PW will also take all day sun, but the lighter weight blooms and stout stems keep the blooms upright through wind, rain (2 1/2" in 40 minutes), and hail. I love the blossoms of the VS, but not the arching branches so much, so I think that I would either do as Hyed has done and make it a tree form, or I would plant at the top of a wall. In either case it would keep the blossoms above the ground and make the arching branches an asset.

That VS cascading over the wall is STUPENDOUS! Maybe I just need more hydrangeas to make me love all of the retaining walls on my lot!

On a VS related note, I measured the area where I am considering putting a VS hedge - it's 8 feet by 21 feet. Will four plants (eventually) be sufficient to fill the area? Or too large for the area? Here's a (very off-kilter) photo - the area in question is to the left of the stairs, between the chain link fence and the railing, from the stone retaining wall to the tree at the top of the hill (which is no longer there - it had to be removed, sadly). I was planning to plant the VS about 3' from the fence and fill in the area closer to the stairs with hostas, etc, while the VS are still small.

biondanonima, i cant help you with sizing but i love the idea you've mentioned. If it fits right, I think that would look great !

You'd want to plant them about 5 feet apart so 4 should be ok. One issue I see potentially is they grow pretty wide and could encroach on the railing and would likely encroach on the fence.

Thus you may want to consider strawberry sundae (a more compact version of vs) or pinky winky which is easier to get to grow more vertically rather than horizontally, and you could plant either of those half way between the railing and fence so it looks symmetrical.

finally, what ever you choose I don't think I'd put hosta. They get big too and everything will fairly quickly encroach on one another.

Forget the Pinky Winky, they can become monsters 10'x10'

Thanks guyground! I don't mind sharing some blooms with the neighbors, so a little fence encroachment is fine. We could use a little privacy there anyway because the neighboring house is so close to ours on that side (and their lawn is a bigger mess than mine, LOL). Encroachment on the railing would be more of an issue, but I suppose I can prune as necessary.

As for the hostas, I suggested them because I have about a million that I inherited from the previous owner, so I've been using them to fill in blanks until I find things I like more. I don't know if you can tell from the photo above, but there are eight or nine of them that will have to be moved/removed to make room for the hydrangeas! Eventually I'll replace them with something I like more, but for right now they can't be beat for convenience or economy. :)

your best bet then is strawberry sundae or if you decide to go with vs once they start getting big you'll have to prune fairly hard end of winter to keep them in check.

Thats , by the way, what I do with my pinky winky. I hard prune them end of winter and that keeps them fairly compact.

I really wouldn't use PW. Mine is 10+' wide at less than 10 years.

i would talk to the neighbor to see whether they would welcome having the VS flowers growing into their yard through the fence to camouflage it, and if so, plant them a bit closer to the fence than midway.

above is my pinky winky its about 4 feet tall and 3 feet wide and I've kept it that size for years by hard pruning after winter / early spring/

That being said I don't think its as great as if I had the room to let it go, but it works for me because I can grow a plant I wanted to that would otherwise never work for that space.

My point is, if have the option, the best bet is to grow a hydrangea that you are not forced to prune to contain it. I feel the ones that are allowed to grow to mature size always end up looking the nicest.

That's why I suggested strawberry sundae which would get to about 5 feet tall 4 feet wide mature size and work well in that space.

However, if you have your heart/mind set on another idea (I know I often do) you do have other options.

Hi gg, you could prune the lower branches and have a PW tree?

I never thought about it, but I like the idea. I'll give it a try.

Over a wall is what I saw suggested last year, maybe here.. That's where I transplanted VS to. I've a few other floppers that might work there. unfortunately that's a western exposure and it's terrible for macs. Even some paniculatas wilt in western sun if they 've not had enough water recently.

I'm pleased to say that the cooler nights we have been having have brought out great color

i am jealous

I was out shopping yesterday and stopped into a local nursery, which has a great selection of mature plants (with correspondingly high prices). Earlier in the season, everything looked healthy, but yesterday there were a lot of plants that looked as though they'd been a bit neglected. They happened to have several VS hydrangeas that were about 4 feet tall, but given their state I was hesitant to buy - the flower heads were all completely desiccated, the branches droopy and breaking, and the foliage was mostly brown and crispy as well. At $70 per and no guarantee from the nursery, I couldn't pull the trigger.

However, I was in a retail mood, so when I came home I found an online retailer offering them in a 3 gal size for $45 with free shipping (and a guarantee), so I decided to go for it. Now to go dig some BIG holes!

Congratulations on finding something to your liking. I would have trouble swallowing $70 too. Weeeelllll, maybe not for an extra large camellia though since they grow so slowly.

I was planning to do similarly this weekend, shopping to see what specials were out there. But my gas prices have spiked up from $2 mid-week this week to $2.60+ and even some $4.00+ so now I am leery to go anywhere but grocery shopping. All that increase was/is due to the hurricane issues in Houston (nothing happened here though.. knock on wood).

Yes, I was actually out looking to see if anything was on sale/clearance, but I think it may still be a bit early. I found a couple of things BOGO at Home Depot and some Knockout roses 50% off at Lowe's, but nothing that really interested me. The nursery had a small red-tag clearance section as well, but everything in it was in TERRIBLE shape.

