Garden Center

Whether your landscaping has a clean, modern aesthetic, a woodland garden vibe, some rustic cottage appeal, or you're daydreaming about the colonial simplicity of the east coast, there is a hydrangea for you. These shrubs have been cultivated and refined for decades, and for good reason. They are cold hardy, reliable bloomers that are tolerant of pruning, poor soil, and lighting situations from full shade to full sun. Read on to learn the differences between 4 common hydrangea shrub varieties you will encounter at Green View's shrub lot all season long.

Hydrangea Vocabulary: New vs. Old wood

Any meaningful article on hydrangeas, especially written for hobby and amateur gardeners, must include a discussion of the differences between new and old wood. It is essential to know whether your flowering shrubs produce flowers from new wood (the current season's growth) or old wood (the previous season's growth). Pruning shrubs in the latter category in the new season, after the winter, will remove the buds that the plant worked hard to grow the previous season, resulting in a year without flowers. What could be more dreary than a spring and summer without flowers?!

Don't worry, though. We've got you covered. Each type of hydrangea discussed below will specify whether its flowers come from new or old wood, and how you can prune accordingly to avoid such a garden catastrophe.

Hydrangea paniculata (Panicle Hydrangea)

These hydrangeas are some of the most popular among landscape designers and maintenance professionals alike. Available in sizes growing from 2' tall to more than 10', panicle hydrangeas do great in full to partial sun (a minimum of 6 hours a day is best). 

Most of these hydrangeas feature flowers with colors in the white, green, and pink range, with some spanning all three in the course of a single growing season. Typically, the flowers emerge creamy white, and their color deepens to a rosy pink or pale green as the blooms age. Finally, at the end of the season, the panicles dry out, becoming a delicate, lacy brown color that adds marvelous texture to your garden through the winter. 

Popular Varieties

Countless cultivars of panicle hydrangeas exist, but some of our most popular and sought-after are as follows:

• Bobo, a dwarf-sized panicle hydrangea growing to about 3' tall and wide, has small, tightly packed clusters of white flowers that turn just slightly green over the course of the season. Great for small spaces, such as beneath picture windows and near utility boxes.
• Little Quick Fire is a highly popular cultivar because of its moderate size (around 4-5' tall and wide) and very interesting blooms which are attractive to pollinators. Rather than the tight panicles of Bobo, Little Quick Fire has large, cone-shaped panicles with true flowers that will attract butterflies, bees, and other beneficial garden insects. These emerge white and quickly turn a deep, rosy pink color. Their name refers to their being one of the earliest panicle hydrangeas to bloom in the season!
• Sweet Summer is a lovely medium-sized variety, featuring Kelly green foliage and tight cones of white-and-pink flowers that often appear to have been dipped in a gradient of color. This is an upright selection, great for narrow spaces, and does very well in our zone.

These are but a few of the nearly two dozen varieties of panicle hydrangeas we carry at Green View. Our tree & shrub staff are a wonderful resource for finding the right panicle hydrangea for your full sun situation!

Pruning Advice

One reason panicle hydrangeas are so popular for low-maintenance gardening is the fact that the bloom on "new wood." New wood, put very simply, is the wood that grows in the new year, immediately following the winter.

Come late winter and early spring, those wispy, papery flower remnants from your panicle hydrangea shrubs will have served you well over the winter, offering a lacy textural element to your garden, especially when dusted with powdery fresh snow. However, come late March and early April, it will be a great time to do some shaping and pruning of your shrubs, and your panicle hydrangeas will be very forgiving in this regard.

With clean, sharp pruning shears in hand, take a good look at your shrub. Is the newest growth (that at the ends of the stems) leaning to one direction? Is it thin and spindly, or crossing and rubbing other branches? Get up close: Is the wood smooth and nicely colored, or does it appear dull, wrinkled, and corky? As time goes on, the more you familiarize yourself with your hydrangea (as with any plant in your garden), you'll become acquainted with what healthy wood looks like. 

