Best Hydrangeas For Your Garden | Ranking Every Variety I Grow 1–10 @pwcolorchoice

Hi everyone, welcome to August at Old Castle Cottage's garden tour. We're starting at the front of the house today and I thought we'd do something a little different as we walk the garden today and really focus in on one item in my garden in particular and that is hydrangeas. I will talk about the pros and cons of hydrangeas in my zone 6b garden in Connecticut. So let's start where I don't usually start at the front of the house. So come on, let's start with these hydrangeas. As we head down the entry, I want you to see the three little hydrangeas that are right here. They're firelight tidbit panicle hydrangea, one of the smallest panicle hydrangeas but one with the biggest impact of color change. She grows in zone 3 through 9. She gets 2 to 3 feet tall and wide and she is perfect for the front of the garden or in the middle of the garden. She starts out with white panicles and then you can see she gradually turns this really pretty pink and then in the fall almost red. I like firelight tidbit because she grows on new wood, she is sun loving and she has just such pretty color. So I would rate firelight tidbit from Proven Winner's Color Choice a 9 out of 10 in my garden and as we go through you'll see I have her in several areas. Okay now we're coming up to Pinky Winky. She's a panicle hydrangea by Proven Winner's Color Choice. She gets 6 to 8 feet tall and wide. You can prune her down in late winter and early spring and keep her on the the smaller side. I didn't this year and next year I will. She's good in zones 3 to 8. She gets these beautiful panicles that are very lacy. She starts out all white, she fades to this pink color and it will become all darker pink as we get closer to fall and the pollinators love her. Because of all those reasons and she loves the sun, I am going to rate Pinky Winky a 9 out of 10 just like I did firelight tidbit. Now we're coming up to a re-blooming mophead big leaf hydrangea called Blushing Bride. Blushing Bride starts out as a white and then she turns the blue and ages to dark pinks and lavender and that's what I like about her in the cottage garden. What I'm not fond is that she's marketed as a re-bloomer but it's inconsistent because you do get the blooms, most of the blooms on the old wood so she's an inconsistent bloomer for me. She is good zones 3 through 9 and she will get about 4 to 6 feet tall and wide. She's been here quite some time. I just trim her up so she doesn't fall over the sidewalk too much. So for that reason, the inconsistency in blooming, I am going to rate her a 5 out of 9. For reference, I have three more Blushing Brides over here in a more shady area so you can get a better idea of the color before she starts to turn which you saw on the one that receives mostly sun during the day. The next group of hydrangeas on our tour in the front of the home and these are Little Lime, three Little Lime that I use as a foundation planting. They get three to five feet tall and wide. These are on the higher side to five because they're pruned in late winter, early spring and I did not prune them down as far as I should and I will next year. They get these beautiful panicles on them as an up close and as if we come down here you will see they turn this nice pink and almost a rust color in the fall. They're good in zones three through eight and in my garden I will give it an 8 out of 10 for no other reason than I really feel she blooms a little late for me and I would prefer these panicles to be this beautiful early in the season especially since I have them planted on the front of the house. Now as we walk over here we'll see a few more tidbits as we head to our next group. So now we're in the back and here is a limelight so very similar to the Little Lime that we just saw but she gets much taller six to eight feet but this one is a little taller than that and she just loves where she's living. You can see the size of the panicles they're huge. Put my hand there for the reference. She will color up just like Little Lime did. This one in particular has not started to show its aging color which is the same as Little Lime will get that pinky to the rust color in fall. So it is zone three through eight just like Little Lime and I'm going to rate it the same. We'll rate it an 8 out of 10 for the same reason. She's spectacular but I wish we could see this a spectacular show just a little sooner in the garden. Now we're going to go just around the corner and check out Gatsby Pink by Proven Winter's Color Choice. She's an oak leaf hydrangea and what I really like about an oak leaf hydrangea is if you have an area like this that's tucked under trees and in the shade an oak leaf hydrangea you will be able to get color. So for everyone that's saying how do I get color in my shade garden? Plant a Gatsby Pink hydrangea in your garden or Glow Ball which is white. You can see the panicles here very lacy like you saw on Pinky Winky up front but what is great about this hydrangea is it doesn't look like it now but when we come to our fall tour this foliage turns red burgundy. It is stunning and it'll give you color in the fall in your shade garden. For that reason and only that reason in my 6B garden I would give the Oak Leaf Gatsby Series an 8 out of 10. On this side of the bench is another Gatsby Pink by Proven Winter's Color Choice. Please remember which I didn't mention before she gets very large so she can get nine feet tall and wide. Make sure you allow plenty of space for her. I will probably have to move this bench as it grows and move the bench up but right tucked in here under the