Hydrangea arborescens
Smooth Hydrangea
New York to Iowa, south to Florida
Suckering shrub with numerous unbranched stems.
Sun (with sufficient moisture) to partial shade to shade (with reduced flowering). Prefers moist, well-drained soil and is pH adaptable.
Low suckering shrub with summer flowers. Best cut to the ground in late fall or winter each year. Will flower the same summer
Opposite, simple, serrate, ovate to elliptical; 2 to 8 inches; sometimes whitish puberulous beneath. Possibly yellow fall color but typically turns brown.
Buds are imbricate, 4 to 6 scaled, greenish brown, laterals divergent.
Stems thin, peeling, not ornamental.
White in flat clusters 4 to 6 inches in summer to fall. Flowers either large petaled sterile flowers or small fertile flowers. Cultivars typically have mostly sterile flowers in globose inflorescence up to 12 inches in diameter.
Dry capsule, not showy but inflorescences can be cut and dried.
Cuttings or seed.
'Abetwo' Incrediball (TM) - Huge, globose white flower clusters are up to 12 inches in diameter, much more upright than the traditional
'Annabelle'. June to August.
'Hayes Starburst' - Not quite globe form, yet not quite flat topped, the white 3 to 4 inch flower clusters sport numerous star-shaped sterile flowers that are dramatically double petaled. June to July.