Remove wood that appears dead, or is thin and weak looking, as well as any branches that are awkward and gangly. You can cut your hydrangeas back much further than you would think. In fact, if you're dealing with a particularly old specimen that has overgrown its place in your landscape, it could benefit from what's known as a "rejuvenation pruning," where most of the branches are removed and only the skeleton of the shrub is left. 

Along the branches, you'll notice pairs or triplets of little nubs. These nubs are buds which will become branches in the spring and summer to come, and they're where the flowers will come from. Make your cuts just above these nubs, where you imagine new branches should emerge. And remember: the greatest thing about panicle hydrangeas is that, because they flower on new wood, no matter how much you remove come springtime or how cold the winter was, they will always flower if provided enough sunlight.

Hydrangea arborescens (Smooth Hydrangeas)

The botanical name of this species, arborescens, refers to the tree-like shape of the stems and flowers. Their smooth stalks, large leaves, and huge flower heads resemble miniature trees. These hydrangeas are long-time favorites for shady, moist areas of the garden, fit in perfectly with a cottage or woodland garden aesthetic, and bonus: they're native! In fact, the most popular variety of smooth hydrangea, named Annabelle, was first discovered and developed for cultivation in southern Illinois. 

Smooth hydrangeas have come a long way since their original discovery, with many dwarf varieties and bloom colors now available, but the timeless look of a mass planting of Annabelle remains an undeniably attractive accent in any shady garden. While smooth hydrangeas can handle full sun in situations where moisture is adequate, they do best when sheltered from the hottest hours of summer sun, and particularly from a western exposure.

Popular Varieties

• As mentioned, Annabelle continues to be the favorite of professional landscape designers and hobby gardeners alike. Over the years, a single plant will develop into a mass of sturdy-stemmed shrubs, topped with gobs of creamy white flowers. These will turn green over the course of the season, and eventually to brown. They make lovely dried flowers, great for fall and winter arrangements. Their native situation is perfectly suited to the climate conditions in central Illinois.
• Wee White is a teeny-tiny cultivar of smooth hydrangea, reaching heights of just 24" and adorned with small but pristine clusters of white flowers. Great for small spaces with dappled sun, such as the corner of a pollinator bed beneath a large tree or bush.
• Invincibelle refers to a series of smooth hydrangeas bred to have interesting flower colors (such as pink, ruby, and amber), super-sturdy stalks that can hold up the weight of the flower heads, and some will even rebloom, stretching the flower time into the early fall.

Pruning Advice

Fortunately for the home gardener, smooth hydrangeas are also among those that flower on new wood! That means you can freely cut them back to size just before spring and still enjoy masses of lovely flowers through the growing season. The budding branches on smooth hydrangeas are simple to spot. You'll want to make cuts about 1" above the uppermost pair of buds you'd want branches to emerge from. These hydrangeas will spread underground over time, and once mature enough, can be split with a shovel much like a hosta. In this way, you can share these lovely native plants with your neighbors and spread them around your garden!

Hydrangea macrophylla (Bigleaf Hydrangea)

In our experience at the garden center, when a customer calls and innocently asks, "do you carry hydrangeas?" these are the ones they tend to have in mind. Bigleaf hydrangeas are famously beautiful with their pink and blue marbled blooms and huge, dark-green glossy foliage. They thrive in areas of the garden where other large flowering shrubs struggle to develop; namely, shady, loamy spots where soil can be relatively poor. 

Many showy cultivars of bigleaf hydrangeas have emerged in the last twenty years, with some featuring frilly-edged petals, others showing off an almost tie-dye level of color marbling, and still more that boast uncharacteristic cold tolerance.

These hydrangeas are also, regrettably, one of the more finicky options for home gardeners, and can be particularly frustrating for newbies. This is because their cold hardiness is often borderline in the often bitter winter climes of Illinois, and because these hydrangeas bloom on old wood. Much like lilacs, which must be pruned immediately after their flowers have begun to shrivel, bigleaf hydrangeas begin to grow the following season's flower buds in the growth that follows their summer bloom. This means that the flower buds must be kept intact for the fall, winter, and spring following the previous bloom in order to flower the next summer!

