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Limelight blooming time

7 years ago

Hi
I planted several limelight hydrangea last month for the first time. I am wondering about the blooming time ( from flower budding ? to full bloom). most of them receive at least 3-5 hours of full direct sun every day. I live in Ottawa , Canada ( zone 5a)

Thanks

Featured Answer

luis_pr

7 years ago

last modified: 7 years ago

The further north one is, the later they open flower buds and bloom. Down here for example, they bloom by May-June but you should expect blooms in July-August. Nice choice! enjoy those Limelights.

Because they were planted last month, blooming times this year may not reflect the blooming times you will have in future years. The shrub was grown in a greenhouse so things will be slightly off next year.

The more and stronger sun that it gets, the faster it will change from lime green to white.

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Comments (7)

October_Gardens
7 years ago
Mine are showing buds now. Peak time should be around 8/1, as the heads are quite large and take some time to fully form!
FADI (Zone 5b) thanked October_Gardens
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A funny related story to this subject is that I just found out that my mother has a Limelight in her yard. One of my sisters had taken her plant shopping and she picked out, bought, and planted it - an event I apparently missed. LOL Just this week, mom raved about the number, size, and color of the blooms it had last year and she saved a pile to dry. Some did have a reddish blush on them after being dried, but most definitely maintained their green hue. For years, she had a pee gee but didn't realize it was a hydrangea (probably because it bloomed later than the mopheads) and used to cut and dry the flowers in the fall. Her neighbor's huge tree (FINALLY removed this past week) had gradually shaded it more and more and it languished so much that she finally took it out about 15 years ago. But this week after seeing her Limelight budding out, I got chance to let her know that it and her old pee gee were cousins (being paniculatas).
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The terms do not mean what you are probably thinking. "Blooms on old wood" applies to hydrangeas like Mopheads and Oakleaf hydrangeas- hydrangeas of these types produce invisible flower buds on last year's growth (around July-August-September) and these open in the Spring. Last year's growth is what is meant by "old wood". If my old-wood mophead develops a new stem this Spring, I would not expect bloomage from it until Spring 2016. "Blooms on new wood" applies to hydrangeas like Limelight and Annabelle- hydrangeas of these two types produce invisible flower buds this year (around May-July) and these invisible flower buds then open as soon as they are ready (in a month+ or so maybe? meaning you are not waiting all winter long for example). The stems that produce blooms may be brand new ones from this year. Or they could be stems from last year that leafed out this year. New stems, by the way, will not be as strong and as older ones. They will not support big heavy blooms as well so, you could see new stems with large blooms bending. Older stems get stronger as time passes and can support bigr/heavy blooms better.
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FADI (Zone 5b)
Original Author
7 years ago
I planted 7 limelights last month. 2 of them now are showing few little buds.

I have 2 bobos which are full of buds

2 Vanilla Strawberry with many buds

1 Magic Fire with many buds

Pink Diamond = no buds so far

Pee gee Grandiflora = no buds so far
starlight99
7 years ago
last modified: 7 years ago
I'm in Toronto. My Little Lime in full sun started it's broccoli stage almost 2 weeks now. I would imagine Limelight to be similar to LL. If you have your Limelight in semi shade it may flower a little bit later?
FADI (Zone 5b) thanked starlight99
FADI (Zone 5b)
Original Author
7 years ago
Limelight (Father), little lime (Mother) & Bobo (Baby) are all from the same genetic family. I got 2 Bobos with plenty of buds. I could't find little lime here in Ottawa. I have large spaces in my backyard and decided after careful research that Limelight would be the best to fill in the empty spaces. it is my first year of gardening, I am very excited to see the blooms of all my hydrangeas varities.
NHBabs z4b-5a NH
7 years ago
Just to clarify, after looking at the patents, I am not sure that they are any more closely related genetically than any other three random H. paniculatas, though they definitely look similar in some ways, and the breeders have definitely worked off the popularity of Limelight in choosing the marketing name Little Lime ('Jane').

Limelight is the offspring of two unnamed, unpatented H. paniculata parents.

Little Lime is the offspring of two unpatented H. paniculata parents, one called Limelight variegated (though since it's not patented I don't know what its parents are or it if was a sport) and the other is unnamed.

Bobo ('Ilvobo'0 is the product of Pink Diamond, a relatively common unpatented H. paniculata, and since it's open pollinated, the male parent is unknown.

Sorry if that is more info than anyone wanted to know. I got curious and so checked it out.
FADI (Zone 5b) thanked NHBabs z4b-5a NH
User
7 years ago
I have little Limes in Maine. They usually bloom in August for me. They get sun in the afternoon though. I think they would bloom earlier if they got all day sun.
FADI (Zone 5b) thanked User

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