Climbing Hydrangea
A Basic Guide to Climbing Hydrangea
The climbing hydrangea has been called one of the best vines for a shade garden. It is a woody vine that brings many interesting features into your garden.
The leaves of the climbing hydrangea are a lovely shade of dark green and they are not often bothered by disease or insect problems, as some other vines are. At the beginning of summer, the vine bursts into white flowers with a wonderful aroma. The leaves turn yellow with the fall, and after they drop off, then the view is of the cinnamon-colored woody vines. The vines seem to grow around each other, and they provide an interesting visual effect under the new snows.
You may need to be patient with your climbing hydrangea at first. As hardy as hydrangeas tend to be, the climbing variety seems to take a little longer than most to establish itself in your garden. The first year is rather slow growth-wise, the second is a bit better, and then they generally take off growing by the third year. For those who wait it out, they have a beautiful display vine. Even a nice sized vine will tend to be slower than some to establish, because its energy is spent on spreading out its roots for the first few years.
Some climbers need to have stakes added or have parts of vines tied off or twistee-tied in place, to train them. But the climbing hydrangea doesn't need any extra support. It grabs hold of the trellis with tightly clinging vines, and if you don't prune it and let it grow as high as it wants, up the side of a tree or a house, it will eventually grow to a height of up to eighty feet! You might want to prune before yours gets that tall, but normally no pruning is required except for removing damaged branches. The exception to this occurs when the vines begin to bush out into a shrub-like shape, and you want to have it conform to a trellis or the side of a building.
The best soil to grow climbing hydrangea in is a rich and moist loam. This plant prefers the shade, but can also adapt to a somewhat sunny location. It isn't even much bothered by pollution, when grown in city or commercial areas. Winter temperatures won't bother this plant except in the northernmost states.
You may have heard that the climbing hydrangea has blossoms its first few years that are not very showy, or may not be as big as gardeners had expected. Even the people with those experiences generally believe that the climbing hydrangea is a good climber, especially as a shade zone plant. And they do get more interesting in blooms and vine shape as they get older. Most people who have planted climbing hydrangeas seem to enjoy having them as a part of their garden.