Oh my goodness thank you sooooo much! I'm having so much fun researching and searching :) I'll begin on your list immediately.

Dr. Mike gets around...I keep seeing his name LOL

Hydrangea's do tend to do really well here. Our only challenge is the wind (we're on a bluff over the sea) so we have to watch that but the street in front seems to be a good enough buffer. I'd probably worry about wintering over if they were fairly delicate, but we're dedicating one whole side of the house to the hydrangea's at a minimum so we can use protected areas for some of them.

I have much to learn, but thanks for putting me onto some great research!

I may have to change my name to hydrangeachic LOL

Igloochic,

I confused the names of the new pink arborescens. Incrediball is the new white one whose stems are supposed to be stronger than Annabelle's. Invincibelle Spirit is the pink one from the same company, Proven Winners.

Bella Anna will be released next year by Bailey's from Dr. Dirr's new business, Plant Introductions. Our Master Gardeners group visited them last month and their pink one is MUCH better. I would wait for it if it appeals to you.

I also like Hayes Starburst, an arborescens with double florets. It is stunning but the flowers are heavy. It would look good hanging over a wall or down a slope.

The arborescens bloom on new wood. They and the reblooming types would be good for you in case the branches were damaged by the winter winds.

Good luck,

Junco

I've just finished viewing pictures of all of your posts and I'm so excited. I can't wait to discuss this with Cyril on Monday morning. We've been discussing a way to make the gardens distinctive and yet suit the home (a victorian built by an englishman) and I think using hydrangea's throughout the gardens, especially focusing on the wonderful varieties you posted. I adore the incrediball but they colors of the Oakleafs really sing to me as well. I'm thinking in the center of the knot gardens (herbs) we can do hydrangea trees....

You're a doll for helping this new obsession. Now can you tell me which ones the deer don't like? (LOL I Know!!! I actually spray the plants every other day to keep the deer from eating our new plants and expect I'll be doing it until the day I die...hopefully many years from now!).

If you haven't done so, you might check HydrangeasPlus (Aurora,OR..near Portland).
Kristin offers many of the older French & European cultivars that you won't find locally. The plants are field grown in your area, so there would be less difficulty in becoming established in your garden.

They offer a Nursery/Garden tour September 9th - 12th if it's convenient for you. Link below.

I've been a customer for many years and have always been pleased.

Here is a link that might be useful: Hydrangeas Plus :: Gardenpalooza - the Tour

I agree, many of the varieties I suggested are available from HydrangeasPlus, and they would adapt better to your garden if they came from your area.

Good luck!

I'm heading down (or is it up?) to Oregon this weekend to stock up :) I'll hit Hydrangeas Plus as well as a couple nurseries my gardener would like me to visit :)

Thank you all so much! I can't wait to get a car full of blooms!!!

I'd definitely add an aspera or two. Gorgeous plants and not at all common compared to most hydrangeas. I'd also look for a Dichroa febrifuga, an evergreen hydrangea relative. An early bloomer, it produces smallish star-shaped flowers of pale pink or blue, followed by amazing cobalt blue berries. Local nurseries carry it from time to time.

ALL species of hydrangeas grow well in the PNW and we also have the benefit of being able to grow a number of species that are seldom seen or are not hardy elsewhere (the Dichroa, H. seemanii or integrifolia). Larger area nurseries tend to carry wide selections but if you are looking for a specific cultivar, mail order may be the best option -- the new, "hot" introductions like the endless Endless Summer series or the paniculata cultivar du jour seems to have dissuaded many retail nurseries from offering a good selection of the older, tried and true and less trendy cultivars.

Maybe not so unusual for PNW, but definitely a show stoppers in z6-7 are H. involucrata and H. aspera (Villosa Group).
To the list of uncommon looking serratas I'd add 'Midoriboshi-Temari', 'Miyama Yae-murasaki' and 'Little Geisha'(sometimes sold as 'Shiro-Maiko').
In general, H.serrata have much more distinct cultivars than H.macrofilla, but macs are more prevalent in a trade.
If you want to see some truly amazing serratas visit the site of Paoli Borgioli (Italy), but keep in mind that not all cultivars are available in US.

P.S. Do not forget to include in your collection Scizophragma hydrangeoides 'Moonlight' ;-))

Here is a link that might be useful: Paoli Borgioli

We have been hydrangea shopping like mad men and found many from these suggestions (more to hunt down later). Thank you so much. I can't wait to see them in their glory in a year or two!,,

Hi Igloo, what a glorious space you sound like you are creating, how I would love to see your beautiful victorian house/gardens about ten years from now when everything is well established. What fun!

