H. macrophylla seems to be the one that people plant the most in FL. You can choose any H. macrophylla mophead or lacecap that you like. I would recommend trying re-bloomers since your growing season is even longer than mine. That means it will rebloom several times a year. Deadheading the spent blooms will force it to rebloom faster. Will it wilt the first summer? Always but it will be less in future years if you can keep the soil as evenly moist as you can (no periods of dry then wet then dry again, etc. Mulch with 3-4" of organic mulch up to the drip line or slightly beyond. Protect from winds as these can cause wilting. Give them shade starting around 11am-ish.

But you can also try oakleaf hydrangeas as they produce gorgeous Fall color and, once established (1-3 years), can handle drought conditions slightly better. You can basically choose any that you want to try but as a fyi, many oakleafs tend to be large specimens. However, more compact oakleaf hydrangeas are now out there for sale: Pee Wee, Ruby Slippers, Munchkin, Sikes Dwarf, Vaughn's Lillie and the Gatsby Series.

And maybe grow it first in a pot on Year 1 until you find a good spot that works for you. That way, if location #1 does not work, you just pick up the pot and move it (no digging/etc). Make sure the soil (sandy for you?) has a lot of compost and the location gets shade by 11am and is not windy. You may need to give it 1.5 gallons of water per watering in Spring if your soil is sandy. More in the summer months.

https://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/ep330

http://gardeningsolutions.ifas.ufl.edu/plants/ornamentals/oakleaf-hydrangea.html

And of course, you can grow it in containers all year if this works for you.

H. arborescens is also native to Florida but I have not heard of any who grow it in the Tampa or Orlando areas. This is the one sometimes called Smooth Hydrangea or Annabelle. If you were in the northern areas of FL you may want to try it but H, macrophylla and H. quercifolia (oakleaf) should do better.

http://plants.usda.gov/core/profile?symbol=HYAR

Luis said "Make sure the soil (sandy for you?) has a lot of compost"

I will second this. Before planting, amend the entire bed with more compost than you think you will want, and if you can't do the entire bed due to already planted material, do as wide an area as you can. Add an organic surface mulch to the beds also since this will help renew the organic content of the soil. In FL's heat, abundant moisture, and sandy soils, organic matter breaks down quickly and so in order for plants like hydrangeas, which like organic matter and even moisture, to thrive you will want to stay on top of this.

Thank you! This is all very encouraging! And helpful! When we were down there house hunting, I didn't notice any hydrangea and very few roses besides knockouts and there weren't many of those so I am glad to know that they can do well (eventually) if the soil is prepped.

Satasota

Really beautiful! I am taking a baby from my Nikko. It accidentally started by layering over the winter. I am leaving my 2 Endless Summers and what I is a Penny Mac in the garden on this property.

That should be Sarasota.

Sarasota? Hmmm. Did your hydrangeas get rained on by the tropical system that they were talking about on the news?

My hydrangeas are all back at my previous home. We just moved to FL a few weeks ago. I posted my question right after we found out we would be leaving our former state.

Wouldn't you know it my Nikko * finally* bloomed for me. I lost the biggest blooms to the first but the back up buds you talked about did bloom. It was a beautiful spring and my garden was just starting to leap. I won't get to see the Limelight I rescued last fall from the clearance rack bloom but it has already more than doubled in size. I am going to ask my neighbor to send me pictures if it blooms.

I didn't dig up the baby Nikko because I just ran out of time. I will get another one for my yard here once we find our new home. It might be Sarasota or a little further north.

We had some heavy rain but we needed it. :)

I am very excited to get my roses planted, replace my hydrangeas and hang my ferns! House hunting is tedious though.

Oh, God. Yes, it is. Very stressful too when you show up and the owners are there too... with no apparent intention of leaving. And then there are the realtors who have heard the specs and yet show houses that should have been skipped... oh, you got me going there.... grrrrrr..... :o)

And add a sellers bubble market, tons of investors and a tight timeframe....

jhanifan I also live in Lakeland Fl and I was wondering how your if your hydrangea do well through the summer and also if you have grown any of them in pots, also where did you buy them?

Hi Nancy Craig, sorry for the late response. Have been out of town. Hydrangea's are still looking good and doing well so far. This is the second year I have had them. I have not grown any in pots YET but have thought about it for next year since I have ran out of "shade" room. I bought a few of them from Hydrangeas Plus and the rest from Home Depot or Lowes. I do notice this time of year they tend to get some leaf spots but have not treated them though, since it really doesn't hurt the plant and they will drop the leaves anyway (as long as the leaf spots do not get too bad). I will try and take some pics and post this weekend. Hope this helps.

Thank you for your respond. I have one in a pot but it blooms for such a short time and then I have to wait another year for it to bloom again, that is why I am thinking about replacing it with a Everlasting Revolution or Endless Summer. What do you use to treat leaf spot as mine are really bad?

Watering the leaves helps spread the fungi so water the soil instead. Water the soil early in the mornings (6am) so the sun will minimize humidity levels. Allow space so plants do not touch and the air movements help dry things out. Replace the mulch with new mulch if the infestation is high. Pick up plant debris from underneath. Dispose of dried out leaves and spent blooms in the Fall in the trash. Make sure you are not overwatering as high humidity levels make the fungi feel comfy in the leaves, stems, blooms. You can deadhead the worst looking leaves (cut the petiole, not the stem from which the leaf originates). Use drip irrigation.

Fungicides registered for the control of Cercospora leaf spot: azoxystrobin (Heritage; smallest application rate and largest repeat interval); chlorothalonil (Daconil); mancozeb (Dithane; Protect; othrers); myclobutanil (Immunox); thiophanate-methyl (Cleary's 3336) but as previously mentioned, these may be expensive products and, at the end of the growing season, I just prefer to take the above actions. I plunked for irrigation when my sprinkler system started giving me fits. Don't know exactly how much it helped but I have very little leaf spot now so all these things really help.