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Oakleaf hydrangea is a rather coarse deciduous shrub with big leaves, long, sometimes drooping limbs, and an open, loosly branched mounded habit. It has multiple stems which form an upright rounded clump 6-10 ft (1.8-3.1 m) tall with an even greater spread. Oakleaf hydrangea sends up shoots from underground stolons and often grows in colonies. The young stems are cloaked in a felt-like coppery fuzz, and the larger stems have attractive cinnamon-tan-orange bark that shreds and peels in thin flakes. The leaves are yellowish green on top, fuzzy-whitish underneath and arranged in pairs opposite each other on the stems. They have three, five or seven pointed lobes and are 4-12 in (1.2-30.5 cm) long and almost as wide. The leaves are largest on shade-grown plants. Oakleaf hydrangea leaves turn rich shades of red, bronze and purple in the fall, and often persist well into the winter. The flowers are borne in erect very showy cone-shaped clusters 6-12 in (15.2-30.5 cm) tall and 3-5 in (7.6-12.7 cm) wide on the ends of branches. They start out creamy white, age to pinkish and by autumn and winter are a dry, papery rusty-brown. Unlike bigleaf hydrangea (H. macrophylla), flower color does not vary with soil pH. There are several named cultivars of oakleaf hydrangea, including 'Pee Wee', which stays under 3-4 ft (0.9-1.2 m) in height; 'Snow Flake' (the showiest of all?), which has 12-15 in (30.5-38.1 cm) clusters of double flowers; and 'Snow Queen' which is more cold-hardy and has denser flower clusters. Oakleaf hydrangea and the popular peegee hydrangea (H. paniculata) are the only hydrangeas with cone-shaped flower clusters; all the others have their flowers in ball-shaped or flat-topped clusters. Location Culture
Oakleaf hydrangea is a coarse-textured shrub that will not look right in all situations, but it does make a beautiful specimen in the shade of a large live oak. Use oakleaf hydrangea in partly shady shrub borders or in woodland gardens. It goes great with azaleas, blooming with big showy clusters of white flowers about the time the azaleas are winding down.
Features Steve Christman 04/21/97; updated 09/13/00, 06/01/01, 2/12/04
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