rhododendron is Endless Summer Original Blue. The Endless Summer Series just like the Blushing Bride grows on new and old wood so you will have blooms on the new wood every year but it's also prone to losing the blooms from frost so I would suggest that you be aware of that. Though it is a true blue these are aging really pretty. They can come in but you can see one that hasn't started to age so in your garden if you have a cold climate Endless Summer Original and for blue would be the hydrangea for you. In my garden though I'm going to rate her a 6 out of 10. She does not get very big because the winters tend to destroy the old wood so she's only growing off of the new wood and the blooms are sporadic so I don't get the big beautiful hydrangea blooms on this particular hydrangea. Now we're coming up to my favorite current favorite hydrangea in the garden and this is Let's Dance Sky View. She is a re-blooming big leaf hydrangea. She gets two to three feet tall and three to four feet wide. She is good from zones four to nine. She will be blue and acidic soil and pink and alkaline soil and you can adjust that in your garden. I prefer the pink where she's located in this garden and she ages here this pretty rose color. I love her. She has been blooming all season. The garden has looked like this all season if you followed the tours. She is a 10 out of 10 and in my opinion a must-have to add to any cottage garden. Here is Incredible. She is a smooth hydrangea from Proven Winters color choice and in this particular area I have three. She grows in zones three to eight and she gets three to five feet tall. I will say this one down here gets full shade and still blooms. She just doesn't get as tall as the ones that get more sun. These are at the end of bloom so they're getting that lime color. Let me get you close so you can see the lime color. It's white to start and it turns this pretty chartreuse type green and those flowers on the smooth hydrangea can get up to 12 inches across which is very dramatic. I love her. She does not droop. She does not drop with the rain. We've had heavy rains. You can see her. She really holds up very very well and in my zone 6b garden I would rate her a 9 out of 10. Here is the original Annabelle. I'm doing it on the next slide so you can see the difference between Incredible and the original Annabelle. The original Annabelle in the spring is beautiful but as soon as I get a heavy rain no matter and this is staked how she gets and she also has the same lighting conditions as the ones I just showed you and you can see how she browns out. It again is a smooth hydrangea but Proven Winners Color Choice bred it the Incredible to withstand all these issues that Annabelle has. So in my opinion this particular hydrangea is a three out of ten and that's only because of what she does in the spring and I will say I'm going to pull her out and replace her with Incredible if not this fall next spring. Now we're coming up against Mountain or Serrata hydrangea. They're good for shade. This is tough stuff. She gets three about three feet by three feet zones five through nine and I'm going to come up close. This one has already shown its color and if you'll come down here we'll see one here you'll get part of the blue lace cap here and if we come down a little farther you can see some that have not turned. In my particular garden I am going to rate her a three out of ten and she's going to be moved. There's really nothing wrong with her other than this particular area is getting a little too much sun for her since I've cut back my magnolia tree and I want to balance the Incredible over here but she needs to be shorter than the Incredible so I'm going to plant Stormproof by Proven Winners Color Choice but the other reason I rated her so low is she really doesn't have a lot of color. If you are looking for a mountain hydrangea and you have her and you have a lot of shade this might be a hydrangea for you but in my particular garden with the hydrangeas that I have she ranks a little on the lower side with a three rating. The last hydrangea I want to show you is Nikko Blue. Nikko was in the garden before I came here Nikko is one of the original mop head hydrangeas and she does have blue flowers. She's recommended for zone six to nine IM6B and the reason she's recommended so is because she only blooms on old wood so you only want to deadhead her and if you are going to have a frost you're going to have to cover her. I covered her and I still didn't get a lot of blooms this year. When I have a good season she is a beautiful hydrangea but honestly I'm in zone 6B and she's too finicky for when I'm going to get those big big blooms in the Nikko Blue. So if you're in a zone eight or nine Nikko Blue would be great for you because you're not going to have the freezes you're going to get these big big beautiful blooms and then they will age. Here's some aging very pretty when they age but I would say in my particular garden I will give Nikko Blue a six out of ten just because it's really not that dependable for me and you can see she's not very pretty to look at right now though she does have a few flowers. So that's it for the hydrangeas that we have here at Old Castle Cottage. I do have another limelight over here in the garden. I hope you enjoyed you know walking through the hydrangeas with me and again this is only my opinion on which ones I prefer but a panicle you can see the difference than a hydrangea that is susceptible to freeze especially in my zone 6B. If you like this video if you can like comment which you want to see differently and subscribe I would greatly appreciate it. Have a great day!