Wendy, you have a lovely yard! The Annabelle looks so pretty and upright!!! Great job with the wire fencing.

What beautiful landscaping!

Great idea!

That Annabelle is beautiful, looks great in that bed!!

Wendyb,

I love, love, love the picture of your annabelle hydrangea and your landscaping. It has been over a year since you posted it, so I am hoping you are still on the forum. Would you please tell me what the variegated shrub is next to your Annabelle? The combination is beautiful. Also, is that just one Annabelle?

Thanks!
Melissa

Thanks Melissa. I'm still here. Thanks for the compliment. I like that area too. Annabelle's neighbor is a dogwood... Cornus alba 'Ivory Halo'. I must have deleted the picture above that shows the fencing providing the support. Here it is again. I left it up year round. It was hardly noticeable from a distance. It was kinda a pain in the spring cleaning up inside it, but still a good thing.

I recently purchased a variegated dogwood called Argenteo-Marginata which will eventually be larger than ivory halo, but I think the Annabelle would look nice with it too. I have been looking for a hydrangea that would fit the bill and I think you have inspired me to try it :) Thank you for posting the picture of the support fencing again. I will try that too. Thank you so much for sharing your efforts. It is most appreciated!

Hello Wendy - I second everyone's praises & admirations to both plant choices & setting!!! Â;) Ivory Halo-C A & Annabelle do complement each other! Thanks for posting photo ... looks like I'll have to dig up another large Hosta next to Ivory H & sink another Annie in its place! I just acquired both, this Mom's Day but didn't think to put them together.

I use a great deal of those plastic coated wire fencing as cages for over-wintering marginally bloom tenders - will have to make one for Annie when she gets to her mature size perhaps even for BB too, a shorter one. She handled the previous severe storms/tornadoes earlier this season but not this 3-in-a-row & another predicted for tonite - huge blooms took her down this time!

THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR THIS POST!

Just this minute I came here to find a solution for the same problem. My annabelle makes enormous flower heads and the whole thing has collapsed pretty much in the center. Each flower head must be 14-16" across. I will have to try this next season.

I thank you also...I have two lovely Annabelles and I know
that they'll flop eventually. I can now take care of the
problem ahead of time.

Here's one that doese not require staking. See link below

Here is a link that might be useful: Plant Hunter blog

this is just the problem i was looking for a solution for. My giant blooms flopped at the beginning of the season and never recovered.
I'll definitely try this, thanks.

I'm hoping this worked for anyone who has tried it. I just placed wire around my Annabelles. I also wired on the top of the cage and the Annabelles are growing through them. Sure hope they stay upright this year. Last year they were gorgeous until we had a hard downpour.

I finally installed my Annabelle's cage too, just a few days ago and already had to replace with a ft wider circumference cage ... this girl is simply a fast grower! Hopefully the 2' tall fence, will do for this 2nd season. I went ahead and corralled ES too as the skinny legs couldn't handle the numerous mops of blossoms, in '08!

WendyB, thanks again for the great suggestion!

Happy season! Â;)

You're welcome. I'm glad this suggestion is working out. After two years of seeing it in action, I can add that its not perfect, but it helps a lot. Even if some of the outer stems make it outside and flop, it still looks okay overall.

This spring I removed my cage and pulled out some of Annabelle's offshoots to reign her in a bit. Then I recaged and it should be good to go for another two years.

I also put a cage on a young H. paniculata Limelight a couple of years ago. I think as it ages though, the stems will get woodier and it will be okay without any help. But initially it seemed like a good idea. THen, after 3 years in the ground, I needed to move it. So I cut it back hard this spring before transplanting. So now all the older woodier growth is gone. Back goes the cage...