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abykatz22

Hydrangea suggestion

Looking for advice on what hydrangea to plant at the back of my house, facing north, in the shape. The area can hold water when we get a lot of rain. One that doesn't get huge if possible. I'm in Georgia zone 7b. I have endless summer out front that I'm not real pleased with, and little lime that I love and performes well.

Comments (6)

  • 9 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    In theory, you should be able to grow any of the hydrangeas as long
    as the shade is bright shade and as long as the area that holds water
    will drain it quickly. Otherwise, if water pools often or for long
    periods of time, the shrubs may develop a full case of root rot and die.
    Or maybe they may develop a lighter version of root rot and then they
    will not perform well because they have trouble absorbing oxygen in
    periods of rainy weather. Consider if the water can be made to go
    elsewhere just to be on the safe side. Landscape companies can offer
    their two cents on that.

    The Let's Dance Series has compact, reblooming macrophyllas like
    Moonlight, Rave and Blue Jangles. There are several compact arborescens
    hydrangeas now entering the market too with names like Little Mauvette,
    Wee White, etc. I recommend viewing those to make sure that you like the
    shade of color. You can also look at the oakleaf hydrangeas Munchkin,
    Ruby Slippers, Pee Wee and -a tad bigger 5-', Gatsy Gal and Gatsby Moon.
    Little Quickfire and Bobo are also good and compact paniculatas.
    Strawberry Sundae is slighty bigger but still nice shade of pink.

  • 9 years ago

    Thank you. Your suggestions are very helpful. I will look into the ones you mention. At this point not to particular about the type or color. Looking for hardiness and best bloomers. They are all beautiful to me! I like Quickfire, would the Little Quickfire be best? Any plant will be up against (or should I say close to) the house.

  • 9 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Yes, my Little QF also developed medium yellow foliage in the Fall that was very pretty. Arborescens and paniculatas are not subject to the weather issues that the others have so they are more reliable bloomers. Unfortunately, they only have white blooms. But that is changing with some arborescens now offering various shades of pink that do not change pink if planted in acidic soils. The Lets Dance Seires is all mac rebloomers that can bloom various colors/shades/etc so if you loose the Spring flowers, they will develop new blooms in the Summer. But watch out for areas where the water pools. Oakleafs REALLY do not like that and amongst all hydrangeas, will quickly develop root rot if they sit in wet soils for too long periods. I lost one many years ago due to root rot when El Nino rains wrecked havoc in my backyard. So see if there is something that can be done to drain the water away.

  • 9 years ago

    My Quickfire spends about a month (July in my garden) all white, then slowly develops pink that darkens over the next month (August), and then ends up a bright pink around labor day that holds until frost. A full 4 months of flowers! YMMV since your growing conditions are different than mine, but it does bloom starting a few weeks earlier than LL. Mine hasn't gotten taller than 6' or 6.5' in the 8 years it's been in my garden, and it only took about 4 years to reach that height from a quite small rooted cutting. I have never seen it with LQF, so I can't compare the two, but QF is one of my favorite garden plants. Whether you choose QF or LQF depends on how much space you have; QF is a bit larger than LQF.

  • 9 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Just an aside--if your rear of the house is facing North, I'm assuming your front faces South. And unless you have adequate shade there, that's not a very good place for Endless Summer (especially in Georgia) and may be why they are not performing well.