There's a great advantage to mixing different varieties of hydrangeas in a border: you prolong the show. The Oakleaf will bloom first, followed by the mopheads (don't know about Annabelle), and then the paniculatas (Limelight). The paniculatas like full sun though, whereas, at least here, the Oakleaf will need some shade. As far north as you live, it's entirely possible that both will do well in full sun. You will like all the different leaf forms mixed together. As long as they aren't so tall they will block windows, go for it!

I'd just like to add my two cents to George's endorsement of 'Little Honey'. I grew a lot of hydrangeas in my old garden (only a couple dozen compared to G's 100!) but the only one I brought with me to my new place was LH. It is still a tricky one to find easily and mine was a gift from the breeder (actually one of the sales reps) so I didn't want to risk not having one in my in new garden. Hydrangeas - and even oakleaf hydrangeas - aside, this is probably my favorite plant of any I've grown. And that's coming from a plant collector that has grown 1000's of different plants! There is just something about the glowing color and the form/texture of the plant that I find very appealing and the fall color can be outstanding and very long lasting. I will say that in the 6 years or so I've had mine, I can recall only a couple of blossoms and those nothing to write home about. This is not an ideal oakleaf to grow for flowers but it will still add a great deal of visual interest to a garden. Now as to the winter appearance of oakleaf hydrangeas, I'm going to disagree with George :-) IMO, they have a much more appealing look in winter than does any other type of hydrangea. Part of it has to do with their more sprawling growth habit and the tendency to hold foliage, and nicely colored foliage at that, but most rests with stems and bark - the bark on mature stems is cinnamon colored and rough, shaggy and exfoliating. I think this adds a lot of interest to a winter landscape and I like including them in garden designs for just this purpose. YMMV As to which cultivar is "best", that is completely a matter of personal choice. With the limitations of LH aside, they all perform about equally, so mature size and flowering attributes may be the determining factor. I looked long and hard at 'Vaughn's Lily' this season under a variety of conditions and decided the heavy, dense blossoms were just not my cup of tea :-) IMO, you cannot go wrong with 'Snow Queen' for a standard sized plant or 'Pee Wee' for a dwarf.

Interesting. OK - P TW,,I wonder if there isn't a good deal more to pruning hydrangeas in general to maintain upright strong stems. Maybe others have something to add to this too. I remember having a bit of a chat about Bobo hydrangeas on another thread last year and someone saying they wanted to prune to "create a supportive framework". I had noticed some regular Bobos at some stores stood upright, while at other stores they flopped. It seemed to me that those that had been pruned while young, had branched into twice as many stems, and were far more self supporting. The overall look was a much more upright plant. I purchased two that were more branched on the bottom 1/3 of the plant and left the floppy ones at the store last year. This year I purchased my third bobo and it was a floppy mess, but judging by what I'd seen with the two I have purchased the year before I wasn't put off. The nicely branched ones from last year are perfectly self supporting now, and any stems that were not pre-branched low I had cut back to encourage branching and they have grown stronger. I figured I'd just cut these floppy stems of my new one back to half and that would encourage them to grow into twice or three times as many stems next spring. Perhaps this sort of post purchase surgery is necessary even if we buy a "pre-trained, pre-pruned" standard as well.

I used to live in 7a. I always cut mine back to about 2 feet tall, piled about 3 feet of pine straw or hay on them, and they came back every year. I'd stick the cuttings into buckets on the back screened porch and they rooted over the winter. Here I cut them way back and pile leaves around the bottom. People on the Brugmansia exchange forum here look forward to fall when they can get our cuttings for postage.