Twenty-four varieties on the ground in Newton, New Hampshire. Delivered across NH, MA and ME.
Hydrangea is the shrub that does the most work for the least money in a New England garden — big flower heads from midsummer into autumn, and colour that keeps shifting as the season goes on. We hold 24 varieties at our yard in Newton, New Hampshire, and the lineup is marked down for the fall. Delivery across New Hampshire, Massachusetts and Maine, pickup at the nursery.
Prices and availability below are live. Every link opens the plant with the right size already selected.
There are six kinds of hydrangea and they behave completely differently. Almost every disappointing hydrangea is the right plant in the wrong place. Start with your light.
| If you have… | Buy | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Full sun, open yard, no fuss | Limelight · Bobo · Quick Fire · Puffer Fish | Panicle hydrangeas. They take sun, bloom on new wood, and flower reliably every year regardless of winter. |
| Part shade or a foundation bed | Annabelle · Incrediball · Storm Proof | Smooth hydrangeas. Big white globes, cut back hard each spring, forgiving of shade. |
| You want blue or pink | Endless Summer · Summer Crush · BloomStruck · Forever Blue | Bigleaf rebloomers. Colour follows your soil — acid gives blue, alkaline gives pink. |
| A woodland edge, and you want native | Ruby Slippers · Snow Queen · Munchkin | Oakleaf hydrangeas. Native to the eastern US, and the only group with real autumn leaf colour. |
| A small bed or a container | Bobo · Little Lime Punch · Tiny Tuff Stuff · Munchkin | All of these finish under about 3 ft. |
| A shady wall or fence | Climbing Hydrangea | The only one here that climbs. Slow to start, then it goes. |
The honest version of the blue-hydrangea question. You cannot choose the colour at the nursery. Bigleaf hydrangeas turn blue in acid soil and pink in alkaline soil, and most of New England is naturally acid — so blue is the usual outcome here. Panicle and smooth hydrangeas (Limelight, Annabelle, Incrediball) do not change colour whatever you do to the soil. Anyone selling you a guaranteed blue hydrangea is guessing about your dirt.
Quantity pricing is automatic — the more of a variety you buy, the lower the per-plant price, applied in the cart. Massed hydrangeas along a foundation or a drive read far better than one on its own, and the pricing is built to make that easy.
Autumn is the better of the two windows. The ground is still warm, the air is cool, and the plant spends the next two months putting on root instead of holding up flowers. Spring works too, but a fall-planted hydrangea is a season ahead by the following July.
Panicle hydrangeas — Limelight, Bobo, Quick Fire, Puffer Fish, Little Lime Punch. They are the group bred for open, sunny ground and they are the easiest hydrangea to succeed with in New England.
Smooth hydrangeas (Annabelle, Incrediball) and the oakleafs (Ruby Slippers, Snow Queen, Munchkin) all take part shade happily. Full deep shade will cut the flowering on anything.
Only the bigleaf types respond to soil at all — Endless Summer, Summer Crush, BloomStruck, Forever Blue. Acid soil gives blue, alkaline gives pink, and most New England soil is acid, so blue is the common result here. Limelight and Annabelle will never turn blue no matter what you add.
No. Deer browse hydrangeas, and they are particularly fond of the soft new growth on bigleaf types. If you have real deer pressure, plan on protection.
Panicle and smooth hydrangeas are hardy to zone 3 and are completely safe anywhere we deliver. Bigleaf types are hardier in the root than the flower bud — a hard late freeze can cost you a year of bloom, which is exactly why the reblooming ones like Endless Summer were bred.
Size, and nothing else that matters. Limelight finishes around 6–8 ft; Little Lime is the dwarf version at roughly half that. Same colour, same easy full-sun habit.
Stem strength. Annabelle produces enormous white heads and then flops them into the lawn after heavy rain. Incrediball is the same plant bred with stems stiff enough to hold them up.
Space them by mature width, which varies a lot across this list — about 3 ft for the compact ones like Bobo and Munchkin, 4–5 ft for Annabelle and Endless Summer, and 6 ft for a full-size Limelight.
From our yard in Newton, New Hampshire. We deliver up to 75 miles — most of New Hampshire, northeastern Massachusetts and southern Maine — and pickup is available at the nursery Monday to Friday.
