Limelight is one of the easiest and fastest growing hydrangeas around! This hydrangea is a truly stunning flowering shrub! It’s the only one that I have that made it through our unusually cold Georgia winter without any damage. All my other hydrangeas are just leaves with a few blooms (except my Endless Summer ). Here’s why I think this is a must have hydrangea in your garden (zone 3-8).
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Hydrangea paniculata ‘Limelight’ blooms from May into fall and has soft lime green
petals. The petal mature into pink in the fall. You can just see a tiny bit of pink on the one above.
Limelights bloom on new wood in the summer which is why this one is doing so well despite our cold winter. You should prune them late in the fall, winter or early in the spring. Although, I never got around to pruning this one and it didn’t seem to mind.
It is noted for producing large, dense, upright, cone-shaped panicles and is hardy to Zone 3/4. They can grow to be 8-10 feet tall and can also be trained into a tree shape!
Above is what they look like when they first start to bloom. As they get older and fill out the blooms get ginormous!
I planted this shrub in the spring of 2012 as you can see in the photo above. That’s it in the pot. The shrub with the white flowers is a rhododendron that died. Just as well-there wouldn’t have been room for both the hydrangea and rhody!
That the same little shrub this summer. Limelight is fast growing! This one does get a lot of early morning sun but is shaded by the barn in afternoon.
Limelight is truly a spectacular hydrangea. I highly recommend it especially if you’ve had problems growing other varieties of hydrangea!
So Pretty! Thanks for sharing them. I noticed the neighbor’s did not have any blooms this year. Hope they make a recovery for next year.
This is one of my favorite Hydrangeas and I hope to plant one next year! Your garden is gorgeous!
So pretty!
Beautiful, and informative post, too, Manuela! I wonder if they’d grow on the Great Plains. We do have terribly hot summers here. I had some dried hydrangea my mother gave me (they might have been Limelight from your photos) for years, but they finally got too bedraggled-looking. It’s good to know they grow fast, too. Blessings to you and yours, Bess
I have hydrangea envy. Mine have just not flowered this summer – just a few here and there.
Your hydrangeas are beautiful.
This is one beautiful shrub! I love hydrangeas but don’t have much luck growing them. I thought they needed acid soil, but maybe not. I live in Central Oregon where it gets to 30 below! I wonder how they would do here. We’re considered zone 3 I think. My parents used to have some that were huge. They were shaded all morning and then had afternoon sun. Maybe the secret is having sun for only 1/2 of the day, and the rest in shade. You are so lucky to have these to enjoy! Marilyn
Thank you! I’ve read that you should avoid afternoon sun with hydrangeas. This one gets morning sun.
Hmmm, now you’ve got me thinking of getting one of these, Manuela! I love the bloom heads on this hydrangea. Mine are flowering, well, except that sickly looking one shared. I still need to take a cutting and go to the nursery with it.
The only thing, and I forgot to mention this, is that the bees LOVE this hydrangea! They don’t seem to be around my other ones. But this one….you should have seen the squealing and running I had to do to cut one for the photo! Not just honey bees, but wasps, and those big fat fuzzy ones. I wouldn’t plant it where you had to walk past it all the time!
That is a beauty. I imagine that it would not grow quite that fast here, which might be a good thing. I’ll be looking for this one.
Beautiful! I love the zinnia tucked in with the hydrangea. So charming. My daddy planted zinnias in our flower bed when I was growing up. I just love them.
Ironically, the man at the florist recently mentioned that name to me. I love green hydrangeas enough for this tight wad to slap down money for fresh ones at the florist. I mentioned that I wished I could just grow them, and he said to look up limelight hydrangeas. Do I need to wait until spring to plant one or could I put one in the ground in the fall? I really love yours!
Yes, you can plant it in the fall and then next summer you should have some nice blooms!
Thank you! I am going to send my husband on a hunt for them in Atlanta. We don’t have them anywhere here because I looked.
I have had the same experience with my limelight hydrangea! The other bushes were noticeably sparse this year. At first, I thought that the limelight was also not going to produce, but then the tiny blossoms appeared, and now it is in its full glory!!
Love it! Grows great for me too! Maybe too great, getting a little on the large side. 😉
I love hydrangeas, too, and have pinned several options for my landscaping at our new house. however, Limelight is not one I’d considered. After reading this post, I’m going to add it to my Gardening board! Yours is simply gorgeous. And since I live in Georgia, too, I know any I plant should do well. Thank you!
I couldn’t agree more! If I had to pick a favorite shrub, Limelight would be it! It is such a good doer, especially if you put it in a nice sunny spot (at least in my neck of the woods). My only problem is that one of mine gets enormous, so I have to do a pretty serious prune every three years or so. On the years when I prune harder, I get fewer but bigger blooms, so that’s not such a bad deal.
It’s gorgeous!
I love the color and the shape and the fact that it grows on new growth!
Holy frijoles, what a shrub! I’ve been wanting some hydrangeas for our new house, so thank you. Just need to hunt these suckers down! 🙂
Home Depot had a ton of them the last few weeks (in my area at least). I’m sure all the big box stores and nurseries carry them.
Thanks so much! 🙂
Manuela, your Limelight looks stunning against your red building! I have been intending to plant several of these, and now that I’ve seen how large yours has gotten, I can better plan where to place them! Gorgeous!
Thanks Jane! They do get big but you could control the growth and shape with pruning. I haven’t pruned this one at all!
That’s what that is! When we were in Michigan, we walked past many lovely gardens. I took lots of photos for ideas. We saw one that looked like the old fashioned snowball bush (that may not be its’ correct name) but a neighbor we asked told us it was a hydrangea. That’s it!
They are absolutely stunning ! Especially against the red !
When I bought a hydrangea I didn’t recall what kind it was a few years later …but found out that it is a pee gee / it’s very pretty but more delicate that this limelight…a neighbor has the limelight, though so I can enjoy yours now and hers in awhile! 🙂