I invested too much wasted money in a bunch of Endless Summers the very first year I could get my grubs on them, what a disappointment. I could never get any more than a bloom or two out of all of them for the next four years despite making sure that everything was correct in the area they were planted, water, sun etc.

I pulled them out, finally, in real disappointment. Mophead hydrangeas have always been my favorite, my mother grew the Nikko blues in the deep south and in the northwest, of course they weren't possible to have.

Last year I decided to give another kind a go and bought a single Hydrangea Incrediball. It is just now beginning to take off (it was a very young plant put in last fall) and oh, the mopheads! Pure white, as big as a baby's head, just glorious. I'm putting in three more because I'm seeing a few in a vase on my dark cherry dining room table when they are in bloom. Simple and beautiful.

I'm also going to try the new Incredibelle for pink repeating flowers from a hydrangea and also a Pinky Winky, hopefully the place I have available for the Pinky Winky will do, I think so.

Do come back and tell us all you picked out, it sounds like so much fun. Lucky girl, you have an expert to guide you, and a trip to the P. coast!

Best wishes and great enjoyment-

If you're still looking, I'm a bit of an enthusiast for hard-to-find hydrangeas. If you can get your hands on any of these, I imagine your lovely English man will be quite intrigued:

-Hydrangea macrophylla 'Mikanba Gaku': Strangest foliage you'll ever see on a hydrangea. Thick, glossy leaves unlike any other I've ever come across

-Hydrangea aspera 'Golden Needle': I'm not even sure the collector has released this one for sale yet, but it's a mophead rather than a lacecap, which is unique among the asperas (as far as I know)

-Hydrangea macrophylla 'Hatsushimo': Stark cream-white splashes of variegation at random intervals all over the foliage on this one. A very intriguing little plant (even though I haven't had it long enough to see it bloom, it's still an eye catcher)

-Hydrangea serrata 'Omacha Nishiki': The Japanese get into some really funky stuff with hydrangeas, going so far as to intentionally breed virus-bearing plants sometimes. I don't actually think this is one of those, but the variegation/discoloration on the foliage looks almost like tidy, uniform damage from spider mites or something (doesn't sound very attractive, but it's actually a very interesting little plant with an almost speckled look about it.)

-Hydrangea macrophylla 'Brunette': A bit more easy to find nowadays; (I'm pretty sure I saw it on offer on the hydrangeasplus website recently), but still quite rare, this mophead holds unbelievably dark pigment in both its leaves and flowerheads. The darkest color I've ever seen on a hydrangea, for sure.

-Hydrangea macrophylla 'Nigra': Also easier to find, I probably should have included this one first, because I think it probably has broader appeal than the weirdos I mention above :) It's a classic mophead with dark purple (near black) stems, and a very elegant shape. Really quite beautiful

There are lots and lots of others worth hunting for, but I'm starting to ramble... Hope you find some great rare specimens. Let us know what you end up with!

Mylab I am anxious to see this ten or even five years down the road. My darling gardner is a wonderful man. I was SOOO Lucky to discover him. I'm learning so much...I don't quite speak in latin plant language yet, but I did whip out a hydrangea fact at the market the other day and shocked the audience (farmers market...the gal though their peegee was a dwarf).

I will have to post my list pretty soon for comments. I will say the endless group has done well by me. I adore...I mean it's my favorite, the blushing bride which dries perfectly perfect for a cherry dining room table :oP Or walnut (given that's what I have). It goes from green to white back to green with a blush of burgundy and dries with that green/burgundy in PERFECT condition...no wilting, no fading....gad I love that plant. I'm actually going to repeat it in a couple areas because I love it so much.

My gardener and I have very different, but fun taste in the hydrangeas. I'm a mophead girl because I'm new to this, but I have an odd passion for folliage differences. He loves the while looking hydrangeas with crazy foliage and funky flowers. Together we're trouble. DH asked me if he should break us up because we get each other into trouble at the garden store LOL

In addition to the hydrangeas we're collecting a series of plants the gardener used at his estate on the isle of white. Rare in the US garden but not crazy expensive plants. I'm enjoying learning about them. We went together to a rare plant exhibit (local collector) and had a blast. Hymilaian (I must learn to spell that LOL) Lillies came home with me for our tapestry hedge project :) 14' tall lillies and a wonderful lilly like tobacco plant....I'm telling you...I have the rare plant bug.

So with that in mind, wild belief he and I just started on your list today after a long long (guest filled) weekend. I'm very intrigued already :) DH is joking about me sneaking plants into the post office lot because we're going to run out of room LOL My one regret (which I'll solve some day) is I don't really have a space for a climbing hydrangea. :( But the neighbor might not notice it if I put it on the far side of their garage....