Smooth Hydrangea
Hydrangea arborescens
A native hydrangea with big white flower clusters from early summer on, and since it blooms on new wood you can cut it to the ground in late winter and still get flowers. It's at home in part shade, in a woodland or massed in a border. Keep it moist, especially in sun; heavy heads can droop after a hard rain.
- Mature size
- 4 × 5 ft
- 1.2 × 1.5 m, tall × wide
- Hardiness
- Zones 3a–9b
- USDA
- Sun
- Part sun to part shade
- Water
- Medium to moist
- Blooms
- Jun–Sep
Smooth Hydrangea at its mature size
A mature Smooth Hydrangea grows 3 to 5 feet tall and 4 to 6 feet wide.
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.
Through the year
What Smooth Hydrangea looks like month by month in a typical zone 6–7 garden.
Dormant · Nov–Mar
Thin bare pale-brown stems, a few dried tan heads.
In leaf · Apr–May
Mound of broad dark green toothed leaves, no flowers.
In flower · Jun–Aug
Large round white flower heads, aging lime-green.
Fall · Sep–Oct
Flower heads dried papery tan-brown, leaves pale yellow, dull.
Photos
Growing Smooth Hydrangea
- Grows well in
- The Northeast, the Southeast, the Midwest, the Plains and Mountain West, and the Pacific Northwest.
- Growth rate
- Fast
- Good for
- Small space, foundation planting, specimen, shade garden, rain garden, slopes, pollinators, and fast growing
- Leaves
- Drops its leaves in winter
- Native to
- Eastern United States
Spacing
VeraScape spaces plants so their grown canopies just touch. For Smooth Hydrangea, that’s about 5 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 Smooth Hydrangea in your yard before you dig
Visualize it at its true size, alongside the rest of your design.
Other hydrangeas
Smooth Hydrangea
Annabelle Hydrangea
Endless Summer Hydrangea
HydrangeaAll drawn to the same scale.