My DH wants to buy a hydrangea he saw at the garden center. I searched for some info this morning, and to my dismay I find most are not winter hardy in 5a - northern Ohio. Does anyone have success wintering them ? Which ones do you have ? Thanks.
Hydrangeas - Which ones are hardy here ?
I have several hydrangea that I planted last fall and are amazing this year.
Endless summer is hardy (I did winter protect mine) and it is filled with buds this year.
The Forever and Ever collection are also hardy. I have red sensation and I am adding together this year.
I have annabelle, pee gee and pinkey winky too.
The cityline hydrangea are also hardy in zone 5. I purchased Paris as a sale item from Blustone and it is doing very well.
This picture is red sensation just beginning to bloom.
There are a couple of lace caps that are also cold hardy I may add one or two next year depending on space.
My mopheads are in morning sun and afternoon shade. Pee Gee and Pinky Winky get more sun. I also purchased Limelight that I have to plant this weekend.
Thanks ! How do you winter them ?
After it has died back in early winter (I think we got things done after Thanksgiving last year) I made a burlap sleeve around the plant and filled it with straw. This year I am going to cage them with chickenwire and fill with straw. If you are looking for early blooms you need to winter protect so you get blooms on old wood.
Annabelle, PeeGee Pinkey Winkey and Limelight don't need winter protection.
Thanks ! I can do that ! I'm off to the garden center to see what I can find.
Don't forget Pink Diamond too! http://www.northscaping.com/Tools/LPS-Engine.asp?CCID=10000000&page=pdp&PID=836
What kind of light??
Hi everyone -
I ended up buying a Dooley. DH didn't want one like an Annabelle. He wanted the bigger blooms. I planted it is a sheltered corner that gets partial shade. I'll try protecting like bookreader451 suggested, and see if it makes it through winter.
Thanks for your help !
Annabelle gets humongous blooms!
I think Annabelles are beautiful. Where we used to live, our neighbor had a huge one and it was gorgeous. The one I bought yesterday is what my DH wanted for Father's Day, so I had to pick one that he liked.
If you need help this fall let me know. You're zone 5b like myself and a little preventative medicine goes a long way.
bookreader451 - Thanks ! I'll contact you when the leaves start falling !
I am reading that hydrangeas "like spots that get morning sun best, and that they do not like afternoon sun."
Also, that they prefer someplace that would offer them protection from drying winds as they do not like to be dry at all. "A dry hydrangea is a dead hydrangea."
And finally, the younger the hydrangea, the more winter protection it would need in colder areas.
Your comments on these claims would be appreciated. Thanks!
Depends on the type. Paniculata do fine in full sun. My oakleaf do fine in full sun, though they require a bit more attention to water. The macrophylla and serrata fall into the part sun category, though, again, with enough water, they will take more sun. One of mine is in full sun and thrives.
I am looking at getting Nikko.
I have three of the paniculata 'Pinky Winky' to plant from k. van b. Tiniest little things you ever did see. I have them potted up for a spell to give them a bit of pampering before I plant them.
Do they want to be planted separately, or will three planted together crowd each other?
Pinky Will get too big to plant three together. I have mine up on a rise with Dr. Ruppel growing about 2 feet behind it and if it grows anywhere near as well as Pee Gee I will have to move or prune unless I decide to just let the clematis grow through. My Pee Gee is huge this year.
I have limelight also but it is just a baby this year but I have learned to plant with maturity in mind.
Just a note on full/afternoon sun. If you are dilligent about watering you can plant mopheads in full sun. My endless summer is in full sun but I do have to water every moring when it is warmer. I just give it a watering can full and it is usually happy the rest of the day. I love it as one of the anchors in my cottage garden and don't have the heart to transplant it when I enjoy it where it is so much.
Oh, the most beautiful in my mind are PeeGee Hydrangeas, the glorious Oak Leaf Hydrangea, the relatively new Limelight paniculata hydrangea.
Those little puffy blue things that bloom on old wood don't do so well in these cold climes, but those above will become huge anchors to the garden, IMHO.
Daisy, don't forget the arborescens types - Annabelle and the new, Incrediball.
Oh, you're right, Victor, I LOVE Anabelle, and have a bunch of them around the pool. But Incrediball is new to me ...
It's a new one - supposed to have blooms much bigger than Annabelle!
I just looked it up ... it looks great. It fades to green ... I like that. My Annabelles always get a little iffy looking around August. But that might be because I'm too lazy to water them enough.
And they're supposed to be strong - won't flop like Annabelle.
I see there is a hydrangea forum. Have any of you posted pictures over there ? Or - post some here ! I'd love to see them !
I also saw the "pink" annebelle which I will add next year. Also if you haven't seen Forever and Ever Blue Heaven in bloom find one!
I will add Blue Heaven this year; I just need to wait until DH is over the sticker shock of this spring.
Yes - there is a new pink one. Wish it had the sturdier stems of Incrediball.
i have the new incrediball and will report back on how it preforms. it is new this year so it has some growing to do.
will have to look at he forwever and ever blue.
Ugh, I'm about ready to give up on hydrangeas. I have two macrophylla type. The first one I bought, not knowing you had to do the whole winter protection thing to ensure that you got blooms. That one is Merritt's Supreme, which in my acid soil turned the most beautiful shade of deep, dark purple. I haven't seen anything as rich in color as this one, driving around and scoping out others' hydrangeas. The blooms were so pretty, I thought it was worth the effort. Last year I built a big styrofoam box around it, instead of the cage of leaves, which I found to be a major pain come spring.
