Selecting the right plant partners...

Hydrangeas, easy care shrubs, make them a popular mainstay of the landscape. They can stand alone as a specimen, grow en masse as a hedge and be mixed with other shrubs, perennials and annuals to create mixed borders. Here are a few tips for selecting the right plant partners for your favorite hydrangeas.

What You Need

• Hydrangeas suited to the space and growing conditions
• Annuals, perennials and shrubs that thrive in the same growing conditions
• Select plants with various bloom times for season long color in the garden; flower and foliage colors that echo (repeat) or compliment the hydrangeas you are growing; or finely textured plants that contrast with bold leaves and flowers of hydrangeas.

Know Your Hydrangeas

Smooth, Hills of Snow, Snowball (Annabelle type) Hydrangeas (Hydrangea arborescens)

• Grows 3’ to 5’ tall and wider
• Prefers partial shade, full sun if soil is kept moist
• Moist, well-drained soil preferred
• Blooms on new growth

Panicle Hydrangea Hydrangea paniculata

• Dwarf varieties 3’ to 6’ tall & wide, Large varieties up 10’+ tall & wide
• Performs best in full sun but will tolerate partial shade
• Moist, well-drained soil preferred
• Blooms on new growth

Bigleaf Hydrangea (Hydrangea macrophylla)

• Grows 3’ to 6’ tall & wide
• Grows in full sun with moist soil, afternoon shade
• Moist, well-drained soil preferred
• Soil pH (acidity) influences flower color
  • Blue flowers in acidic soil
    • Add aluminum sulfate (per label directions spring through July)
  • Pink flowers in alkaline soil.

Just a Few Potential Partners for Shade 

Annuals: 

• Sunpatiens or New Guinea Impatiens (downy mildew resistant)
• Begonias
• Browallia

Perennials:

• Hostas
• Lady’s Mantle
• Astilbe
• Jacob’s Ladder
• Coral bells
• Foam flower (Tiarella)
• Masterwort (Astrantia)
• Lungwort
• Turtlehead (Chelone)
• Bugbane (Actaea formerly Cimicifuga)
• Japanese Forest Grass (Hakonachloa)
• Sedges
• Ferns

Shrubs:

• Cool Splash Diervilla
• Azaleas
• Boxwood
• Dwarf Hemlock

Just a Few Potential Partners for Sun

Annuals:

• Petunia
• Verbenas
• Annual Vinca
• Sedums
• Zinnia
• Cosmos
• Tall Ageratum

Perennials:

• Coral bells
• Allium
• Perennial Geranium
• Lamb’s ear
• Catmint (Nepeta)
• Agastache
• Shasta Daisies
• Phlox
• Willow Amsonia
• Coneflower
• Liatris
• Hardy hibiscus

• Ornamental grasses
• Clematis

Shrubs:

• Butterfly bush
• Roses
• Weigela
• Purple leafed ninebark
• Dwarf blue spruce
• Dwarf pines

Test Your Combination

• Place your selections on the cart to see how they look together. Check the tags to make sure they all need the same growing conditions and have a variety of bloom times to provide season long interest.

Written by, Melinda Myers. Melinda Myers is a nationally recognized gardening expert with more than 30 years of horticulture experience.  She is a wealth of knowledge and we are pleased to share Melinda’s Gardening How-To with you!

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