I am putting in a new foundation planting at my house. this side of the house faces southwest, but is partially shaded by two huge pin oaks (nasty trees). It is on a slope, so drainage is not a true issue. I am wondering about any hydrangeas that may take a bit more sun than others. I have several hydrangeas at other shadier places in the yard and they do wonderfully. Thanks in advance for any assist you can give.
by the way I am in zone 6
how much sun is too much?
I think that H. arborescens and H. paniculata can take a little more sun than H. macrophylla can.
I am new to Hydrangeas and would also like to know how much sun they can handle. The position I have in mind is in full afternoon sun. Would the macrophylla cope with this?
Mike
I have further researched it and am going to go with oakleaf hydrangeas. I am looking at western exposure with mixed sun and they seem to do the best in that situation. I do not think the macros can take that much sun.
Mike--H. macrophylla can't take that much sun even in a climate with cool summers. I'm assuming that your summers can be rather warm so I don't think there are any hydrangea species that would be happy with full afternoon sun. Even if you could manage to keep them from totally dying, you'd have to water them almost constantly and I don't think they'd ever look good, so I would consider some other options. Plenty of full sun shrubs ought to be perfectly happy in a location like that.
Thanks for the advice. Just saved me some money!
Mike
What about Limelight and sun?
We have a couple hydrangea macrophylla bushes that are a "century" old that gets a whole day exposure to direct sun. I don't know how old they are as we have the house for over twenty years and we inherited them from the previous owner. Every year they grow and bloom like crazy. We live in zone 6b/7 (NJ) and the heat or the summer sun don't bother them at all. They don't get special treatment either when it comes to watering. I guess once established on the ground they can tolerate a lot of sun.
Having that experience, early last month, Lowe's was having a sale on their gallon sized bushes, so I bought a couple hydrangeas (macrophylla and pia) for only $6.00 each. The plants look so vigorous and have a healthy root system. I planted them also with almost a whole day sun exposure and so far I've seen new growths with no 'burning' leaves or wilting and I'm seeing buds on one of them already.
At the same time going back to the matured hydrangeas, I decided to take a partition in one of them as the bushes were getting too crowded. I was able to separate a big clump without digging out the whole plant. I was able to get some roots from the one I separated but it wasn't much of a root ball. So now I know for sure this one needs some special treatment. Since I really don't have a choice for shade gardening, I also planted it in direct sun exposure the whole day. Last month we had heat wave in NJ where temps were as high as 90 -record breaking for early spring. I did noticed a lot of burning leaves and wilting despite watering and misting all throughout the day. Like what I said it didn't had much of a root ball to begin with, so I cut off to half of the old woods and left the new growth on the crown to grow. I also covered the whole plant with a burlap material for two weeks. After that I took the burlap off and now there are signs of growth all over the plant. I still water it everyday I guess until the rooting system gets established. I'm keeping the burlap handy just in case I need it again until the plant is truly established.
Speaking of Jersey, most homes along the shore line have their hydrangeas planted in direct sun especially afternoon sun exposure yet every late summer to fall it's always a sight to see them blooming vigorously. Ours included with our over 20 foot tall white pee gee tree and the two matured pink and blue macrophyllas it's always a breathtaking sight.