Billowy bowling ball sized blooms hang their heads in the late day sun. I’ll have to wait until morning to take a few hydrangea cuttings. One stem can fill an entire vase! The hydrangeas are at their peak and you can’t help the exclamations of “Oooooo’s & Ahhhh’s” as you gaze upon these gorgeous flowering bushes. If you are searching for moderately fast growing bushes with lush blooms then hydrangeas are a perfect choice. Not sure where to start? Let’s look at 8 Must Have Hydrangeas you’ll love!
One of the most common hydrangea you’ll find in garden centers is the Endless Summer hydrangea which you can see here pictured above and below. What is nice about Endless Summer is that unlike other varieties, this plant will give a large output of blooms in the late spring or early summer depending on where you live and then bloom steadily throughout the summer.
The best way to find out which hydrangeas you’d love to purchase is to take a trip to a botanical garden. I visited Norfolk Botanical Gardens last week and wrote down a few types of hydrangeas that were especially stunning.
Most garden center variety hydrangeas are from Asia but the US does have native hydrangeas also. The native varieties are Oakleaf and Smooth. Most people don’t even realize that Oakleaf hydrangeas are actual hydrangeas. They are native to the southeast and produce mophead-like blooms but are in a conical shape instead.
The leaves of the Oakleaf Hydrangea also turn deep purple-bronze in the fall which makes a stunning addition to your garden.
The Smooth Hydrangea is the other type of native North American species and can be in the mop head or lace cap from as seen in the picture below. The most common varieties you’ll come across are “’Annabelle’ and ‘Grandiflora’.
There are two most common shapes of hydrangeas: mop heads and lacecaps. Mophead hydrangeas produce large ball shaped blooms. This gorgeous bloom is almost as large as my son’s head!
Lacecap hydrangeas produce a bloom with a ring of blossoms around a center “cap” of tiny blossoms. Below is the beautiful ‘Nachtigal’ Bigleaf Hydrangea.
This ‘Princess Lace’ hydrangea was my favorite. Clusters of tiny periwinkle blue blossoms are surrounded by a ring of winter white blossoms.
Gazing upon the whole bush was breathtaking. I’m adding it to my must have list!
Another lacecap that was equally as stunning, was the ‘Midnight Duchess’. Unlike some other hydrangeas that have a varied colors on one bush, this variety was filled with only light pink blossoms. The backsides of the petals are white and the inside are baby girl pink.
A showy bush with variegated leaves and lavender blossoms is ‘Lemon Wave’.
A lovely deep purple variety which is a real showstopper is the ‘Fasan’ hydrangea.
You will love the addition of few hydrangeas to your garden. Always check which variety does best in your growing zone. Which one is your favorite?
For more gardening ideas, check out the Gardening Tab up at the top of the page.
Kim
LOVE LOVE LOVE – must plant some of these at our new house. They remind me of my grandma.
Emily, it’s so funny you say that. I used to hate hydrangeas as a kid and used to call them “Grandma Flowers” because every old lady I knew had them! It’s interesting how our tastes change as we’re older. 😉
My favorite flowers! We have two bushes in the front that just started to bloom, can’t wait for the color to show.
I love adding one each year to the garden. Thanks for stopping by!
Mmm…. such a pretty post =) Just bought a new lacecap last night. It will be living on the deck, away from the deer.
We don’t have a deer problem here thankfully. I hear they can be a real (and expensive) annoyance. I’m on the lookout for a lacecap too. Thanks for stopping by Shannon!
I have a Princess Lace in my front yard that is blooming her little brains out right now. This is the first year in many that most of my hydrangeas have bloomed (I’m in Georgia). I’m in heaven with a pitcher full on my kitchen island every day!
Great post, Kim!
Heidi @ Decor & More
Oh wow! I bet it’s gorgeous! I want one of those so badly. Yes, my house is filled too with beautiful blooms!
I have a Princess Lace in my front yard that is blooming her little brains out right now. This is the first year in many that most of my hydrangeas have bloomed (I’m in Georgia). I’m in heaven with a pitcher full on my kitchen island every day!
Great post, Kim!
Heidi @ Decor & More
I have two different kinds of Hydrangeas, one with pink blossoms in the garden (named “endless summer”) – it is beau-ti-ful even now while it is still quite small.
And then I have two pots with a kind that has pointed white blossoms … like this:
http://www.pflanzmich.de/produkt/18400/rispenhortensie-grandiflora_hydrangea-paniculata-grandiflora1.jpg
I have put them next to our front door, but they don’t have blossoms yet.
I am looking forward to their blossoms – maybe next year!
Jule
Hydrangeas hold a very special place in my heart. My great gram adored hydrangeas and I’m am so lucky to have had her in my life until I was 15 years old! Hydrangeas make me think of her. I have 4 huge endless summer bushes in my backyard I planted with her in mind 🙂 Your post brought me down memory lane . Thank you!
I love your pics! The midnIght dutchess is gorgeous. This post makes me smile!
I do love how a flowered hydrangea looks like – I was just at our beach house, and a neighbour had a larger-than-human size, all bloomed, it looked absolutely stunning!
Did you know that their color depends of the soil? The same plant can have many colors, it depends on what it nourishes from.
In the portugues islands of the Azores, you will find (millions of) hydrangeas of many different colors… But one color of each in one island… You thus have the ‘red’ island, the ‘blue’ island, etc etc… Trully amazing!
Can’t remember what else makes them chanfe color, but I know that putting iron (nails, etc) close to the roots will bloom red flowers.
Just got back from a few days on Cape Cod and the hydrangea is considered a signature flower in gardens there. I enjoy this flower so much and was delighted to be greeted by some at every turn of the road. Here’s to enjoying them all summer long!
Oh my goodness, I love these! I have mophead hydrangeas in my backyard that I absolutely adore – but they might have to make way for some of those lacecap hydrangeas! How pretty!
i have four plants in the backyard that my mother in law gave me. They are all white and just starting to bloom. I hope to add some others with colour when we do our backyard next year 🙂
Oh I love hydrangeas of all kinds. I have 9 different ones in my yard. Two are lace-caps and I do love them. I think that one is the Princess Lace. But the bad thing about lace-caps is that they bloom only once and the blooms don’t stay nice for as long as the mop-heads. In Michigan they can bloom really late and I still have 3 or 4 that haven’t bloomed yet. Luckily they stay nice until October.