The Main Plant entry for Hydrangeas (Hydrangea)

This database entry exists to show plant data and photos that apply generically to all Hydrangeas.

General Plant Information (Edit)
Plant Habit: Shrub
Sun Requirements: Full Sun to Partial Shade
Soil pH Preferences: Neutral (6.6 – 7.3)
Leaves: Deciduous
Fruit: Dehiscent
Flowers: Showy

Image
Common names
  • Hydrangea

Photo Gallery
Location: Hamilton Square Garden, Historic City Cemetery, Sacramento CA.
Date: 2017-12-14
The second show of colorful flower bracts and leaves gives a good
Location: Thomasville, GA USA
Date: 2019-06-09
Looking down on a #Monarch enjoying the hydrangea's nectar
Location: My garden
Date: 2018-08-07
Photo by GreenTara18
Location: Willow Valley Communities, Lakes Campus, Willow Street, Pennsylvania USA
Date: 2019-09-05
Lacecap

Date: 2018-12-06
Location: My garden
Date: 2021
Multi color hydrangea
Location: Chippewa, PA
Location: Phoenixville, Pennsylvania
Date: 2017-06-29
Wild or Smooth Hydrangea flowers
Location: Fairfax, Virginia (Outdoors)
Location: Orange County, California
Date: 2019-06-22
The color reminds be of Raspberry Sherbet!
Location: My garden
Date: 2021
Lace hydrangea
Location: Cordoba, Argentina

Date: 2020-07-23
Location: Tampa, FL
Date: 04/03/2022
The rescued Sibling Hydrangeas
Location: Tampa, FL
Date: 04/17/2022
Happy Easter!!!

Date: 2018-12-06
Location: KALAMA WA
  • Uploaded by Joy

Date: 2017-05-30
Location: My garden
Date: 2021
Red hydrangea
Location: My garden
Date: 2021
Blue hydrangea
Location: Fairfax, Virginia (Outdoors)
Location: Long Island, NY 
Date: 2013-06-28
Location: Central Florida
Date: 7/3/2020
I’m so happy about this bloom because This plant was almost dea
Location: Woodland Park Rose Garden, Seattle, Washington
Date: 2016-07-04
Location: Woodland Park Rose Garden, Seattle, Washington
Date: 2016-07-04
Location: Missouri Botanical Garden (Mobot) in St Louis
Date: 2016-06-18
used as a wedding reception tablepiece
Location: My Yard
Date: 5/24/2016
Location: Botanical Gardens of the State of Georgia...Athens, Ga
Date: 2018-10-04
Hydrangea 014
Location: Tampa, FL
Date: 04/13/2022
Bluey
Location: Tampa, FL
Date: 04/13/2022
Close up of my favorite Hydrangea Bluey

Date: 2010-06-23
Photo courtesy of: Yoko Nekonomania
Location: Ballynahinch, Ireland
Date: September 29, 2012
Hydrangea in castle garden, western Ireland
Location: Ballynahinch, Ireland
Date: September 29, 2012
Hydrangea in castle garden, western Ireland
Location: Fairfax, Virginia (Outdoors)
Location: Ballynahinch, Ireland
Date: September 29, 2012
Hydrangea in castle garden, western Ireland
Location: Orange County, California
Date: 2022-10-13
I love FALL HYDRANGEAS!
Location: Gardenfish garden
Date: June 5  2020
Three years of pink blooms, this year, purple!
Location: Botanical Gardens of the State of Georgia...Athens, Ga
Date: 2020-06-27
Hydrangea 011

Date: 2013-02-23
Location: At a nursery
Date: 2011-11-22
Location: KALAMA WA
  • Uploaded by Joy
Location: Tampa, FL
Date: 04/03/2022
Blooming Hydrangeas

Date: 2016-07-30
Location: Pleasant Grove, Utah
Date: 2012-04-26
At Sunriver Gardens
Photo by paulaf

