Turn to limelight hydrangeas 2025
Limelight hydrangea hedges are easy to grow and add beauty and interest to your garden and home all year round! Here’s how I did it!
Limelight hydrangeas
It’s a damp and cool here on the coast. Definitely a good day to think and plan my summer garden!Some of you may not know that our home is custom new construction. The property we bought was definitely a diamond in the rough, with two tiny seasonal cottages and zero landscaping.
After I moved into this new house, I spent four years converting it into a home and finishing the wild landscape.You can read more about how I ended up in Maine in my first blog post Bold Journeys and Second Runs here.Each year I try to complete a large landscaping project.Our first summer, 2019, we planted lawns around the house, added granite front walkway, patio, and steps, and landscaping on both sides of the walkway.
Turn to limelight hydrangeas low stone wall was built in front of us this fall.In the summer of 2020, we planted plants behind the stone wall and built another stone wall to separate the wildflower field from the lawn.This year I also planted 20 Limelight Hydrangea bushes along the back deck. Louie has a wonderful limelight hedge in front of his summer cottage just above the beach in Castine, Maine.
Doesn’t say “coastal garden” to me like hydrangeas! And Turn to limelight hydrangeas are hardy, easy to grow, and have large flower heads that show from late July through winter! As a note — if you’re not familiar with Louie, you should definitely check out his Instagram accounts! (Linked above) Her home here in Maine, with gorgeous water views, is beautiful both inside and out!
Different Season
Spring
This is what spring looks like here.Spring is my least favorite season here in Maine. I have to admit that I was spoiled coming from the Washington, DC area, where spring is full of cherry blossoms, azaleas, daffodils, and tulips.
In contrast, here on our peninsula, spring is marked by cold weather, mud, bare branches and fog.(Do you think I complain too much, Maine definitely makes up for the spring season the rest of the year!)Spring is the one season when the Turn to limelight hydrangeas don’t shine. Like trees, they don’t get their leaves until late May/early June.Once the growing season begins, however, they really take off!
The summer
The flowers start off as lime green…And finally the lighter…to a creamy white.In the summer here in Maine every living thing kicks and starts running!Seemingly overnight, our wildflower meadow turns from brown to green.Tall marsh grass rises on the shore.And the Turn to limelight hydrangeas quickly grow tall enough to say “hi” over the edge of the deck.In late July green flower heads start to cover the bushes.
Then in August they turn to creamy white, football-sized flowers at the base of the branches.I love going out in my kayak now and looking back at her white house,to fall last hour,of color!A Turn to limelight hydrangeas hedge is spectacular in summer.
But I might prefer it in the fall, when the flowers fade to a soft pink and then deep rose.There’s something about their muted color with bright fall leaves that I love. Last hurrah of color! Turn to limelight hydrangeas will gradually turn brown, with any stragglers dying after the first hard frost.
Winter
Dried flower heads Add interest to the winter garden.I don’t prune my lime lights in the fall (more on that below), but keep the flower heads intact to add interest to the garden in December and January.By the time February rolls around, the plants are looking pretty rough, having lost most of their dried flowers to the winter storms.Then it’s time to get them ready for the next growing season!
Planting
It was fine after I installed the hedge in June 2020.By August of this year they had grown and were covered in flowers!We have a large covered porch on the back (or front, some would say!) of the house that overlooks the water, with a deck that wraps around the side.QIn June 2020, I planted 20 plants along the base of the porch.
I had a bed dug with new topsoil, to which compost had been added.I spaced the plants 36 inches on center. This allows the plants to support each other as they continue to grow into the hedge.If you necessary a more compact plant in your landscape, try Little Lime or Bobo hydrangeas.
General care
Maddie is enjoying the scene. My Turn to limelight hydrangeas, though, have grown since the day Iput them up!So, I’m sharing with you how I take care of them, because I’m doing something right. Or maybe they like the view of the water!
Sunlight
The hedge is south-east facing and receives morning and early afternoon sun. Turn to limelight hydrangeas can tolerate more sun than some hydrangeas, especially here in Maine where we have relatively cool summers. If you live in a warm climate, you may want to plant them in an area with less sun, or only cool morning sun. The water Hydrangeas need plenty of water! I ran a drip line all over the bed to make sure they were adequate.
Insects
Last summer was the first time I had a terrible problem with Japanese beetles.I did some reading, and these nuisance are hard to control. I hung two traps at the edge of my property not far from the hedge. Some say that traps do nothing and actually attract pests to your property. If you use gallows, don’t hang them near your infected plants! You’re just inviting more unwanted guests to dinner!
The most effective way to trap beetles is to catch them by hand. Almost every morning, I would go out with a bucket of soapy water, pick them off the bushes and dump them in the bucket. It was strangely satisfying. Even my sisters joined in when they were visiting!All that said, the Japanese beetles scratched some leaves, but no realdamage to the plants or flowers.
Cut back
By February, most of the dried flowers have blown away. I cut off the wood branches where they branch. You can see that I cut the bushes down to about 2/3.Turn to limelight hydrangeas are versatile growers. If they are not severely pruned each year, they can quickly get out of control. Additionally, since Turn to limelight hydrangeas bloom on new growth, cutting them back means more flowers.
That’s good! Plants can be cut back any time after the flowers turn brown in the fall until they start growing again in the spring. Since I like to keep the flowers for winter interest, I cut them back in late February or early March. Thursday was a beautiful day here, so I took advantage of the warmth to do some cleaning outside and dim my Turn to limelight hydrangeas. You can see from the pictures that I cut them about 2/3. As the plants mature, some stems become more woody. I cut them back where they branch.
I enjoy looking at the dried flowers when I look out the windows, but by this time of year they are ready to go.The hedge looks much neater now.All set for a new season of growth!Maddie watched from the deck and Cisco helped clean up!
Feeding
I learned from Louie to feed Turn to limelight hydrangeas with holly tones in spring, April or early May.Hollytone is a slow-release organic fertilizer, so it feeds the plant without encouraging excessive green growth and floppy flowers.
Enjoy!
A large bouquet of pink and cream fall blooms. The flower heads were spray painted a copper color and used for Christmas decorations!I usually don’t like to cut flowers from my plants to bring inside. I prefer to enjoy them outside. They stay there longer!I’ve tried all sorts of tricks to keep cut hydrangea flowers fresh—cutting the stems at an angle, snapping the stems, dipping the stems in alum, running the stems under hot water
I’ve noticed that sometimes they Let’s go, but not most of my Turn to limelight hydrangeas are such wonderful bloomers, though, that sometimes I don’t mind sacrificing a few flowers to briefly decorate the house.
However, I like to cut pink flowers in the fall. They dry well at this point, and then I can enjoy them for a long time! Place only the cut stems in a container. No need for water! They should dry in a day or two.
