Very nice! Thanks for sharing!

Your tree is the most amazing limelight tree! The form is so cool. The blooms so huge!

Debra, your Limelight has put on quite a show for you. It seems like the hard pruning was great for it. Well done!
Your garden and patio area look so inviting!

What a beautiful hydrangea! Three months of bloom!

limelight and little limes my favorite! That’s a beautiful tree. Thanks for showing us the progression. Just wish it were mine!

debra..each and every stage is beautiful..I love my trees but I feel cheated not having a sunny spot for a paniculata hydrangea to thrive..mine are sort of pitiful..

I was going to say how hydrangeas don't do well for me, but like nicholsworth, I haven't been able to give them the sun they want. Yours is beautiful!

Ours went through the same changes as the OP. Ours is about 4 years old and is nearly 10 feet tall. It is in a place it can grow as big as it likes. We are considering more of the Limelight Hydrangeas for our yard.

Looks beautiful!, I love the progression pictures.

one of the few plants i never grew ... figured it was just money wasted that i could otherwise spend on hosta.. lol ...

this one benefited from removal of some other tree .. or did i dream that ..

seems like it overgrew on the left ... to offset the lean ... i seem ot think that was a prior post also ... or did i dream that too???

anyway.. spectacular ... proud grandma ...

ken

Beautiful! Can I ask how long that stunning specimen has been in your yard? I planted a fairly large one two years ago, but it has a long way to go to be as spectacular as yours!

What a beautiful specimen Debra! Clearly the pruning job you did was much appreciated and the result is inspiring.

^^ I agree!

It’s your beautiful tree that inspired me to buy one. I can only hope it grows up to be as beautiful as yours...thanks for sharing the progression, it was a real treat!!

That's really pretty. That is one tree one would not miss seeing in your garden!

Thank you to everyone for your comments. I can’t like or thank for some reason.....

ken...... you have a great memory..... high tree branch fall was last summer.....it decimated our patio furniture........ broke the glass top patio table ( still finding teeny tiny pieces) broke some of the deck and, thank God it only broke one major branch on the Limelight. It was not planted correctly nor staked by the company I bought it from. (Grrrrrrr.) It definitely leans to the right, as does my entire backyard........never notice the heavier bloom on the left until now. It make perfect sense that it is balancing itself out.

Peren, and utog, you also have a good memories———I feared I had cut it to far back.

lovemycorgi, I still have the receipt for the purchase from 2011, so it’s 9 years old. Last summer was the first time I trimmed it!!? I didn’t know better....... :-)

debra

Beautiful hydrangea.

October 30th, final fall colors. The burning bush is peaking through the branches.

debra

Your tree looks very interesting and pretty at this stage. It's a winner!

Stunning! I can see you’re a serious Gardner- those plant ID stakes give you away👏 I had a large Limelight which outgrew its space so 2 years ago I had it dug up, donated to Master Gardeners for their annual plant fundraiser sale. I replaced with a little limelight which is doing well. I am in PNW Z8 & in August my area had a full week of worst air quality in world (really!) from the fires all around. My little lime & Strawberry Vanilla paniculata flowers suffered, turning the aged brown color before developing full white then faded pinks. We also had significant leaf drop on many trees while still very green. Variegated shrubs lost major amounts of leaves. We’re starting our fall color show so it will be interesting to see if it’s subdued because of the terrible insult of extended time of low air quality.

How sad your paniculatas (and all plants, animals and people) suffered from the fires.......I had not ever considered how garden plants would be affected by the fire smoke. How big did your Limelight get before it outgrew it’s space?

debra

KW, your yard is lovely! I see you have a bush type paniculata whereas, I have the tree form. I purchased it this way. I let it grow without any pruning until last year. I didn’t realize I needed to prune it......lol.....last year I cut it beck so much I thought I killed it. I am really amazed at the growth this summer. I took the remaining blooms off last weekend. The heavy snow can break the branches when the blooms are still on. I will prune it next spring.Here is a photo from August 30, 2019. Wasn’t it beautiful???

debra

Yes, it’s gorgeous! I wondered if you got it already trained as a standard or if you did that. This was my first paniculata & I like the paniculata bc of the bloom on both new & old wood which makes pruning so much easier. The big one I gave away had 15” long blooms its second year in my yard! Like footballs! I wondered if the huge flowers was partly due to heavy pruning. I generally leave the dead flowers on for something to look at all winter . I’m in PNW zone 8 Vancouver WA. & we do usually get snow but sometimes will go until February until it arrives! The issue is when we get a heavy & wet snow which then freezes. I run around knocking snow off lots of things with a broom if freeze forecast after a wet snow. Thanks for admiring my pictures. 😊

Haha, kw I have done the same with rain too!

debra

@djacob Z6a SE WI - rain! Me too! We oftern get a torrential spring rain after things have sent our tons of new growth. The result is drooping hanging branches from everything heavy with rain held on all those new leaves.