Could anyone comment on spacing for Little Limelight hydrangeas? I have been following this thread closely over the years, I have apprx 14 feet, I would like to doa hedge type arrangement using Sunday Strawberry and Little Lime. Going to get some morning sun and late afternoon sun.

I spaced mine six feet apart. I wanted them eight feet apart but my husband didn't get that. I hope I (he) won't have to move them in a few years. These things get quite large. I learned about spacing with Montauk Daisies. The hard way.

Thanks Wendy. The regular size limelight's can get awfully big, but I also think alot of that has to do with what zone your in, how much sun they get and more importantly if you prune them and how severely . Depending on those answers and how immediate of a look you want, 6ft spacing seems reasonable for the regular size limelight.

For my particular question I am asking about Little Lime (the smaller version of the regular size Limelight).

For example

Little Lime Reaches 3 to 5 ft. tall and wide.

Limelight Hardy Hydrangea Reaches 6 to 8 ft. tall and wide.

The question is could I plant the Little Limes as close as 2.5-3.0 feet without them being too close.

springwood reports that his LLs get around 5' in Pittsburgh.

http://forums.gardenweb.com/discussions/1984693/little-lime-hydrangea-how-big-does-it-really-get

So 3-4' would be a nice hedge size in his neck of the woods.

Great thread - hey unprofessional - you da bomb! I hope my Limelights grow as nicely as yours have. I planted 7 a couple of weeks ago about 6 feet apart. I'm in 8A, Alabama. I was concerned the crepe myrtle might shade too much, but maybe they'll appreciate some shade come August.

Here's my 3 year old pool LLs. I did fence on 8' centers. The 26 new ones are on 5' centers to hedge them faster.

Unprofessional: now that your Limelights are 8x8 and nearly their mature size, would you still recommend spacing 6 feet center to center or even farther apart (like 7-8 feet on center) to get the hedge effect?

Here are a few photos showing the development of our limelights from October 2016 and now, July, 2017. Very happy so far with how they are growing!

Very nice!!

@ddobin...your dog is adorable! Btw, the limelights are beautiful as well! :)

Everything depends on how long you're planning to stay at a place, in my opinion. In no way do I consider mine full size, and nobody should listen to the tags on plants. They keep growing after the first ten years. Mulched and watered the first year, planted in hard Michigan clay, and never trimmed or touched since then.

Here's another shot of one in front of a house about 2 miles from me (easily 15x12'):

Hi I'm new here. You all posts have help me tremendously with my limelights. I wish I would have found this site last year when I planted my first two limelights. I'm a new homeowner and I wanted pretty shrubs. However I've made a huge mistake. The good news is my 3 limelights are 3.5 ft apart from the center. I've measured them after reading the post. However, my mom purchased some 4 1 gallon incrediball hydrangeas. They were very small compared to my my limelights. I purchased the 3 gallon. She gave me 2 of them and I planted it too close to one of my limelight hydrangeas. I under estimated how quickly a 1 gallon plant would grow. I thought it would remain small and I could dig it up while it was still small next year while dormant. I believe I still can, but will I damage my limelight in the process.

Welcome to the forum, Patrice. Fall, when they are dormant, might be a good time to work on that separation problem. They will be "disturbed" of course but better then than when LL gets huge. Once they are dormant, the "disturbance" will be less. ;o) In some places, LL can get well upwards of 8' so better move the Incrediballs further away.

Heres a few photos photos of my limelight hedge, on its second summer. Starting to come along, the slope and blue building to the right is someone else's property. Thinking will need to move the mature hydrangea that is on my lawn to the left, that had planted about 7 years ago.

Of the 12 planted, 2-3 towards back of row are slower to grow, but hopefully will join the rest over time.

yjoyce, those are beautiful! Mine do not have so many blooms this first summer but I'm in a very hot zone and probably not watering as much as I should. Here's a couple of pics of mine I planted in June this year. It was strange that one out of the seven I planted was the same size and condition as the others but had zero buds or blooms. I talked to the nursery owner who explained she received her plants from growers in different areas and that a cold winter or a warm winter can affect the budding. She said I could dig it up and exchange it but I thought I would give it a chance. I just saw that budless bush start to flower yesterday! Glad I waited it out.

Joni,

I had to buy from 2 different greenhouses to get enough, as I bought in fall. There was a huge difference between the groups, one set was tall and leggy, one set (2nd supplier) more squat and fuller with more blooms. I was so upset, as had I known, I would have gotten from the 2nd supplier only. I'd first gotten all available from first supplier. So couldn't really return. The ones that aren't coming in quite as well are from the 1st/leggy set, but as I had hoped, they are all starting to settle in and become a touch more uniform. With the exception of the 2-3 that aren't yet performing as well. But like you, I'm hoping they'll catch up over the next few years.

yjoice and joni what spacing did you use when planting the limelights?

Fall50: I went with 6 feet spacing. Though I think the very first you see in the row is only 5 feet, as I wanted it to be at certain place from telephone pole, and at other end, didn't want to push further along.

eta: actually, roughly 6 feet, my husband dug the holes for me, I was grateful for the help so didn't get too picky on the measurements!!

Yes, I also planted mine 6 feet on center. Here's a pic of the one that finally started blooming. So don't fret if one lags in blooming, it's probably from a different grower in another climate zone.

Edited to add: yjoyce I saw your older post from last year when you first planted these and were trying to be patient with hopes of better looking plants. Hah! I'm in your shoes now. And with the one ugly duckling I was not happy with the look. But now that she's blooming I believe next year will be good. How often do you feed yours?

