Hydrangea Hedge

I was all set to buy some Endless Summer and Annabelle to alternate in a row of 7 bushes. Does anyone know if there is some reason that they would be incompatible if planted next to each other?

The house has white vinyl trim and blue accents with stained shingles. I will want the Endless to be blue so I will be using I suppose the Aluminium Sulfate with oak mulch as we have tons of leaves here.

The soil needs and size look approximately the same for the two varieties. I was going to get 2 year old plants; the marketing material says to plant 3 feet apart which seems a little close to me. The hedge will be a bed that runs along a deck which is about 4 feet up, where the bushes are shown in the picture. Air will circulate under the deck, I suppose.

Maybe Blushing Bride would be better as it is in the Endless family.

This message was edited Mar 26, 2011 10:04 PM

I think any hydrangeas would look beautiful in that spot. That will look so beautiful.

Anabelle has very large blooms that tend to weigh down the blooms themselves and the stems. This is more obvious after a rain when the added weight of the water makes things worse. Planting it close to another Anabelle will make each support the other. Old stems tend to plop less so prune them all the way to the ground rarely. A 1 to 1.5' short fence around the shrubs can also help.

Consider other Anabelle clones that advertise stronger stems and or pink blooms: Bella Anna, Invincibelle, Incrediball, etc