TRIGGER WARNING: Today’s segment will include mention of irresistible hydrangeas and may prompt severe plant-shopping binges in susceptible individuals.

You’ve been warned.

My guest is Adam Wheeler of Broken Arrow Nursery, a retail and mail-order destination for exceptional plants in Connecticut, where an extravagant array of unusual hydrangeas representing more than just your average species are part of the portfolio. There are hydrangeas with gold leaves (like H. serrata ‘Mountain Mania,’ above), or variegated ones, and every imaginable flower form, and even a wider range of flower colors than you may know about.

Adam Wheeler joined Broken Arrow in 2004, where he is the production and horticulture manager. Part of Adam’s role is to be on the lookout for great plants to add to the assortment, and in recent years the genus Hydrangea has included an increasingly long list of such possibilities. He joined me on the podcast to suggest some favorites to consider, and how to prune and otherwise care for them.

Read along as you listen to the July 27, 2026 edition of my public-radio show and podcast using the player below. You can subscribe to all future editions on Apple Podcasts (iTunes) or Spotify (and browse my archive of podcasts here).

exceptional hydrangeas, with adam wheeler

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Margaret Roach: So welcome back, Adam. I haven’t seen you since my garden open day in May, when you were here with a truck full of goodies for kind of a Broken Arrow pop-up shop in the driveway, right? How are you?

Adam Wheeler: I’m well, Margaret. How are you? It’s great to be back chatting with you.

Margaret: Yeah. Well, and they’re always popular, the hydrangeas, that’s for sure. Wow. And so much change: The palette just keeps expanding, so I wanted to sort of turn people onto that. I attended a video lecturing webinar you did the other week about them and that was very interesting to see just how much extravagance there is in the genus.

So it seems like most every garden has a hydrangea or two or three. And it sort of used to be that there were maybe five popular species in horticulture, but now it seems like there’s even more coming into the mix. When did you see this acceleration of possibilities? What’s been happening?

Adam: Yeah, so it is a large group of plants, and I think the plant taxonomists out there have been at hard work of late looking closely at the group and there’s been some work botanically reclassifying some plants. So some groups that were formerly classified as non-hydrangeas have actually recently been lumped into the hydrangea world. So that’s kind of expanded the diversity.

And then certainly the plant breeders out there have been really looking and working hard to recognize and improve upon the natural diversity found within the group, which has led to all sorts of other fun kind of unique forms and cultivars that are pushing the limits of what we think about when we think about the word hydrangea. That’s fun. That’s what we’re really excited about at Broken Arrow, is trying to bring some of this stuff to market for the average gardener so that they can get some of these fun new variants of a comfortable group that we’re all reasonably familiar with.

Margaret: Right. And so even though some of the newer ones may look really different—I think I mentioned the introduction that some might have gold leaves or variegated leaves or different flowers or whatever—they still want the sort of general hydrangea requirements, yes? And what are those?

Adam: Yeah, culturally they’re all pretty comparable for the most part as far as the basics, which I think is comforting to a lot of gardeners. Hydrangeas tend to be relatively rich feeders. They have high preference for high nutrient levels, and thrive in kind of evenly moist, well-drained soils. They show a pretty good tolerance, depending on the species, to variation in sun intensity. So some are going to do great in full-sun conditions; others are going to be a little bit more tolerant to shaded positions. So yeah, they’re relatively straightforward plants when it comes to the general cultural requirements.

Margaret: Right. And then the other thing, probably the most common question as a garden writer that I’ve been asked all these years is “When do I prune my fill-in-the-blank hydrangea?” [Laughter.] Sure. So I know people will ask it in the comments with the transcript of this show if we don’t mention it briefly here. So what’s the fast 101 on that? Because I think it’s like there’s sort of two possible growth habits of the different species that dictate the pruning style, yes?

Adam: Yeah, absolutely. And to make the best decision about pruning your hydrangeas, you need to know if you’re working with one of the forms that flowers on old wood, or one of the forms that flowers on new wood.

And when I say flowers on old wood, what I’m really referencing is how did the flower buds develop? The hydrangeas that flower on old wood, the flower buds form on the last year’s growth. So this year’s flowers will form on last year’s growth, and that has implications when it comes to pruning.