Last year it rewarded me by doing a weird thing- only the top bud or two broke dormancy and grew and put out flowers (lots of them!). The buds in the middle stayed dormant - not dead, just green, but not growing...they sort of woke up at the very end of summer.
I think I messed up and should have pruned almost everything off to encourage new growth from the base. I was greedy and wanted my flowers last year.
So this past year I did the cage of leaves thing....which was a HUGE pain in the Spring, because that was a LOT of leaves to take out of there. Oh, not only that, a giant branch from a towering pine broke off during the ice storm and landed right on my carefully protected Merritt's Supreme. Great!
Miraculously, most of it survived the branch fall. It's looking better than last year, but I don't see much in the way of flower buds. Some of the buds that never opened last year are sending up growth now. I think it is one very messed up plant. It probably still needs to be cut almost all the way back so that it can just start over.
Here is it's weird self last year, all naked in the middle. I know I need to just give up and grow the hardier types, but the reason I wanted this was for the punch of color...I don't see that with some of those others that are more zone friendly to us.
I also have a Blushing Bride, endless summer type...the jury is still out on that as far as blooms go.
This message was edited Jun 7, 2009 8:46 PM
Did you protect blushing bride? If you want blooms on old wood you still have to winter protect. My ES and forever and ever are both covered with buds and just starting to bloom this week past week.
Yeah, I did, because I had heard the same thing...seems kind of like false advertising, you know? So far I see only about four flower buds, but tons of green foliage...it's very full this year. I'm probably done with winter protection- it's just too much work as the plant starts to get big, which isn't long. Putting the leaves on in the Fall isn't the bad part, it's removing the soggy, matted down ones in the Spring...and having to keep piling more leaves on in the late Fall after the first batch of leaves settle. If anything, I might just wrap a few layers of burlap around them and then call it a day.
I was wondering if you made, say, like a sleeping bag / featherbed out of burlap which you could fill with leaves and then wrap around the hydrangea.
Then, you just unwrap it and drag off the old leaves still contained inside the burlap.
I guess I am wondering if the leaves have to fill between the branches.
One neighbor has made small plywood awnings he puts on posts over some of his shrubs to protect from snowfall. Some are solid plywood, some are lattice. I am thinking maybe one of these with an oakleaf featherbed wrapped around the sides.
Another thought was to build a cold frame / box around it out of lumber and clear poly. I think I have read that one layer of plastic moves that protected area one zone south. So, my zone 6 would become zone 7 inside the cold frame area around the hydrangea.
Burlap might look more natural during the winter than a lumber / poly cold frame.
Yeah, I had thought of something similar- an inner and and outer cage, with the space between filled with leaves. But then, my big styrofoam box didn't really work. Well, it worked...I did get all those blooms...but something went horribly wrong with the rest of the plant. I've had the best results by engulfing the shrub in leaves...I just don't want to deal with the Spring cleanup anymore. It took us hours to uncover and bag all the leaves from Merritt's supreme, and that was with my husband helping, which he doesn't usually do.
If you are zone 6, you can probably grow most of them without protection, can't you?
I use straw not leaves and I twine the branches together (gently). I had very good success with burlap last year but I think I am going to go to a chickenwire cage with burlap surrounding it and then fill with straw. It sounds like a lot of work but my hydrangeas are full of blooms aready this year. I covered my mini roses with straw last year and they are huge already this year.
But isn't straw pretty messy to deal with? I use oak leaves because we have two enormous oaks in the front yard and drop tons of leaves. I've never twined the branches together because they seem like they'd break...but that would certainly help make everything more compact if I could do that. I saw an article online about forcing all the branches to the ground and covering with carboard or carpet...I can see that working (especially since mine was flattened almost like a pancake by that branch), but it's hard to imagine how to do that without snapping the branches. They just don't seem that flexilble.
The canes aren't flexible and can break. I didn't pull the twine tight I just pulled it together so it was more rounded and not as splayed.
As for the straw being messy, I removed as much as I could and the rest is mixing in the the mulch and compost. If I had oak leaves I may have used them but I use the straw for other things and it is only a few dollars a bail.
Yeah, both mine are very splayed out and ungainly. Merritt's Supreme actually has a branch that self rooted quite a while ago that I should cut off and replant somewhere...so that I can start the whole crazy winter protection business over again!! Arhgh, it kills me. It really is so much work, but when I see the flowers it still makes me want to do it. I did plant Blushing Bride in a more protected location, near the house on the north side. It's my intention to just take my chances one year with that one and see how it does. I've heard that once those get established, they are better about producing flowers. So far, I don't think it's made any flowers for me on new wood.
Spring has sprung here in Northeast Ohio. And guess what - my hydrangea has leaves ! Thanks to everyone who gave me advice on how to winter it ! It survived one of the worst winters we have ever had !
We had a very mild winter, surprisingly. I did not protect either of my hydrangeas this year and they buds seem to be waking up now. I think I will cover them with sheets at night now so that they don't get nipped.
Mine are still covered with straw. I am moving and they are all going with me in the next couple of weeks so I am waiting until then to uncover them. Besides it is about 20 degrees here this moring.
My new yard gets so much sun I am limited to the north side of the house for all most of my hydrangea. I don't even want ot think about the work involved yet.