Plant: Vanilla Strawberry - Hydrangea
Hydrangea · Hydrangea paniculata 'Renhy'
Size: 3 gal
Light
Bloom
Mature size
More about this plant
Vanilla Strawberry is a large panicle hydrangea whose flower cones emerge creamy white in midsummer, change to pink as night temperatures drop and finish strawberry red in fall. Because new blooms keep opening while older ones shift colour, the plant carries several shades at once in late summer and early fall. It grows upright to about 6 to 7 feet tall and 5 to 6 feet wide on red stems that hold the heads up, takes full sun to part shade, is drought tolerant once established and is hardy in zones 3 to 8. Use it as a privacy screen or a specimen, and cut the blooms fresh or dry them for winter.
- Full Sun
- Grows to 7 ft tall and 6 ft wide
- Blooms in summer, fall
- Hardy in USDA zones 3-8
- Deciduous foliage
Plant description
Vanilla Strawberry is a large panicle hydrangea whose flower cones emerge creamy white in midsummer, change to pink as night temperatures drop and finish strawberry red in fall. Because new blooms keep opening while older ones shift colour, the plant carries several shades at once in late summer and early fall. It grows upright to about 6 to 7 feet tall and 5 to 6 feet wide on red stems that hold the heads up, takes full sun to part shade, is drought tolerant once established and is hardy in zones 3 to 8. Use it as a privacy screen or a specimen, and cut the blooms fresh or dry them for winter.
- Flowers
- Panicles emerge creamy white in midsummer, change to pink as night temperatures drop, and finally turn strawberry red later in fall, with new blooms opening while older ones shift so the plant carries several colours at once.
- Foliage
- Opposite and simple, sometimes whorled near branch tips, elliptical to ovate, 3 to 6 inches long, dark green above and lighter below with a rough feel and serrate margins.
- Fruit
- A small oval dehiscent capsule under 1 inch long, brown and pink, showing in summer and fall.
- Bark & stems
- Grayish-brown bark, irregularly furrowed and shredding when mature; stems grayish-brown to reddish-brown, brittle and drooping under flower weight.
- Light
- Morning Sun
- Pruning
- Prune in early spring and apply a balanced NPK fertilizer.
- Native range
- Eastern and southern China, Japan, Sakhalin, Taiwan and the Kuril Islands