Those that flower on new wood, what we see is that the flower buds for the current season are developing in the current season. So the new-wood types of hydrangeas tend to be a little bit more flexible when it comes to pruning. We can expect that pruning work on the new-wood types of hydrangea won’t impact the flowering for that season as significantly as a poor pruning effort on the old-wood types.

For the old-wood types of hydrangeas, the general recommendation is to try to prune as little as possible in all honesty; prune with caution. And the pruning work is best done early in the growing season. And that way the plants have an opportunity to respond, develop flower buds, which will pay dividends in the next growing season or the next year, if that makes sense.

Margaret: So the mophead or Hydrangea macrophylla is old wood. It carries its buds over, right? [Above, a newer macrophylla, ‘Bailmacseven.’]

Adam: Classically, the big-leaf hydrangea, Hydrangea macrophylla, is one of the ones that traditionally flowers only on old wood, though there is some exciting breeding work that has kind of gone against the grain there.

Margaret: [Laughter.] Yes.

Adam: But traditionally that’s a species that flowers only on old wood, so one we’d want to prune with caution, and if we do need to prune, we’d want to do so early in the growing season.

Margaret: Whereas paniculata, the panicle hydrangeas, they bloom on new wood. And in fact, I don’t know how they manage to shoot up so many feet of new wood each year. It’s amazing. And then produce buds, leaves and buds and everything. I mean, it’s miraculous.

Adam: Absolutely. The panicle hydrangea and the smooth hydrangea, Hydrangea arborescens, are the two notable species that tend to flower on the new wood. So they’re pretty flexible when it comes to pruning.

Margaret: O.K. So we got that out of the way a little bit, and we’ll probably touch back on it when we talk about some specific ones.

So these are plants, they have their whole own family, the Hydrangeaceae or whatever [laughter]. I was smiling looking at that: Deutzia‘s in there, Philadelphus, the mock oranges, are in there, and a perennial that I love, Kirengeshoma, a crazy perennial. A lot of them are from Asia, but we have a couple of Native American hydrangeas and I thought we could start with those: arborescens, the smooth, and then the oakleaf, quercifolia, and where are they from? And let’s just talk about them and then what cool stuff’s been going on in those.

Adam: Yeah. The smooth hydrangea, Hydrangea arborescens, is native to the Eastern United States. So all up and down the Eastern seaboard. I think the northern end of the native range is in Connecticut, and it goes all the way down to Georgia, Alabama, that part of the country. These are kind of suckering shrubs that get to be maybe 3 to 5 feet high, and usually they’re wider than they are tall. The plants inhabit a tremendously diverse kind of circumstance. I’ve seen them at high elevation, up 4,000 or 5,000 feet in elevation along the Blue Ridge Parkway, even growing out of rocks in those positions. So I’ve seen them in very dense woodland shaded positions at lower elevation. But that species, Hydrangea arborescens, is probably one of the more durable garden hydrangeas that we can grow.

Margaret: Right. And that was where we all knew years ago ‘PeeGee’—excuse me, I’m saying the wrong thing. That’s where we knew just ‘Annabelle,’ sorry. I was thinking of the paniculata because there’s those two sort of forever hydrangeas in my mind. ‘Annabelle,’ but we didn’t know anything else. But now there are things like ‘Haas Halo,’ which is one that you showed in your recent slideshow and you have at the nursery. I mean, it’s just so different. So what are some of the differences? What’s the look of some of the new ones?

Adam: So again, it’s amazing how diverse the options are out there. So even within the realm of this species, Hydrangea arborescens, we have ‘Haas Halo,’ which has these amazing 12-inch-diameter lacecap flowers that are great for pollinators. It really has good, strong stem structure.

There’s a cultivar that we’re offering called ‘Hayes Starburst’ [above], which is a double-flowered form. So it’s like flowers inside of flowers inside of flowers, a little bit more compact, very elegant-looking plant.

One of my favorites on the unique side of the spectrum is one called ‘Green Dragon,’ which has very heavily serrated leaf margins, which gives the foliage texture just a much different presentation in the landscape. And that excites us because it’s different. It’s something much different than what you’d expect from a hydrangea.

Margaret: Yeah, no, very different. And you’ve just mentioned lacecap. And what’s great is that with the lacecap types, with the types that have more of those fertile flowers, which are not the big flat ones like ‘Annabelle’ had lots of, that there’s more resources available for those insects to utilize, which is great. And especially in a native species like that.