Date: 2010-07-04
Photo courtesy of: Yoko Nekonomania
Location: Ballynahinch, Ireland
Date: September 29, 2012
Hydrangea in castle garden, western Ireland
Location: Beautiful specimen in a Northern California coastal campsite 
Date: 2023-07-17
Location: Fairfax, Virginia (Outdoors)
Location: central Illinois
Date: 2015-06-12
Location: central Illinois
Date: 2015-04-21
Location: Fairfax, Virginia (Outdoors)
Location: John Deere's home gardens Moline, Il. (Quad Cities)
Date: 2008-07-05
Photo by Paul2032
Location: my Zone 7b garden in North Georgia Mountains
Date: 2023-02-22

Date: 2013-07-28

Date: 2016-10-28
Location: My garden
Date: 2021
Star lace flower hydrangea
Photo by Rose1656

Date: 2023-05-15
Location: central Illinois
Date: 2014-07-18

Date: 2009-06-18
Photo courtesy of: kanegen
Location: Fairfax, Virginia (Outdoors)
Location: Fairfax, Virginia (Outdoors)
Location: Riverton, Utah, United States
Date: 2020-06-10
Location: southern Michigan
Date: late summer in 1980's
PeeGee Panicled Hydrangea in bloom
Location: Longwood Gardens in southeast PA
Date: 2014-10-03
Pinky Winky Panicled Hydrangea

Date: 2015-02-24
Photo by sedumzz
Photo by sedumzz

Date: 2013-02-23
Location: Tampa, FL
Date: 03/19/2022
Location: Fairfax, Virginia (Outdoors)
Location: Tampa, FL
Date: 04/02/2022
New Family Member…rescuing it’s sibling tomorrow!!
Photo by Paul2032
Photo by sedumzz
Location: The Natural State
Date: 2019-09-14
Photo by Hazelcrestmikeb
Location: St Louis, Mo.
Date: 2016-06-18

Date: 2019-01-25

Date: 2017-07-31
Summer color transition from White to Chartreuse
Location: Ballynahinch, Ireland
Date: September 29, 2012
Hydrangea in castle garden, western Ireland

Date: 2010-07-04
Photo courtesy of: Yoko Nekonomania
Location: Aberdeen, NC
Date: April 4, 2022
Hydrangea #43 nn;  LHB page 474, 90-4-?, "Greek for water vessel
Location: Bullard, TX
Date: 2019-06-08
Location: Botanical Gardens of the State of Georgia...Athens, Ga
Date: 2017-08-11
Hydrangeas 003
Location: Bullard, TX
Date: 2019-06-08
Location: central Illinois
Date: 2015-07-06

Date: 2009-07-23
Photo courtesy of: Louis Vest
Location: My garden
Date: 2021
Variegated leaf hydrangea
Location: my garden zone 7b NC
Date: 2013-06-12
Location: At a nursery
Date: 2011-11-22

Date: 2011-11-22

Date: 2013-03-15
Location: Austria / Wiener Neustadt 
Date: 2016-02-16
My new hydrangea looks good in my secret garden! I really love va

Date: 2013-07-29

Date: 2012-11-10
Location: My Garden- Vermont
Date: 2014-08-13
Mountain Deck Planter with hydrangeas
Location: My garden
Date: 2021
Mop head hydrangea
Location: My garden
Date: 2021
Red hydrangea

Date: 2019-09-05
Location: Quad Cities Botanical Garden, Rock Island, Il.
Date: 7-3-11

Date: 2010-07-04
Photo courtesy of: Yoko Nekonomania
Location: In my garden in Kalama, Wa.
Date: 2009-07-12
  • Uploaded by Joy

Date: 2012-06-09
Location: Hood, Alabama 
Date: 2022-10-29
Cuttings Started Aug. 17th 2022, Rooted And Planted Oct. 29th 202
Location: Wilmington, Delaware USA
Date: 2015-07-04

