Climbing hydrangea, perfect for shade

Climbing hydrangea is a beautiful plant that blooms in the summer.

Climbing hydrangea facts

Name – Hydrangea petiolaris
Synonym – Hydrangea anomala subsp. petiolaris
Family – Hydrangeaceae
Type – climbing vine

Height – 25 to 40 feet (8 to 12 meters)
Exposure – shade or part sun
Soil – ordinary

Foliage – deciduous
Flowering – June to September

Caring for climbing hydrangea is easy and they will quickly join other flowers in decorating your garden boxes, walls, gazebos and other lattices along your terrace and garden.

Planting climbing hydrangea

Best is to plant in fall in good garden soil ideally mixed in with heath. The light acidity heath provides is ideal for this particular hydrangea.

• If you are careful to attach stems to the wall well at the start, the plant will then follow your lead.
• This climber is great to cover a stone wall with flowers and foliage.

If you wish to plant in spring or summer, provide for regular watering at the beginning.

Potted climbing hydrangea

Climbing hydrangea also does great in pots. Just make sure of three things:

• give it enough soil that you won’t need to repot it afterwards: moving the vine around is impossible once it has latched on to your wall.
• make sure drainage is excellent. Drill more holes in the pot or garden box to make sure of this.
• topdress every year to provide it with fresh nutrients (or give it home-made fertilizer).

Since it even blooms in the shade, it will do great to add color to a shaded courtyard.

Pruning climbing hydrangea

They don’t need any pruning to bloom well.

If ever it grows too wild and large, you can cut it back to a single, main stem to reduce its size. Indeed, it tends to build upon its woody growth to extend its reach as much as it can.

Do this “heavy maintenance” pruning about once every 3-4 years in fall, after the blooming is over.

If you wish, deadheading is possible – snipping off wilted flowers – in order to spur appearance of new flowers. This will lead to more blooming right up to fall.

All there is to know about climbing hydrangea

This climbing hydrangea-like vine is native to the Far East. Another name for it is “Japanese hydrangea“, since it grows in the wild there.

A beautiful climbing vine, this climbing hydrangea will produce magnificent little flowers grouped in umbels 8 to 10 inches (20 to 25 cm) across.

This plant is surprising in that can spontaneously attach itself to walls thanks to the little roots that form along its stem.

This hydrangea is both very appealing visually and easy to care for, and is an ideal choice for any walls that facing north.

Read also:

• Growing hydrangea
• Pruning hydrangea
• Preparing hydrangea cuttings