Adam: Absolutely. Yeah.

Margaret: Yeah. And then what’s going on with quercifolia, the oakleaf? I remember the first time I ever saw that was in the understory in Louisiana a million years ago on an estate tour and garden tours and museum tours and so forth. It was the understory, one of the understory shrubs, the native shrub under woodlands. Do you know what I mean?

Adam: The oakleaf hydrangea, really awesome Southeastern U.S. native, big shrub afford it maybe eight or 10 feet tall and wider than tall as well. And those beautiful kind of oak-like leaves. I think quite honestly, the oakleaf hydrangea is my personal favorite in the group, just because it has features that carry you through the entire gardening year.

Margaret: Fall color. Cool.

Adam: Yeah, fun textured leaves, really amazing kind of burgundy fall color. Flowers come out white and then they age through those kind of antique pink and burgundy tones and they dry tan on the plants. And then you’ve got cinnamon-stick exfoliating twigs in the wintertime. So really amazing species. And like the smooth hydrangea, the oakleaf has a lot of fun diversity there as well. One of my very favorites is ‘Snowflake,’ which has been around for a long time now, but it’s got wonderful double flowers that have a pendulous structure to them, which gives the plants a much more graceful look in the garden. I love that a lot.

Margaret: That’s blooming for me right now. I bought one from you years and years and years ago, and it’s really lovely. It’s double, the flowers, but they’re not overblown. Do you know what I mean? They’re still graceful.

Adam: Absolutely. And as the flowers mature, they kind of shift from white through those antique tones and I just adore it. It’s really a special plant.

Margaret: And so breeders not being happy to leave well enough alone—why not?—so now there’s even a gold-leaf one here, right?

Adam: Yeah. There’s an oakleaf hydrangea called ‘Little Honey’ [above], which is a compact one. When you site it in a full-sun position, it is a really vibrant, vibrant, bright kind of knockout gold color, and it becomes a little bit more subdued in the shade. But white flowers contrasting with that gold foliage is a really fun combo.

Margaret: And these are hardy. I mean, I’ve had oakleafs in my garden, which used to be zone 5, even though again, it’s from the deep South, the deep Southeast, native to there, they’ve never missed a beat and they’ve never failed to bloom in all the years I’ve had them for decades. So it’s a really hardy plant.

Adam: They’re definitely good solid zone 5 plants.

Margaret: So then the panicle hydrangeas, the paniculata, there’s so many in recent years. But before we get to the exciting new ones, I’m so relieved to talk to you today because I feel like I’ve been going crazy—in a new way, Adam, not the same old way [laughter]. Because I have a hydrangea question. Something I’ve never seen happen before, my paniculatas, which are very, very old, very large plants, mostly straight paniculata and then ‘Tardiva,’ a variety from a long time ago, lacecap types.

They were pruned at the usual time in the usual way, nothing strange. And they’re just barely starting to bud up now and it’s the middle of July. And I’m thinking, “What are you guys doing? What made you mad at me this year?” First time ever that they haven’t… Do you know what I mean? It’s like not that they’re not going to happen, it’s that they’re not happening on schedule. I thought, is it this up and down with the heat and the drought kind of stuff that we’ve been having. these insults of climate? [Laughter.]

Adam: Yeah. I’ve heard similar scenarios going on out there. I haven’t seen that occurring personally, but I think I’ve come to accept that there is no normal consistent growing season that we’re navigating anymore. It seems like every year is giving us a different set of curveballs to navigate. Hydrangeas are one of these plants that are trying to figure out how to respond to all these curveballs that Mother Nature seems set on throwing our way every year.

Margaret: So like I said, I’ve always loved the lacecap types, and so I have a lot of big ‘Tardiva’ and so forth. But what’s going on with the paniculata types in terms of, I mean, I think I saw in your presentation, I think I saw a variegated-leaf one.

Adam: Yeah. There’s a lot of fun paniculatas that are emerging on the market and it’s a great group. It’s one of the more durable cold-hardy species. Again, it’s another one that flowers on new growth, so we’ve got some capacity to really navigate pruning comfortably with this species. It’s mind-boggling. There’s probably 50 or 60 cultivars that have emerged on the market in the last 10 years or so.

