Paniculata vs Macrophylla which hydrangea to pick?
Marble _
2 years ago
last modified: 2 years ago
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Hydrangea paniculata vs oakleaf
Comments (10)Hi - No experience to report yet - just planted an Hp - a 2010 intro called *Tickled Pink* claimed to be a compact 5x5 though wider than your requirements ... perhaps more experienced Hp growers can input on pruning to size possibilities. This cultivar is a creation Of Dr. Dirr, grown & marketed by Bailey's of MN ... got it for the *compact* claim! (7 other Paniculatas are the larger ones). I agree w/ laceyvail - Oakleaf may need some protection in our similar zone & woods are a bit brittle (my Pee Wee split in half due to piled snow). For a front garden bed Hp's blooms offer Winter interests! I have 3 Oakleaf Hs & have been lightly protecting these past 3 yrs, 'til fully grown (did not bloom last year) ... but they are in the backyd ... awesome Fall-foliage-colors! Hope it helps & Good luck on your choice!...See MoreHydrangea paniculata 'Bombshell' is no bust
Comments (41)No, a color change suggests that the bloom is mature and spent. After several weeks, a white paniculata hydrangea bloom begins a progression of color changes that ends in a brown bloom, similar to the color changes observed in roses. If you lived in a southern location, you could try deadheading the bloom after it begins to change and see if you get new bloomage. Some paniculatas do that in the South but I have not seen anyone confirming that VS "reblooms" for them. Reblooming white mopheads (H. macrophylla) will produce new blooms if you deadhead the spent blooms but, I am not sure if they can grow in your zone/location because you do not have this information displayed. Normally, they have winter hardiness issues when planted in very cold zones. An experiment that just occurred to me: you might be able to lengthen the amount of time that it stays white if the shrub is relocated to a spot in brights full shade with no direct sunlight. Maybe. Just maybe that may lengthen the whites. The reason I say this is because of my Little Lime. Paniculatas Limelight and Little Lime have blooms that start green then turn white, a shade of pink and eventually end brown. My LL is located in bright, full shade so it never gets direct sun. As a result, I have noticed that the blooms stay green for a very, very long time. If Limelight is exposed to full sun conditions, the blooms turn white faster. But my LL did not get a-n-y whites the last two years (or maybe they appeared near the end of the Fall and I did not notice). My LL blooms went from green directly to a shade of pink. This year it seems to be going in the "same trajectory". The blooms opened in late June and, as of today, they remain green. So, I wonder if -maybe- VS blooms may stay white longer if not exposed to direct sunlight. You could try that and see what happens. Or maybe someone who already has VS in bright but full shade can chime in with their observations of how long it stays white under those conditions.....See Moreoverwintering macrophylla hydrangeas in cold zones
Comments (72)July 14, 2016, z4: I live in West Central MN, z4, have had an Endless Summer, Twist & Shout, planted on East corner of house since summer of 2011 (5 yrs at time of this writing). It gets full sun in morning, a little dappled sun in afternoon for a very short time, rich soil, moist conditions, landscape fabric covered with wood mulch, no turf or other nearby vegetation to compete with. This should be perfect Hydrangea conditions, and while this plant has been robust and healthy from the very beginning, it does NOT get anywhere near its advertised size. (Label that came on my plant says 4 to 5 ft tall and wide.) It dies back completely to the ground every winter so growth starts all over, from ground level, every spring, rather late in the spring, and reaches its maximum size of 2 ft tall X 3 ft wide in mid July. This also means it blooms only on new growth. Though it's advertised as blooming on both new and old growth, there is no old growth that survives the winter for blooms to grow on. I do not cut it back in the fall....don't touch it at all.....and leave the old growth until the following season. In the spring, I clean up the dead and fallen leaves from the year before but leave the old stems standing. (I started leaving the previous year's dead stems through the following spring beginning from the time I planted it, always hoping that, if given enough time, they'd come to life and be that "old growth" that would give the plant that bigger size and more flowers. I've given up that idea, but it's just a habit now. It's become one of those, "This is how I manage this plant because I know it does no harm" , kind of things.) Once the new growth is nearing the height of the previous year's stems, I simply break the old ones off as close to ground level as I can without disturbing new growth, usually ending up to be 3-4 inches above