Grow Green With Limelight and Little Lime Hydrangeas
Updated: Mar. 25, 2024
Love hydrangeas and the color green? Add a Limelight hydrangea to your yard for vibrant color. Or try a Little Lime hydrangea in small spaces.
The soft green shades of a Limelight hydrangea and the smaller Little Lime are top picks for backyard beauty. As an extra benefit, these hardy panicle hydrangeas are adaptable to almost any climate, thriving where others might struggle. Expand your hydrangea collection with these gorgeous green favorites.
Check out the top 10 gorgeous green flowers for your garden.
Limelight Hydrangea Care
- Hydrangea paniculata
- Zones: 3 to 9
- Light needs: Full sun to part sun
- Soil: Well-draining
- Size: 6 to 7 feet tall and wide
“I love my Limelight hydrangea, which starts out a pretty lime color and in the fall turns pink,” says Birds & Blooms reader Shirley Meeks of Asheboro, North Carolina.
It’s easy to see why Shirley feels the love for her Limelight panicle hydrangea. This splendid flowering shrub is hardy and easy to grow. This tried-and-true classic beauty reliably blooms every year, even in cold Northern climates. (Is your hydrangea not blooming? Here’s what to do).
Extra-large lime green flower clusters burst open in summer; they do a unique costume change into pink, red, and burgundy in fall, providing months of interest. Florists often list this hydrangea as a favorite for its excellent cut flowers, both fresh and dried.
For blooms earlier in the season, and bolder fall color, try the newly developed Limelight Prime.
Discover the best hydrangea bush for every yard and growing condition.
Choose a full sun location in colder growing zones, and provide a bit of afternoon shade down south. Limelight does not like soil that stays wet or soggy. In early spring, cut back the plant by one-third of its height, then apply a granular fertilizer that is formulated for woody plants.
In a residential landscape, you can use your Limelight hydrangea as a showy flowering privacy hedge or as a striking specimen plant.
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Little Lime Hydrangea Care
- Hydrangea paniculata
- Zones: 3 to 8
- Light needs: Full sun to part sun
- Soil: Well-draining
- Size: 3 to 5 feet tall and wide
Little Lime is a dwarf version, or smaller sibling, of the beloved Limelight hydrangea. Despite its petite size, it still puts on a big, bold color show. Growing between 3 and 5 feet tall and wide, Little Lime makes an attractive border plant for smaller spaces, and it’s small enough to grow in containers. Sturdy stems mean this smaller hydrangea holds its head up high, refusing to be overshadowed by larger shrubs.
Check out the top 10 small shrubs for small spaces.
Although we love the gorgeous pale green hue that lasts for months, the pretty blush pink transformation is a delightful sign that fall is in the air. The bright blooms make excellent cut flowers for bouquets and are also look great in dried flower arrangements.
Note that soil pH does not affect or alter the shrub’s flower color. (Psst—here’s how to change the color of hydrangeas.)
Like Limelight, this hydrangea also blooms on new wood; give it a light pruning in late winter or early spring to stimulate growth.
For more vibrant garden color in a small package, try Little Lime Punch.
Originally Published: April 06, 2023
