On our town's main street I snapped a picture of this planting outside of a business.
(Is it "Strawberry Vanilla"?)
Stunning planting of hydrangea
Sure looks like it. Quite large so it must be a specimen 3-5 years old.
What Rock City are you referring to? The one in TN?
Awesome, looks like Limelight. My Little Lime blooms looks like that but maybe a tad greener.
Gorgeous. It seems to be gaining a lot of popularity and would love to see a lot more stands of it along the highways and interstates alongside crepe myrtles.
The hedge in front of Rock City has started to fade when we there on Saturday.
Here is a big old PG (guessing) on the way to the top of Lookout Mountain Saturday (drive by shot out the car).
All I gotta say is "wow!" I want one. Strawberry Vanilla,huh?
rouge21, how is the VS looking like two months after the original picture? If it is not too much to ask, can you post a new one to compare?
So many lovely hydrangeas, but that Strawberry Vanilla is really special!!
nice
Yes, VERY nice. Thank you, rouge21!
Rouge21 great pictures of limelight. Have a q. but guess I will start another string.
I showed this picture to a gardening friend and she wonders how we can tell the difference between "Vanilla Strawberry" and say "Pinky Winky" ie could the above be a stand of PW?
(Btw, I walked by the planting today. It consists of 3 individual hydrangeas).
Pinky Winky has looser florets (much like lace caps) compared to Vanilla Strawberry which is more like a mop head (tighter florets). Maybe the coloring looks similar but the flower heads are different.
UPDATE:
I drove by this same business and was surprised to notice few blooms from the street when all had looked good a week or so ago :(.
On closer inspection it was clear that someone has pruned the shrubs to level it up with the porch railing and so removing most of the developing flowers!!
I asked inside and the receptionist said that the landscaping crew had been by earlier in the week.
What idiots...a shame.
This message was edited Jul 30, 2015 5:36 AM
The building owners now need to put a sign indicating that "our" hydrangea (hee hee hee!) was incorrectly pruned by landscaping company ABCDEF (or whatever). In a frequented and obvious place, for all to see. Bet the landscapers will notice and never do this again.
;o)
I have both kinds. Strawberry vanilla and Lime light. I prune them back each year, but I must be doing something wrong.
Each new year the stems seem weak and the blooms droop down. Of course the Strawberry Van, this year the blooms were huge and heavy.
How do I prune to get a nice bush with strong stems?
I have always understood that pruning produces more branches and also smaller blooms than if you had not pruned. Unfortunately, it also creates new growth (stems) that cannot hold the large VS blooms on "year 1" so, I would not prune the stems/branches again and see if the blooms stay pointing upwards more as the stems harden and get stronger in 2-3 growing seasons. The bad news is I have seen quite a few pictures of VS and its blooms are so large that some flopping is always visible on the pictures, especially on the newer stems on the sides.