Date: 2014-07-02

Date: 2013-02-23
Location: Botanical Gardens of the State of Georgia...Athens, Ga
Date: 2022-05-24
Hydrangea 017
Location: Botanical Gardens of the State of Georgia...Athens, Ga
Date: 2022-05-24
Hydrangea 018

Date: 2015-11-20

Date: 2018-05-26
Location: DISCLAIMER: This is an old photo from an old phone. I don't know why, but the photos look "deep fried". sorry about that.

photo credit: orchidgalore

Date: 2012-12-07

Date: 2013-06-07

Date: 2015-01-30
Location: Canada
Location: At a nursery
Photo by gardengorilla97306
Photo by Anderwood
Location: central Illinois
Date: 2017-06-20
Location: central Illinois
Date: 2014-07-02

Date: 2010-06-23
Photo courtesy of: Yoko Nekonomania
Photo by Anderwood
Location: Botanical Gardens of the State of Georgia...Athens, Ga
Date: 2018-06-16
Hydrangea 017
Location: Beautiful specimen in a Northern California coastal campsite 
Date: 2023-07-17
Location: central Illinois
Date: 2015-02-16
Location: my garden in Dawsonville, GA (zone 7b north Geogia mountains)
Date: 2022-03-07
Location: Elizabethan Gardens, Dare County, North Carolina | June, 2022
Date: 2022-06-12
Location: DISCLAIMER: This is an old photo from an old phone. I don't know why, but the photos look "deep fried". sorry about that.
Location: Kalama, wa
  • Uploaded by Joy
Location: Fairfax, Virginia (Outdoors)

Date: 2015-11-20
Location: Fairfax, VA| June, 2022
Date: 2022-06-11

Date: 2017-04-22

Date: 2013-06-07
a little heat stressed damage to petal edges

Date: 2010-06-23
Photo courtesy of: Yoko Nekonomania
Location: Galena, Il. 
Date: 7-3-06
Home of U.S. Grant (Civil War general then President)
Location: Fairfax, Virginia (Outdoors)

Date: 2021-08-08
Location: Elizabethan Gardens, Dare County, North Carolina | June, 2022
Date: 2022-06-12
labeled Hydrangea 'Miyama-Yae-Murasaki' but they are not double..

Date: 2012-11-10

Date: 2012-11-10
Location: Test garden 
Date: 2017-05-12

Date: 2012-11-10
Location: DISCLAIMER: This is an old photo from an old phone. I don't know why, but the photos look "deep fried". sorry about that.
Location: Test garden 
Date: 2017-05-12

Date: 2012-11-10

Date: 2012-11-10

Date: 2012-11-10

Date: 2012-11-10
Location: Fairfax, VA | June, 2022

Date: 2016-10-28

Date: 2012-11-10
Location: Altamont, Illinois
Date: 8-4-07
Location: Quad Cities Botanical Garden, Rock Island, Il.
Date: 7-3-11
Photo by Rose1656
Location: Fairfax, Virginia (Outdoors)
You can see some of the fertile flowers
Location: Sarah’s
Location: Fairfax, Virginia (Outdoors)
Photo by sedumzz
Photo by sedumzz
Photo by sedumzz
Location: Orem, Utah
Date: 2012-04-26
At Sunriver Gardens
Location: West Chester, Pennsylvania
Date: 2016-06-15
Oakleaf Hydrangea in white bloom

Date: 2015-02-24
Location: West Chicago, Illinois
Date: September in the 1980's
white flowers clusters & leaves

Date: 2010-07-04
Photo courtesy of: Yoko Nekonomania

Date: 2012-06-09
Location: Fairfax, VA| June, 2022
Date: 2022-06-18
Location: Wilmington, Delaware USA
Date: 2015-07-04
Location: central Illinois
Date: 2011-07-06

Date: 2013-02-23

Date: 2013-02-23

Date: 2015-11-20
Location: central Illinois
Date: 2015-02-02

Date: 2017-03-24
Location: In my garden in Kalama, Wa.
Date: Mid Summer
  • Uploaded by Joy
Location: DISCLAIMER: This is an old photo from an old phone. I don't know why, but the photos look "deep fried". sorry about that.
Location: central Illinois (Springfield)
Date: 2016-08-10

