Episode 101 – Panicle Hydrangea-Palooza

On a show dedicated to panicle hydrangeas, where else to start than with the OG, Limelight hydrangea. It has truly revolutionized hydrangeas in North America, and it’s hard to think back to what the landscape looked like before it hit the market in the late 1990s, but it was nothing like it is now. There were just a very small handful of panicle hydrangeas available at garden centers back then – ‘Grandiflora’, the original “pee gee hydrangea” that dates back to the late 1800s in France, ‘Tardiva’, and a variety known as ‘Unique’. They were beautiful, and reliable, but tended to be have weak stems that didn’t hold up the blooms well, very late bloom times, and the flowers aged to a weak light pink at best. You’d see them in landscapes, but nothing like you see panicle hydrangeas these days.

Tim Wood and Dale Deppe first encountered Limelight at Pieter Zwijenenberg’s nursery in Boskoop in the Netherlands, and they knew it was something special. It was a mophead, for one, which none of the previous varieties had been, and the flowers had this beautiful, unusual glowing green color. They brought back here to West Michigan to trial it in our conditions and were delighted to find that it turned the best pink they had seen up to that point – something quite unusual, as earlier panicle hydrangeas had taken on good color in Europe, with its cooler temperatures, but not so much in the US. The decision to introduce it as one of the first plants in the ColorChoice Shrubs brand was pretty much a no-brainer.

It’s hard to believe, then, that this decision was met with tremendous resistance in the horticulture industry. Everyone said the same thing: why would anyone want a plant with green flowers? And Limelight might never have gotten anywhere, except that it was just so darn easy for these naysayers to grow, even compared to earlier panicle hydrangeas. So they gave it a shot, people went crazy for Limelight, and now the name ‘Limelight’ has come to represent all panicle hydrangeas, kind of like Kleenex or Band Aid has for tissues and bandages.

Once someone saw a Limelight hydrangea flowering in a neighbor’s yard, they had to have one themselves, so the more people that bought them, the more people wanted one for their yard. Not only were they beautiful, but they discovered that they were so easy to grow, too. This created even more demand for more options among panicle hydrangeas, which brings us to the present day. Just here at Proven Winners ColorChoice Shrubs, we offer 12 different varieties, representing all shapes and sizes, colors, lacecaps and mopheads, strong stems, and aging to vivid colors that make panicle hydrangeas far more than just summer plants. Our R&D team evaluates literally thousands of potential new panicle hydrangeas each year and have become extremely finicky about what actually constitutes a plant worthy of introduction. There’s no denying the market is flooded, and while we could definitely be introducing countless absolutely gorgeous panicle hydrangeas every year, we’re focused exclusively on those that bring substantial improvements to the market: things like earlier bloom time, new flower shapes, better heat tolerance, better color development, and a wider range of sizes and habits.

And despite that we’re all spoiled for choice now when it comes to panicle hydrangeas, Limelight remains one of the most beloved and widely planted shrubs, never mind hydrangeas, in US history.

If you’d like to add Limelight hydrangea– or any of the 320+ Proven Winners ColorChoice Shrubs – to your garden or landscape, you’ll find a list of local retailers here.