Don't know about the nursery with stuff in terrible shape but I was able to get an additional, even lower discount on a shrub that looked to be in terrible shape. I did have to point out how bad it looked and how high the discounted price still was.... It was a Lantana that recovered the following year. You know, I have stopped buying roses completely ever since Rose Rossette Disease showed up in the 'hood.

you were smart not get something beat up and $45 is good price for 3 gallon size, very good in fact.

bsmith0023 its going to be me who is jealous come winter.

Luis, you were smart to negotiate - I may go back next weekend and see if I can work out some deals. They had some lovely kalmia and pieris, both of which I have been coveting. As for roses, I inherited several Knockouts when we bought our house last year, and although they are fine, I'm just not that into roses. I'm gradually replacing them and only keeping those that seem to be thriving and whose color I really enjoy. More room for hydrangeas that way! :)

Not bad after all day rain

Looks awesome! Spectacular color.

Thanks groundguy

Mine arrived today, just as I was leaving the house. I'll unbox them when I get home from work. Can't wait to see how they look! I ripped the hostas out of the place they'll be going, so the area is mostly clear and ready. It's digging time!

ETA: here they are! All are about 2-2.5' tall and look healthy. Just a few brown leaves on the smallest one, on the right in the photo. Very pleased!

Gratuitous shot of the Encore azaleas I couldn't resist in the same order:

Hyed, nice pink color but the shrub looks like it is growing downwards/upside down! Still, how cool to catch the stems flopped and yet, giving that unusual shrub look in the picture!!!

biondanonima, my God. Did you buy the whole store? Double WOW! What mail order company was it that had 3 gal size for $45 with free shipping and a guarantee?

Luis, it was Garden Goods Direct - I have never ordered from them before, but thus far I'm happy! The hydrangeas were actually $50 but they had a 10% off coupon if you gave your email address.

My future vanilla strawberry hedge! I am thinking of filling in the area between the VSs and the stairs with some knockout roses I want to move for now, until the VS get too large. Plus maybe a tulip border for next spring!

they look nice..can't wait to see them this time next year..

looks awesome!

Just thought I'd show you an update - my strawberries are doing great in their new home. I have a layer of cardboard under the mulch to smother whatever weeds were still there, and I'll add a ground cover of some sort in the spring. I noticed a couple of panicles taking on a pink tinge for the first time this morning.

they look great..I'm jealous..my paniculatas don't have as many blooms..

Looks Great

Biondanonina, I just found this thread and had fun reading through it. Do you have an update on your hedge? I planted a Bobo/VS hedge along the front of our house for foundation plantings this year.

Shayzone, your hydrangeas are lovely! Vanilla Strawberry is a big girl, though, so you may find her outgrowing her spot in a year or two. Here's my hedge today - as you saw from my previous photos, I started with four but removed one and replaced the remaining three because I could see they would quickly get much too large to accommodate all four.

ETA: the two shrubs closer to the stairs are goldmound spirea, which are getting crowded out at this point! I like the full look though. I have creeping thyme growing along the stairs as groundcover, but it still has some gaps (I started it from seed this summer).

Stunning! Wow, what an improvement from your first photos. I see you’ve redone the stairs also. So beautiful. And I’ll bet those neighbors appreciate the beauty as well 😜 although it looks like they planted something on their side of the fence as well. It seems you inspired them.

We have quite a few lookie-loos here in our neighborhood, so I would actually like it if the VS could grow to partially cover that front window. I do plan on keeping up with pruning so they don’t become beautiful beasts. However, I am mentally prepared to have to adjust the placement of these plantings in the future if needed. Based on the photos in this thread it seems like they could begin to bully the Bobos once they take off. Here is a photo of the other side of the house as well, for symmetry’s sake. Excuse the messy mulch. I was moving the grasses around.

Beautiful work! Hopefully your VS will just droop prettily over the top of your Bobos rather than bullying them! :)

Unfortunately my neighbors have NOT improved their side of the fence - aside from a large forsythia that is planted way too close to the fence, all they have growing over there are weedy vines (porcelain berry and wild grape mostly, but some poison ivy as well). The vines create a sort of green wall in the summer that I don't hate, but dealing with all the seedlings and such on my side of the fence is very annoying. A 6' solid privacy fence may be our next big project!

Thank you!

Oh, goodness. That does sound like a bit of a nightmare. Make sure you post updates for us when you do! 😉 I wish a couple of my neighbors would put some privacy plantings or fences on their sides also... the front of our house faces the road, so it would be a bit awkward for us do put them in our front yard. What can you do!

Guyground, I hope your VS are still happy and healthy!

I was wondering if anyone can post pictures of their VS in early November. I am interested in the Fall foliage colors of VS (feel free to wait) but pics of blooms too is ok. ;o))

Happy to! The foliage on mine hasn't really started to turn, but the panicles are browning pretty quickly now (probably about 50-60% brown. I'll post a photo tomorrow.

@luis_pr, here you go! There was a lot more pink until about two days ago - we had a cold snap. Temps will be back in the 60s later this week but it doesn't take much cold to make the blossoms turn.

Thanks, biondanonima. The leaves were a bit far away to tell. Can you confirm the colors (yellows, oranges, reds, etc) that you are currently getting?

Yes, the leaves are just yellow - I don't recall them ever turning any other color before dropping. I'll try to take another photo when more of them have turned.

Ah, thanks. I am researching what different colors, if any, people are getting in different locations so let me know if they change or if anyone gets non-yellow colors.

Here are a couple of closer shots. Mine seem to turn yellow then drop before they get brown.