As long ago as 1945, I had an opinion about hydrangeas.
I was 5 years old at the time and living with my parents and two younger brothers in the Bronx. When the weekend weather was fine, my parents often took all of us on a stroll throughout the neighborhood. We lived in an apartment building surrounded by cement, but there were many houses on our street that had tiny front yards that often featured hydrangeas with fat balls of blue flowers. I took a dislike to those blue hydrangea blossoms, but I can give you no reason for it.
I don’t recall many occasions when hydrangeas played any part in my life after that until 1971, when I moved to Greenfield. In front of my new front porch were three straggly white hydrangeas. I immediately pulled them out.
In subsequent wanderings to Maine and Manhattan, I began to feel more friendly toward hydrangeas. There was no more reason for my growing affection than there had been for my disaffection. We moved to Heath in 1979 and I began to plant gardens. Most of my attention and energy went to vegetables and what was to become our Rose Walk. Not a hydrangea in site. Years passed that way.
One day, I was looking at the plants at a small nursery in Whately owned by Bob and Nancy August. I wandered and kept coming back to a small young hydrangea with airy white blossoms named Mothlight. I considered it for quite a long time, and finally decided to buy it.
The Mothlight hydrangea grew very large in Heath which surprised me, but the white blossoms retained their delicate airy-ness. I did add a Limelight hydrangea which has pale chartreuse blossoms, and Pinky Winky which begins white and turns pink over the season. I also planted the white-flowered native oak leaf hydrangea. It was my intention to have these three large shrubs form a kind of long flowering hedge at the eastern edge of my lawn. There it got morning shade and plenty of sun the rest of the day.
When we left Heath, I realized that hydrangeas would be perfect for the low-maintenance garden I was planning in Greenfield. The land next to my neighbor’s driveway is about the driest spot on our property. Hydrangeas, like roses, do not like “wet feet.” I chose Limelight once again, and I also chose Angel’s Blush, which is white but becomes rosy in the fall. Firelight was my final choice, which becomes a dark pinkish-red.
Except for the native oak leaf hydrangea, all the hydrangeas I’ve planted are paniculatas. This is really by chance, but I chose them because they are hardy and very dependable. They can all become quite tall and have conical flowers. Paniculatas and H. arborescens like Annabelle bloom on new wood, which means they should be pruned in the late winter or very early spring. Since they bloom on new wood, it won’t matter to them if the winter has been harsh causing winter-kill. Prune them back and the new growth will provide new flowers.
Hydrangeas like sun, but can take some shade. They need regular watering, but definitely do not like waterlogged soil.
Those big blue hydrangea blossoms I found so distasteful in my childhood were mopheads. Perhaps I intuitively knew that they were trouble. Hydrangea macrophylla bloom on old wood, which means if there is a bad winter, the buds will be killed and there will be no bloom. They can then be pruned, but there will be no flowers for another year.
Pat Leuchtman has been writing and gardening since 1980. Readers can leave comments at her website: www.commonweeder.com.