Zone 7 Shade Bush - Tree Hydrangea
Tree Hydrangea Zone 7
One of the very best shade bushes in Zone 7 is the Hydrangea Tree or Hydrangea paniculata ‘Grandiflora’. While it can be pruned to have a tree shape, it can also be left alone to form dense bush or shrub. This particular Hydrangea is a very fast vigorous grower that is also extremely easy to care for. This bush does excellent in shade and partial shade conditions, no more than half day sun, any more than that and it will not grow much. If planted in part sun, it will be wilty looking when the sun is hitting it but perks right up when it gets shady. It can grow 7′-12′ tall and have a spread of ‘4-10′. By mid summer it will give you lots and lots of flowers resembling snow balls with very attractive foliage.
As I mentioned, growing this is very easy. It does well under different soil types though it seems to do best in well drained somewhat organic rich soils. It is also relatively drought tolerant but should be watered in extreme droughts. A balanced slow release fertilizer application when it first leafs out really helps it fill in nice and dense. Top dressing the base with humus and/or maneur also helps it out. The great thing about this bush is that unlike other hydrangea types in this area, it picks up in the spring right where it left off in the Fall so blooming is not a problem, meaning that the old wood growth survives just fine in the winter. I find that with other hyndrangea types, previous season’s growth does not seem to make it through the winter so they grow back from the ground and never give blooms since they are supposed to bloom from previous seasons growth. This variety does not have that problem in the least. All in all, this is a great shade shrub/small tree that will give you great foliage and blooms alike. I have 3 of these on my yard that I planted last year as bare root plants from DirectGardening.com and the largest one is now about 4-5 feet in diameter and so dense that you cannot even see the branches. I highly recommend these!