We spaced each limelight hydrangea about 3 feet apart (center of plant to center of plant), starting about 3 feet away from our house. I chose limelights because after researching many different options, limelights promised the quickest growth, and the least amount of maintenance.
Limelight Hydrangea Spacing
Plant the Limelight hydrangea 7 to 8 feet apart, center on center, in mass plantings. If you choose to grow into a Limelight hedge (pictured above), you can plant 70 to 84 inches apart, center on center. We recommend only planting 1 per garden container, unless the pot is very large.
If you're planting Hydrangeas near your house, make sure to give them enough space to allow for air circulation. They won't do well if they're pressed right up against the boards. And tall varieties like PeeGees are probably not ideal for foundation plantings.
Where should Limelight Hydrangeas be planted? Choose an area in your garden that gets plenty of sunlight (ideally morning sun and/or at least 6 hours of sun during the day.) Make sure the shrubs are planted at least 7 to 8 feet apart in your garden design in order to give them enough room to grow.
You want to make sure they are far enough from the property line, fence, building or road when you plant them. A Little Lime Hydrangea grows 3 to 5 feet tall and wide, therefore it might grow two and half feet wide from center in any direction. We planted our hedge exactly two and half feet off of the property line.
Hydrangea paniculata 'Limelight'
This variety of the popular panicle hydrangea boasts very large, lime green blooms in midsummer that turn pink in fall. A deciduous shrub, it grows to 8 feet tall and 6 feet wide with large, medium-green leaves.
Climbing hydrangeas are the perfect flowering vine to grow on a fence (see also '15 Vigorous vines and flower vines that love shade'). Plant the base about 6″ from the fenceline and add either a wooden or metal trellis (or even a wire) to get the plant started.
You should prune your Limelight hydrangea tree every year, either in late winter or in early spring before new growth starts to emerge. Each year, prune your Limelight hydrangea back by ⅓ of its overall height to encourage new growth.
A Hydrangea may be getting too much sun if the soil is always dry, the leaves are curled or wilted, or if the leaves appear burned at the edges. If your soil is always dry around the base of the Hydrangea, it may be getting too much sun.
The Short Answer
The best location for most hydrangeas is the east side of your home, but this will depend on your growing location and the structures of the home and any trees or structures around that could block the sun.
Hydrangea roots don't usually extend deeper than six inches, but you want to be thorough, so dig down about eight inches just to be safe. Once you've made your cuts in a complete circle around the plant, start digging in toward the center and loosening up the soil.
Growing zones for Limelight extend from north to south
And, it can do the same through hot, humid Georgia, where temperatures rarely get below 20 F above zero. When fully mature, Limelight reaches 6 to 8 feet in height and spread, with reliable lime-green blooms year after year throughout those growing zones.
Dig a hole no deeper than the depth of the container and 6" or more wider on the sides. Adjust the plant height so the root crown is slightly higher than the ground. Back-fill the hole with soil, making sure the top of the root ball is visible and slightly higher than the soil around it.
The Limelights will produce some blooms in their first year and will produce more prolifically in subsequent years. Since first planting them and making sure they were well watered in those initial weeks/months, we no longer give them water aside from what they get from rain. We also don't fertilize.
Limelights can grow up to 8 feet (2.4 metres) or more in four to five years if they're not pruned regularly. Regular pruning will keep the shrubs to a manageable size of about 6 feet (1.8 metres).
How Fast Do Limelight Hydrangeas Grow? This white hydrangea tree size will reach around 10 feet tall at maturity with a 5 foot wide branch spread. The tree form Limelight Hydrangea growth rate is very rapid. The fast-growing tree can grow up to 1-2 feet per year.
If you don't prune hydrangeas then they can eventually resemble a tangled mass of woody stems, and the flowers will become smaller and less showy.
Wrap with winter protection.
During the winter, make a DIY A-frame wire cage out of burlap and chicken wire to protect your hydrangea plant. This cage will protect it from winter winds, heavy snowfall, and cold temperatures.
Are hydrangeas deer-resistant? The short answer is no. Deer love to graze on the leaves, flowers, and tender tips of hydrangeas.
Keep good air space between the plants; don't crowd them together or against other plants. Don't give bigleaf hydrangeas too much love; if they're too comfortable (water, fertilizer, etc.), they may devote all their foliage to leaves instead of blooms.
No hydrangea will do well in HEAVY shade, such as under a shade tree. The blooms will be sparse and will not develop fully. If your landscape is mostly sunny (and hot), you may wish to grow the PeeGee (paniculata) hydrangea, which thrives in all day sun as long as it receives adequate moisture.
Leave adequate space between plants to allow airflow for happy plants (and happy gardeners). All of our plant pages have spacing recommendations under the “more information” section in the “how to grow” tab. Incrediball hydrangeas are recommended to be 3-5 feet apart, so you can plant them spaced 3 feet if you wish.