern is that no matter how much we prune, they will always be HUGE. (I love everyone's photos--and I think in another location, I would have no issue with them getting so big.) As you see, we have two windows about 5 ft from the ground, and I do not want them totally covered up over time. The new pea gravel pathway to the front door will span the length of the steps (7 ft), then the boxwoods will go in (2-3 ft), and the hydrangeas behind them. I'm not sure there's enough room (width) to the house if they get super big. (By the way, we ripped EVERYTHING out in this area so it's just an empty blank slate right now. When we bought the house, it had an oversized tree and lots of old ferns/astilbes and it was just overgrown/a mess. It looks quite sad at the moment.) I'd like to move forward with our plan and get these hydrangeas planted within the month, so I need to make my final decision. What would you do? Plant LLs because they're low-maintenance and just prune hard each year? Can I realistically keep them to around 5 ft tall/wide?? Or will I regret this in 5 years? If I don't do LLs, will I also hate myself if I go with Annabelles? They fit better but I know they're more maintenance. Thanks for any thoughts you have on this!

Thanks Luis. I wasn't clear in my earlier posts. The pea gravel was a somewhat failed attempt at xeroscaping my north facing somewhat shady side yard. It was in reaction to overgrown jasmine that had invaded from my neighbor's yard. That "before" picture was after I had already trimmed several feet of it away. When I bought the house the vines had actually grown into the AC units! You couldn't even walk back there. So I ripped it all out and xeroscaped. It looks much cleaner, but also looks sterile. The stones are also hard to walk on and it's very difficult to get my lawn mower back there. So, we're redoing it again. This time we're going to rake back the pea gravel, lay a flag stone path around the side, then put pea gravel in between the stones. I have a new project elsewhere for the extra leftover pea gravel. It's much easier to walk on the path in the backyard with the flagstones in place. Then while we're doing this I'm going to put in a raised bed planter on the right side of picture one, about 4 or 5 feet wide. I'm definitely leaving planty of room to access the heat pumps. I'm going to raise this bed up at least 6" and fill it with locally made potting soil. The perimeter of the raised bed will be made with matching flagstones so it will look something like this picture from the web (not my house and I didn't take this picture). I wasn't planning on using pea gravel for the "mulch". It gets so hot here it would literally cook the roots. I tend to like pine straw for my mulch. Not as long lived as pine bark, but I like the look and I have been told that it doesn't attract termites. It's also easy to remove when it breaks down and replace with new. Acidifies the soil too which is important here, because my stucco concrete block house releases alkaline material into the dirt. I need to do this twice a year, but it's cost prohibitive, so I only do it once a year. It takes over 300 bales to do my yard! I'm worried that they may not get enough light in this location. Does anyone have any opinions on this? Can I really get by with just 3 Munchkins for 17' of bed? My wallet will thank me if this is so. How many years will it take for them to fill in this space? Thanks again everyone!

Ugh, my comment did not read like I intended it to read. Sorry, pilarfish6. That is what happens when your dogs are asking for treats while you are on the computer! Hee hee hee. Picture this request: feed me, feed me, feed me because I am meeeelting... Ha! You gotta love them! Yes, you will have blooms by September. But Limelight first produces blooms with a lime color, which then turns white and finally, the blooms add a mix of pinks and-or greens as the blooms further mature. If your intention is to provide lime green blooms only, or white blooms only or late colors from late blooms then it becomes difficult to get the colors timed precisely. When the wedding comes, for example, the lime greens may have turned white or be transitioning to white and be a mix of colors. Or the white ones may have started getting blotches of green or pink. Sorry about that being unclear in the previous note. Mea culpa.

Thanks for the advice from a month or so ago! I managed to avoid doing anything drastic to my limelight and it eventually started to leaf out in mid-May. I think the little guy is gonna make it. That said, your helpful words couldn't keep me from doing a little experimentation. I happened to be reading a book about pruning and noticed a passage that said that pruning a small portion of a branch can rejuvenate it. I snipped off a few branch tips and the first leaf emerged two days later. I'm not certain that the pruning did the trick, but given what I've learned about plant hormones and pruning, it may have helped. If any of you have any thoughts on this, let me know. And here's the limelight: