Limelight Hydrangea
Hydrangea paniculata ‘Limelight’ · a lime-green panicle hydrangea
Prized for huge, dense cones of lime-green flowers from late summer that age to pink and rose, then dry on the plant into winter. Its stems are stronger than most and hold the blooms up, and it's very cold-hardy, a showy specimen or hedge. Give it sun, with afternoon shade where summers are hot; deer may browse it.
- Mature size
- 7 × 7 ft
- 2.1 × 2.1 m, tall × wide
- Hardiness
- Zones 3a–8b
- USDA
- Sun
- Full sun to part shade
- Water
- Medium to moist
- Blooms
- Jul–Sep
Limelight Hydrangea at its mature size
A mature Limelight Hydrangea grows 6 to 8 feet tall and just as wide, taller than most people.
Drawn to scale beside a 5 ft 9 in person. With VeraScape, you see it at this size in your own yard.
Typical mature size, unpruned. Sources: Missouri Botanical Garden, NC State Extension.
Through the year
What Limelight Hydrangea looks like month by month in a typical zone 6–7 garden.
Dormant · Dec–Apr
Bare upright woody stems holding dried tan flower cones.
In leaf · May–Jun
Upright-rounded shrub of dark green oval leaves, no flowers.
In flower · Jul–Sep
Large dense upright cones of lime-green to creamy white flowers.
Fall · Oct–Nov
Flower cones aged to rose and burgundy, leaves still mostly green.
Photos
Growing Limelight Hydrangea
- Grows well in
- The Northeast, the Southeast, the Midwest, the Plains and Mountain West, and the Pacific Northwest.
- Growth rate
- Medium
- Good for
- Hedge and specimen
- Leaves
- Drops its leaves in winter
- Native to
- China and Japan
Spacing for a hedge
VeraScape spaces plants so their grown canopies just touch. For Limelight Hydrangea, that’s about 7 ft apart, center to center.
Place a row in your own yard and VeraScape spaces them at their mature width, so you can see whether they’ll crowd the walk.
See Limelight Hydrangea in your yard before you dig
Visualize it at its true size, alongside the rest of your design.
Other hydrangeas
Incrediball Hydrangea
Oakleaf Hydrangea
Limelight HydrangeaAll drawn to the same scale.