ground level, completely hidden by the new growth. Because they're "dead", the old stems just snap off by hand, very easily, and those few inches that may be left behind have fallen into the soil by the time late fall arrives and the plant once again goes into dormancy, has shed its summer foliage, and everything that was living that summer dies back completely over the coming winter. Over the summer and early fall, it usually has up to 12 blooms at any given time, depending on how much TLC it gets. Blooms range in size from 3" to 7" across (older blooms). Each flower lasts a long time. As far as the color of the flowers, some years they are more on the purple side, some years they are a bit more pinkish. Most years, there's an interesting mix of both colors on each individual flower, often times starting out more on the pink side but changing to purple with a smattering of pink as the blooms mature to full size. I don't know how the plant determines, but it does so on its own since I do NOT amend the soil with anything to change the PH level or influence the bloom color. All I do as far as feeding is give it a drink of water soluble "Bloom Booster" fertilizer (10-52-10) three or four times during the summer, beginning around July 1 (when the plant is nearing its full size and focusing most of its energy into putting on new blooms), and ending the end of August, at the latest. I tried giving it a balanced fertilizer beginning earlier in the season and found that it there was lots of green but sparse on flowers and could get rather leggy. This feeding routine seems to give the best results, in my situation, anyway. I'm very fortunate to live in an area of glacier-rich black soil (black gold!) where pretty much EVERYTHING I've ever planted in my 40 yrs of gardening/landscaping grows much larger and faster than what's stated on the labels. I was expecting the same with this Hydrangea, that its mature size would be greater than its label indicated, so I gave it plenty of room, which is doesn't come close to filling. I've decided to transplant it either this fall or next spring (depending on what I find on the internet for info on how it will stand up to fall transplanting in my zone, which I've not yet found). I think I'll put a Black Lace Elderberry bush in the vacated spot and move the Twist&Shout Hydrangea further down the east side of the house, next to a large bunch of established White Phlox just about to break into beautiful full bloom this time of year. That's my only disappointment with this Hydrangea, its ultimate size. According to my experience, it will never reach the size stated on the label in zone 4, where it dies back to the ground every winter and comes back from ground level every spring. An attractive and, so far, hardy zone 4 plant, to be sure, but not nearly as large as some other varieties in the Hydrangea family, and the larger size is what I was wanting when I bought the Twist and Shout....See MoreWhich Hydrangea's are reliable bloomers (macrophylla)
Comments (11)I've been trying to get into a few more Bloomstruck 3-gallons for less than $40 (to replace some container migratees) and I've had no luck finding any, that look healthy anyway... I was too lazy to type this earlier, but here are my favorite reliable bloomers categorized by type. These are probably 90% of what I would consider to be reliable bloomers after killing freezes, at least based on what's been physically available at stores/nurseries. Lacecaps: Tuff Stuff (serrata), ES Twist n Shout, F&E Summer Lace, Let's Dance Diva & Starlight. Cherry Explosion (red - McKay) is making its debut. Peach / coral: Let's Dance Big Easy, Everlasting Coral, F&E Fantasia Multi-color (not picotee): Pistachio, Everlasting Jade, Noblesse, Amethyst, Coral, Revolution Pastels: Penny Mac, Everlasting Ocean Brighter Pinks: Everlasting Opal, Lime Lovebird (new) Deep Blues & Purples: Let's Dance Rhythmic Blue & Rave, Brestenburg & Mathilda Gutges (old cultivars) Reds / Dark Pinks: Pistachio (multi, dwarf in Z6), Grateful Red (McKay), Fuchsia Glow Blue/pink + bloom size: Endless Summer Original, Nantucket Blue, relatives.... Blue/pink mixed dwarf: Everlasting Revolution. Whites: F&E White Out (dwarf), ES Blushing Bride (medium), Mme Mouillere (large) / only moderate success in Z6. Everlasting Pearl (honorable mention) Double White: F&E Peace, Wedding Gown (half lacecap), Sumida no Hanabi (full lacecap) Black Stem: Enchantress, Black Together / Licorice Lollipop Red Stem: Lady in Red, ES Bloomstruck Double, Single Colored: F&E Together, Izu no Hana (lacecap), Double Dare (dwarf lacecap) Picotees: F&E Peppermint, Wedding Ring, Tivoli, Edgy Orbits (lacecap), Stargazer (double lacecap)...See MoreMarble _
2 years agopennlake
2 years agolast modified: 2 years agosandk
2 years agoindianagardengirl
2 years agolovemycorgi z5b SE michigan
2 years agoAshley Smith zone 5a
2 years agolast modified: 2 years agoMarble _
2 years ago
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