Popular Varieties

• "The Original" Endless Summer is the quintessential cold-hardy bigleaf hydrangea. These have become landscape staples and are one of the most requested hydrangeas at our stores. They grow to a modest 4-5' tall and wide and feature huge mophead blooms that can be either blue or pink (or both!) depending on the acidity of the soil. Some customers report great success, while others, even those with green thumbs, have given up all hope. By following a few tips, though, you can ensure the health and longevity of these gorgeous shrubs.
• Bloomstruck is another great selection, which features darker, more exotic looking blooms compared to the Easter pastels of Endless Summer. With a little acid and some nitrogen, these bigleaf hydrangeas will boast flowers marbled with deep blues and purples; a great addition to any woodsy garden.

Pruning Advice

As mentioned above, bigleaf hydrangeas bloom on old wood. That means that pruning should be done after the major bloom of the summer has come to an end, and that the buds should be protected through the fall, winter, and spring of the following year in order to ensure successful flowering the next summer. 

There are three major enemies to keep in mind when trying to keep flower buds in tact:

1. Yourself! Make sure not to prune too late, or too far back, or you'll surely jeopardize the following year's bloom.
2. Deer and rabbits. These garden pests are notorious hydrangea munchers. Consider investing in a topical application or deterrent to keep these apparently fearless mammals from decimating your hard-earned flowers!
3. The spring freeze tease. It is often not the cold depths of winter that destroys tender hydrangea flower buds, but instead, the singular late freeze that follows a few warmish weeks in the early spring. If the days have begun to creep into the 50s and 60s, and then a sudden 25-degree night is in the forecast, don't be ashamed to drag a fitted sheet from the closet and shroud your shrub overnight. It could be the thing that makes the difference between a luscious green shrub, and a luscious green shrub coated in multi-colored blooms all summer long!

Hydrangea Quercifolia (Oakleaf Hydrangea)

This hydrangea is named for its lobed foliage, which resembles that of an oak tree. This variety of hydrangea is spectacular in many ways, including its affinity for profuse flowering even in total shade, and its 4-season interest in the garden. With cultivars that reach only 3' tall and others that can climb more than 10', the oakleaf hydrangea is an excellent choice for filling in areas of the garden that just don't seem full enough otherwise.

4-season interest refers to the qualities of a plant that make it attractive in all 4 seasons. In the spring and summer, the appeal is obvious: interesting, deeply lobed leaves and sprays of cone-shaped flowers will add light and life to even the shadiest corners of your yard or wood line. In fall, things become even more interesting as the foliage turns from lovely light green to a marbled mix of red, orange, brown, and black reminiscent of lava rocks. Finally, in winter, the foliage falls away to reveal a papery, cinnamon-colored bark beneath. Once well established, these plants require little pruning to be stunning for season after season.

Popular Varieties

• Alice is an old, tried-and-true cultivar of oakleaf hydrangea that reaches average heights of 6-8' and filling out horizontally with time. This variety features cones of delicate white flowers that mature to a papery brown and can persist through the winter.
• Ruby Slippers is a dwarf oakleaf cultivar, known for its petite size (about 3-4' tall and wide) and white flowers that quickly mature to a deep, rosy pink and persist for many weeks before drying.
• Gatsby Girl is a patented cultivar that boasts particularly bright pink flowers and grows in a more upright habit. If the mounded shape of Ruby Slippers isn't for you but you enjoy the pink color, this one might be the perfect option!

Pruning Advice

Oakleaf hydrangeas also bloom on old wood -- but fret not. These full shade shrubs grow more slowly than bigleaf hydrangeas, and due to their shady situations, are generally not super-prolific bloomers in their first few years. Let them grow in, enjoy the lovely foliage, and do only minor structural pruning, and eventually the flowers will come in abundance.

In conclusion...

There is a hydrangea for every garden style, favorite color, size constraint, and season. Mix and match your favorites and don't be afraid to experiment! This forgiving family of shrubs is worth all the hassle to ensure year after year of beautiful blooms.

When in doubt, our tree and shrub staff are here to help! Drop in, call, or send us a Facebook message if you have questions about selecting, pruning, or fertilizing your hydrangeas.

Hope to see you soon!