Date: 2012-12-07
Location: my garden 
Date: 2015-05-27
Location: my garden 
Date: 2015-05-25
Location: Elizabethan Gardens, Dare County, North Carolina | June, 2022
Date: 2022-06-12
the cropping is weird.... but kinda good
Location: central Illinois
Date: 2014-07-02
Photo by pinkiris

Date: 2012-11-19
Location: Beautiful specimen in a Northern California coastal campsite 
Date: 2023-07-17
Location: Long Island, NY 
Date: 2013-09-06
Location: my garden 
Date: 2016-06-05

Date: 2008-12-21
Photo courtesy of: Breno Mendes

Date: 2010-07-04
Photo courtesy of: Yoko Nekonomania
Location: central Illinois
Date: 2013-10-05
Location: central Illinois
Date: 2013-10-05
Location: Davenport, Iowa botanical garden (VandeVeer)
Date: 2008-07-04

Date: 2012-11-10

Date: 2011-11-22

Date: 2011-11-22

Date: 2013-03-06

Date: 2011-11-22

Date: 2012-11-23
Location: Austria / Wiener Neustadt 
Date: 2016-02-16
My new hydrangea looks good in my secret garden! I really love va
Location: Austria / Wiener Neustadt 
Date: 2016-02-16
My new hydrangea looks good in my secret garden! I really love va

Date: 2012-11-10
Location: At my neighbor's garden in Northern KY
Date: 2017-02-15
Location: At my neighbor's garden in Northern KY
Date: 2017-02-15
Location: Quad Cities Botanical Garden, Rock Island, Il.
Date: 2011-07-02
Location: At my neighbor's garden in Northern KY
Date: 2017-02-15
Location: Quad Cities Botanical Garden, Rock Island, Il.
Date: 7-3-11
Location: Aberdeen, NC
Date: 2022-05-15
Hydrangea #42nn, LHB p. 474, 90-4, "Greek for 'water vessel',  fr
Location: In my garden in Kalama, Wa.
Date: Mid Summer
  • Uploaded by Joy

Date: 2010-07-04
Photo courtesy of: Yoko Nekonomania
Location: Our Yard, DeLand, FL
Date: 2013-05-26
Location: In my garden in Kalama, Wa.
Date: 2009-09-05
  • Uploaded by Joy

Date: 2012-06-09
Location: Coastal San Diego County 
Date: 2018-05-17
Location: central Illinois
Date: 2011-07-06

Date: 2015-07-04

Date: 2014-07-02
Location: central Illinois
Date: 2011-07-06

Date: 2013-02-23

Date: 2015-11-20
Location: central Illinois
Date: 2015-09-03

Date: 2014-01-20

Date: 2014-01-20

Date: 2012-11-19

Date: 2012-11-19
In a mixed planter
Photo by kmspainhou
Photo by JamaicaSu
Location: Han-sur-Lesse, Belgium
Date: 2016-11-04
Location: Missouri Botanical Garden (Mobot) in St Louis
Date: 2016-06-18
Bloom bundle used as a centerpiece for a wedding reception table
Location: my garden; kroger
Date: 2015-05-27
Location: back shady area
Date: 2015-05-17

Date: 2014-01-20

Date: 2014-01-20

Date: 2014-01-20
This plant is tagged in:
Image Image Image Image Image Image Image Image Image Image Image Image Image Image Image Image Image Image Image Image Image Image Image Image Image Image Image Image Image Image Image Image

