You might consider the tree version of those hydrangeas. Mine is about 5 ft high and looks great. I trim the spent flowers off in the fall. It’s bare in winter though in case you prefer green all year.

i dont understand why you dont have a front door.. on the front of the house ... per our title ...

it might behoove you.. to provide a pic of the whole front of the house.. for better ideas ...

ken

After you reposition the hydrangeas to allow for future growth, that empty space on the right will be minimal and too small for planting.

Those Vanilla Strawberry are paniculata- will they be getting enough sun back there?

And I agree on their size- at some point you are going to need to walk behind them to wash the windows or paint the house plus you want them out from under those eaves to receive rainfall.

Sorry, but I'd rethink their placement entirely.

I agree on moving the hydrangea away from the house. You don't want anything growing within 2' of the house. Plants will draw insects into the house and prevent it from drying off.

The hydrangeas are currently 4.5 feet from our house and there is 4.5 feet between them. It says the spread is 4-5 feet. I think that would still put us at about 2 feet away from the house. We are afraid to move them and risk losing them. I don’t think they will be hitting our house. We wanted the hydrangea to form a hedge so that is why we placed them 4.5 feet apart when there is a spread of 5 feet. This doesn’t sound unreasonable to me…. We won’t plant anything on the right side per my original question and wait to see how big the hydrangeas get this summer

I think the hydrangeas are fine. I agree the right side could use some height— could you mirror by adding a serviceberry on that side also? Serviceberries are wonderful native trees and the symmetry would work with your home. If you were instead wanting more of a shrub (and not afraid to transplant some of your perennials), a dogwood (red twigged or variegated) on that corner might work well and would do fine with the sun conditions.

Can you provide a picture from further back toward the street that shows the side yard on both sides?

The issue with the hydrangeas is that in winter they will collect snow and hold moisture against the house. They are going to at least double in size. YMMV. There's a taller different version of hydrangea called "Oak Leaf" hydrangea, it has cone shaped flowers, very showy. That would be a nice contrast. If you want to go evergreen, sky pencil holly is nice, or one of the columnar junipers, can't remember their variety name . . .

If it were me, I'd just keep it simple and plant one more hydrangea . . . unless I craved variety . . .

Offering a reassurance and a 'confirmation'.

Those hydrangeas would survive a small conventional bomb. Dug mine out pretty roughly and transplanted; the next year. it was covered in blooms.

I'll confirm they are very large. Mine was 3 wide by 4 tall when

transplanted. Two years later it is 3.5 x 5. at least.

Remember to snip off the dead flowerheads just above the new buds and try not to leave stubs.

You can shape judiciously; it blooms on new wood.

I curious whether they'll flop or not. Mine flopped in partial shade. I read a suggestion to plant VS overhanging a wall; did that it seems perfectly sited now. It gets strong SW sun all afternoon and usually looks perky. When there's no rain for a week in hot summer it looks sad. Straightens right up after a hose down.

Here is a thread discussing this particular Hydrangea paniculata cultivar, including photos in real gardens.

Vanilla strawberry

While it may be just 5’ wide without blooms, the weight of the large flower panicles tends to cause the branches to cascade (some say flop) and pull the plant outward when in full bloom, so you may find that at times of the year it is actually wider than 5’.

Can you take some photos from farther back to we can see the other plants such as the oak, red maple, and serviceberry? You might consider a narrow everygreen set out from the house some if there is enough sun so that there is some height and color during the 5 months of the year that the deciduous plants are bare.

I was wondering if it was just the angle that made them look so close to the house. Looks great! Are you thinking you want an evergreen for that spot? Something that is lovely are the dwarf weeping hemlocks. I had one at my last house in the back garden. They aren't super hardy though, but they are gorgeous.