Little lime hydrangea companion plants complement the already showy flowers of the plant by adding a soft texture and charm to any landscape. The hydrangea, also known as hydrangea paniculata, panicle hydrangeas, or limelight hydrangea, features delicate lime-colored, cone-shaped clusters of flowers that change to a cream color in summer and a deep pink or beige in fall.
These hydrangeas are already show-stoppers on their own, so why not add a few extra plants and give your garden a luxurious appeal? Here are a few plants you can grow with your lime hydrangeas in your garden.
Contents
Types of Suitable Little Lime Hydrangea Companion Plants
1. Dwarf Japanese Maple
These dwarf maple shrubs are compact, colorful trees grown for their ornamental value. They have distinctive leafy foliage in red, pink, yellow, green, or orange shades. These trees are perfect for those looking for beautiful neighboring plants to grow with hydrangeas in small spaces. Moreover, it can also be grown in containers indoors or in compact gardens.
– Benefits
When these maples mature, they can grow to a height of about three to eight feet, making them perfect for providing limelight hydrangeas with shade, as the latter would appreciate growing in such a condition.
In addition, their colorful foliage also creates a stunning contrast alongside little lime hydrangeas.
– Planting Requirements
These Japanese-type dwarf maple trees grow slowly and won’t trouble you if planted in the right conditions. Most types of this tree prefer to grow in filtered sun as full sunlight can burn their leaves. They should also be grown in moist, acidic, loamy, or sandy, well-drained soil and require typical watering schedule to be adopted.
2. Japanese Forest Grass
These grasses, also known as hakonechloa macra, are dramatic perennial grasses with narrow, flat, foliar, arching leaves that grow slowly. The leaves come in green, gold, or variegated colors with gold or white stripes and turn brown, bronze, or orange in fall. These leaves start from the base of the plants and sweep the ground, creating an impression of a waterfall, and featuring this aspect is how they are characterized.
– Benefits
These Japanese grasses are beneficial little quick fire hydrangea companion plants as they help provide shade for the plant.
Their narrow cascading leaves also add a soft texture to the large ones of the hydrangea, keeping them safe from any burn from direct sun hitting.
– Planting Requirements
Japanese grasses are slow-growing plants, and you don’t need to fuss over them as they are low-maintenance. They produce their best foliage in partial shade, as full sunlight can scorch the leaves. They do well in rich, moist, acidic, or neutral, well-draining soil.
3. Boxwood
Boxwoods comprise over 70 species of dense evergreen large shrubs or small trees commonly grown for their broad-leafed foliage as they have inconspicuous flowers.
Their small light-green leaves are simple, round, and leathery and grow in a rounded, compact form. In addition to this, they also bear small yellowish-green flowers without petals and carry both male and female sexes on the same plant. These shrubs are popularly used as ornamental plants for formal hedges and topiaries.
– Benefits
Boxwoods make great companion plants for hydrangeas because they protect against strong winds for the plants, because it would grow 10 to 15 feet tall in a steady manner to be able to do so. They also offer great aesthetic value when planted in front of them.
– Planting Requirements
Boxwoods are slow-growing plants best grown in loamy, neutral, or alkaline, well-drained soil. They can thrive in both full sunlight and partial shade. But it would be best to put them in partial shade on sweltering days.
Remember that you should deep-water your plants in the first one to two years of their growth but can reduce the deep watering to once a month when they are established. Boxwoods must be pruned yearly to maintain their shapes, because this is what they are significantly known for.
4. Ornamental Grasses
These grass plants are grown chiefly for their aesthetic value but also because they are easy to care for, hardy, and come in various shapes, colors, and textures. These grasses can be true grasses or plants that have foliage resembling grasses.
On another note, are primarily perennials but at times, you would see them have a few annual species that grow with clumping or spreading habits. In addition, the leaves of this plant can come in a fine or coarse, upright or arching form with colors ranging from yellow, green, red, blue, purple, or variegated.
– Benefits
Ornamental-type grasses add an unmistakably soft texture when used as companion plants for endless summer hydrangea. Their thin colorful leaves make attractive additions and contrast to white or pink hydrangeas, as they are planted together.
– Planting Requirements
These lovely grasses are easy to grow and can be planted at any time of the year, but they are ideal in spring or fall. Most of these grasses thrive in full sunlight, but some can tolerate partial shade. They are also very tolerant of many conditions, but most love moist, well-draining soil. However, the newly planted grasses should be watered regularly, but once they are established, they can become drought-tolerant.