Ooops Joni, sorry I didn't reply sooner. I think I may have used liquid miracle grow (diluted of course) once perhaps? Maybe twice? That was it. I should post a pic now - still think I'm going to move the mature hydrangea nearby - the limelight hedge isn't as striking with the mature one blocking the sightline.

Can anybody confirm that their older plants don't flop in rain storms?

i had 7 year old little limes that were horrible. I dropped by the old place and they where still flopping after 9 years of age.

i couldn't see the limelights I panted that would be 10 years of age. They flipped but not terrible

No pink show for my pee gee this year. White all summer, then started to go pink and last week, it went from a 20F temp difference, and the pink has just gone to brown ;-(

Aaaaaaaaaawwwwwwwwww. Hate it when that happens. Ruby Slippers (an oakleaf) does it to me too.

Josh -

I would try a local nursery farm --- if they sell to individuals. Rough #'s, but Hydra's a like $10-$12 on average per G at the local nursery. Farms around here sell #3 and #7 only. The #7 is is only a pinch more than the #3 and the Farms pricing for #7 IMO is quite inexpensive

Pricing is regional though, just like COL, so YMMV

Do these grow quickly for you guys? Year Three over here and nothing to write home about. Husband mowed one down (he does that). I am going to newspaper/mulch them this year (haven't yet) and build the perennial garden that will be walled by these babies. Just surprised at how slow-growing they are; I think I'm being neglectful.

My paniculatas were all planted in garden beds without competition from grass, etc., as well as mulched, and from 1’-2 1/2’ both Quickfire and Pinky Winky, which are both large plants like Limelight, were over 5’ 4 years later. If yours were planted in grass or didn’t get enough water or had other less than ideal circumstances, they may grow a bit more slowly, but I would expect them to grow faster this season.

Have yours looked yellowed or stressed?

New Hampshire Babs, they're not yellow or stressed. Just puny, and yes! They are in the middle of my weedy yucky lawn that I'm replacing with a large swath of perennials. Thank you for giving me hope. Lesson learned: we spend good money on these plants but without a little time and effort, we may as well compost that cash. I'll be on it like a hobo on a ham sandwich this season! Thank you!!!

Year Two and they've more than doubled in size. We did have a really wet winter and spring. Summer began dry but we're getting daily rains now.

Beautiful! So much bigger.

Thrilled with how ours are doing. Year 3 versus Year 1!

Looks great ddobin, hope mine look as good next year. I have a little shade which might be restraining the number and size of blooms. Did you fertilize? Cute doggie!

"Can anybody confirm that their older plants don't flop in rain storms?"

No. I have major floppage right now. But that rain was astoundingly heavy.

Rain is the flop killer. It takes about 2 days sometimes for it to dry back out and they naturally VERT back up. Sometimes. once flopped. they tend to linger for a bit downward.

Eh, I would all big bloomed hydra's would not flop ever. One can wish thou

Bigger every year. I believe this is year 9 for mine.

Thanks for taking the time to do your annual update, unprofessional. It is really useful to be able to refer folks to this thread when they have questions about size or want to plant them every 2.5’

The hydrangea hedge edge is doing very well, developed extra shoots of growth, likely from a heat wave we had lasting a few weeks. Some of the bushes are touching (planted 6 ft apart), a few are not close. Those ones were spindly from the start (bought from different greenhouse), but they be still put out an impressive amount of flowers.

I should add that a couple them have reached my height, 5’7”, not bad after 3 years!

We planted our hydrangea hedge Spring 2017. First picture is last summer at the end of July, second is this summer. Spacing is approximately 5 feet, located in Niagara, Ontario (5b-6a).

Gosh, I wish I had read this thread last year. Last year (August, 2019), I removed (with neighbor's okay) a forsythia hedge between our properties that I always hated. I needed help removing that hedge and the workers also planted the Limelights for me which was nice. I had read that they should be 3' -4' on center. Oops. A few are even closer, so I will move one or two this fall. I bought some online and some locally-the local ones are better, but I expect the others to catch up. I am patient, ha.

Here they are when first planted and then I will run out and get a picture now.

And this is one year after planting. Not too much change, but some.

I cannot wait for mine to look like all of yours in a couple of years.

When I planted mine, I wished I had planted them years earlier. I’ve seen pics of some with that distance, and they wind up looking fabulous as a hedge years earlier. I’m still waiting for all of mine to join together more.

I’m about to get some of the rain that you finished with, hence taking pictures before they get knocked around.

I wish the same, yjoyce! We are not ready for a "home" yet, but at our age, one never knows. I hope we are here another 20 years, but that is unlikely.

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!

Before: location of entry garden · More Info

Choose one of the smaller panicled hydrangeas/Hydrangea paniculata for an afternoon sun area since afternoon sun will shorten bloom appeal for the Annabelles. Annabelle also gets wider over time without regular maintenance because it is a shrub that suckers vigorously. H. paniculata Little Lime, Little Quickfire, Bobo, White Diamond, and likely some others will not exceed 5’, give or take a little.

I am not a fan of a path lined with plants unless it is a path not much used, though it sounds like yours will be wide. To my mind it sends an unwelcoming message with plantings other than groundcover height, sort of like walking down a tunnel. Also IME rain causes many plants to arch over, and I don’t find having to avoid wet foliage appealing.

Beautiful pics everyone!!! I'm in Zone 5b in NW Illinois and would like to plant a hydrangea hedge. How far apart should I plant them? The site is a Northern exposure in full sun.

You need to decide the look you are going after. Some people plant them very close (3-4 feet apart while some people plant even closer) and others more (5-6 feet apart) or even more.

Luis, thanks for the advice.