Comments:
  • Posted by ILPARW (southeast Pennsylvania - Zone 6b) on Dec 14, 2018 3:14 PM concerning plant:
    According to a few different botanical sources, there are about 23 to 70 to 100 species of Hydrangeas native to the Americas, only a few, and most native to southern & eastern Asia. Some botanists used to consider them as part of the Saxifrage Family that includes Alumroot & Coralbells as members, but seems to not be best. There is a Hydrangea Family in the Dogwood Order that contains about 17 genera with about 190 species that includes Deutzia, Philadelphus (Mockoranges), Decumaria (Climbing-Hydrangea), Schizophragma (Hydrangea-vines), and others. Hydrangeas usually are soft-wooded shrubs, but a few are small trees or lianas (woody vines), and most are deciduous, but some are evergreen in tropical sites. The word "hydrangea" was made up by botanists from two Greek words meaning "water vessel" that refers to the shape of the cup-shaped seed capsules. The flower clusters are panicles or corymbs composed of tiny fertile flowers that bear the brown, dry fruit and the sterile flowers with 4 petal-like sepals that are conspicuous. Some of the several species that are used in gardening-landscaping have mutated cultivars where there are only sterile flowers in the clusters that make up a showier display. Such all-sterile flower heads do not benefit pollinating insects. Most species bear only white flowers, but a few bear flowers that colour as blue to purple to pink to rose. The most well-known species is the Bigleaf Hydrangea (H. macrophylla) from Japan that has had so many hundreds of different cultivars developed with all colours available and is used a lot as a florist flower in a pot grown in greenhouses, besides gardens. (The Mountain Hydrangea of Japan & Korea (H. serrata) seems to be a subspecies of this that has smaller leaves.) Many people call this Japanese species as "the Hydrangea" in the South and Mid-Atlantic Regions of the USA, but farther north where it is not cold hardy, "the Hydrangea" is a cultivar of the white-blooming Wild Smooth Hydrangea of eastern North America (H. arborescens). There are three other species of hydrangeas sold by nurseries as the Oakleaf Hydrangea, and the Panicled Hydrangea (H. paniculata) and the Climbing Hydrangea (H. petiolaris) from east Asia. The buds and leaves of Hydrangeas are opposite. There is a Peruvian Hydrangea native from Costa Rica into the Andes that can be a shrub or a vine.
  • Posted by Marilyn (Kentucky - Zone 6a) on May 20, 2013 7:47 PM concerning plant:
    "Hydrangeas are popular ornamental plants, grown for their large flowerheads, with Hydrangea macrophylla being by far the most widely grown with over 600 named cultivars, many selected to have only large sterile flowers in the flowerheads. Some are best pruned on an annual basis when the new leaf buds begin to appear. If not pruned regularly, the bush will become very 'leggy', growing upwards until the weight of the stems is greater than their strength, at which point the stems will sag down to the ground and possibly break. Other species only flower on 'old wood'. Thus new wood resulting from pruning will not produce flowers until the following season.

    Hydrangeas are moderately toxic if eaten, with all parts of the plant containing cyanogenic glycosides. Hydrangea paniculata is reportedly sometimes smoked as an intoxicant, despite the danger of illness and/or death due to the cyanide."

    Taken from wikipedia's page at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H...
Plant Events from our members
piksihk On May 20, 2022 Plant Ended (Removed, Died, Discarded, etc)
The one that was in back yard WG in a pot
piksihk On August 12, 2018 Cuttings stuck
Pink from back
piksihk On June 17, 2017 Plant Ended (Removed, Died, Discarded, etc)
Plant Delight pot
piksihk On April 22, 2017 Transplanted
From back WG to frt bed; this is the 2nd one
piksihk On October 8, 2016 Miscellaneous Event
Two rooting - pink
UncleWill On October 23, 2018 Miscellaneous Event
No blooms this year. Early warm spell exposed buds to killing frost.
WebTucker On May 18, 2022 Bloomed
» Post your own event for this plant

Discussion Threads about this plant
Thread Title Last Reply Replies
Oh my! by wcgypsy May 21, 2016 11:49 AM 8
Hydrangeas by valleylynn Dec 16, 2017 10:09 AM 4

« Add a new plant to the database

« The Plants Database Front Page