5. Coral Bells
Also known as alum roots, these plants are hardy herbaceous perennials famous for their round, colorful foliage. These lovely plants can be evergreen to semi-evergreen and have tall, elegant, bell-shaped flower clusters that bloom in spring but are late bloomers.
Their flower colors range from red, white, coral, or pink, especially in spring when they are still newly blooming. They have round, lobed, hairy leaves with green hues, but new varieties have gold, light green, purple, or rose colors.
– Benefits
Alum roots benefit from the partial shade provided by hydrangea plants such as the bigleaf hydrangea, also known as hydrangea macrophylla. Their tiny flowers are suitable for underplanting hydrangea limelight and are full of nectar that attracts pollinators such as butterflies and hummingbirds, leaving your landscape with a fantastic visual. The pollination process will be faster and on a bigger scale.
At the same time, their striking leaves provide a beautiful contrast to the flowers of your hydrangea, when they are planted near each other, giving your garden a stunning feature.
– Planting Requirements
Like hydrangea plants, alum roots grow best in partial shade as full sunlight will cause their colors to fade and leaves to burn. They prefer moist, rich, well-draining soil with an acidic to neutral pH, which is between 6.0 to 7.0.
Alum roots have shallow roots and require constant watering, significantly when they are just growing. However, mature plants are drought-resistant but will appreciate light watering weekly.
6. Azaleas
Azaleas are low-maintenance, deciduous, or evergreen flowering shrubs popular for their colorful spring blooms. These ornamentals have a showy bell or funnel-shaped flowers with five to almost 10 projecting stamens. Azaleas in full bloom produce fragrant white, pink, purple, or red flowers. Moreover, they have leaves that are thick and elliptical, but the whole plant is toxic to humans and animals.
– Benefits
Azaleas make good bobo hydrangea companion plants because they enjoy the same growing conditions. They also provide extra texture, appeal, and shade when planted in front of hydrangeas.
– Planting Requirements
Under favorable conditions, azaleas are easy to grow. These conditions include planting them in loose, rich, moist, acidic, well-drained soil and planting them in areas with partial shade as they wilt in unfiltered sunlight, hence you should be keen on this. Lastly, they also require constant watering to bloom properly, of course not leaving the soil wet or soggy with water.
7. Dogwood
Dogwoods are a family of woody, deciduous shrubs, and trees with a few herbaceous perennial evergreens. Dogwoods are often grown for their ornamental appeal due to their modified leaves, called bracts, resembling petals.
The actual petals of the plant are produced in clusters at the center of these bracts and can be yellow, pink, or red. The leaves of dogwoods are smooth but can be hairy or waxy with parallel veins that curve towards the leaf’s edge.
– Benefits
There are over 50 species of dogwoods that can complement little lime hydrangea plants. Varieties such as the pagoda or white dogwood are larger varieties that provide shade for your hydrangeas.
At the same time, the pink blooms of the Stellar pink dogwoods complement those of hydrangeas, and they make an amazing arrangement being placed near one another.
– Planting Requirements
Dogwoods do well in moist, loamy, well-drained, slightly acidic, or neutral soil. Just like limelight hydrangeas, they thrive in partial shade but can tolerate full sun in plant hardiness zones five and six.
These plants are generally easy to care for and become drought-resistant when mature, but before they establish themselves they need to be nurtured well, meaning. In short, during their first year, dogwood should be watered deeply and regularly each week. They also don’t need to be fertilized.
Conclusion
Hydrangeas are beautiful plants and even attract butterflies, birds, and bees, creating a stunning view in your garden. But growing them with other plants adds to their visual appeal and helps to touch up your landscape. So take note of these points below:
- Little lime hydrangeas are best grown with plants with similar growing requirements.
- Other suitable plants you can grow with hydrangeas include begonias, foxgloves, daylilies, and salvias.
- Boxwood is one of the great companions, because this tree would provide shade, where the flowers would bloom and feel secure from direct sun.
Hostas also work well as climbing hydrangea companion plants. Which one of these plants would you wish to plant next to your beautiful flower?
References
https://hort.extension.wisc.edu/articles/japanese-forest-grass-hakonechloa-macra/
https://hgic.clemson.edu/factsheet/ornamental-grasses-and-grass-like-plants/
https://www.britannica.com/plant/azalea
https://www.usanpn.org/nn/Dogwoodguide#:~:text=Choose%20a%20site%20for%20your,understory%20tree%20in%20the%20wild.
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