Margaret: And some are small and some are really full size. The ones I’m talking about, the old-timers can get very, very large, but some are more compact also.

Adam: Yeah. One of my very favorite compact ones is called ‘Dharuma,’ which is also one of the first to begin blooming for us. So it tops out maybe at about 6 feet tall after 15 years or so. So about a third the size of what the straight species is capable of getting to. A little bit smaller flowers, but really nice rounded form. And it’s an uncommon cultivar, but one worth looking for. So that’s ‘Dharuma.’

The variegated one you mentioned is a cultivar from Japan called ‘Yuki Gessho’ [below], which has a very heavily mottled and kind of marbled white variegation on the leaves, which is just stunning, especially in dense shade. I love variegation in the shade because it kind of turns the lights on. It brightens up the shadows, and this ‘Yuki Gessho’ is a good grower in the shade. It also does nicely in the sun. That’s been a really fun one for us to have. It tops out somewhere in that 8-foot size range if it’s left unpruned.

Margaret: Yeah. So I think just in the name of time, we’ll move on to the big-leaf hydrangeas, the most sort of hydrangea of all hydrangeas, macrophylla. I think maybe it was in your lecture you told me that there were more than 300 varieties or something like that.

Adam: Yeah, at least 300 varieties. It’s a growing, lengthy list. It’s really difficult to actually stay on top of all of the new variants. This I think traditionally is the hydrangea people think of when they say the word hydrangea, with the flowers that can shift between pink and blue depending on how acidic your soil is.

One of the more exciting recent advancements is the remontant type big-leaf hydrangeas, which are forms of big-leaf hydrangeas that go against the traditional grain and have the ability to produce flowers both on the old wood, but also on the new wood. So that’s been a really exciting advancement for a subset of the big-leaf hydrangeas.

We adore them and we have a broad selection of them. One of my very favorites is one called ‘Lady in Red,’ which has been around for a number of years now, but it’s a beautiful lacecap flower with red fall color and red stems and even the veins extending into the leaves take on a red color.

Margaret: It is beautiful. It’s beautiful. Yeah.

Adam: And there’s been some really fun foliage advancements. There’s a whole host of big-leaf hydrangeas that have kind of a burgundy cast to the foliage now, which is a fun take on a plant that traditionally we only think about for the flower power. So having some foliage options out there has really been an exciting advancement as well.

We’ve been offering one called ‘New Wave,’ which is a heavily variegated one, which quite honestly, I don’t even care if it flowers. [Laughter.] It shows off so vibrantly in the garden with its mixed menagerie of green and yellow and white variegation that just catches your eye, regardless of the spot you position it. So yeah, lots of fun big-leaf hydrangeas that are out there now.

Margaret: And so I want to spend the last five minutes talking about some of the ones that people probably haven’t heard as much about. There’s the species serrata, and there’s I think it’s angustipetala and aspera. These are some that… Yeah. So just take us a little bit through some of those less-known ones.

Adam: Sure. Yeah. I think people should be aware that there are a bunch of species of hydrangeas that go beyond the classic kind of four or five that you see in average garden centers. One of my very favorites is the rough-leaf hydrangea, Hydrangea aspera, which a lot of the literature is just completely inaccurate relative to how cold -hardy these plants can be. Most literature says they’re zone 7, but we’ve seen them performing certainly in zone 6, if not in parts of zone 5. But really fun textured leaves, bold flower colors, fun structure to the plants, even that kind of cinnamon stick-like exfoliation on the twigs.

There’s a burgundy foliage cultivar of the rough-leaf hydrangea called ‘Koki,’ which has been a really attractive plant for us in the collection.

Margaret: I saw that. Yeah.

Adam: Another interesting one is Hydrangea angustipetala, which I don’t even think has a common name at this point, but we’re growing a selection called ‘MonLongShou’ [above], which has absolutely large, huge florets. They’re almost the size of the palm of your hand.

Margaret: So wait, each little floret within the head of the flower is the size of the palm of…what?

Adam: So that head has the sterile florets and the fertile florets. So the sterile florets are almost the size of the palm of your hand, which is just magical.

Margaret: Oh my goodness.

Adam: And there’s some yellow color in there, too, which is a really kind of a new horizon for hydrangeas. They’re a little bit of yellow pigment in the fertile flowers of the ‘Mon Long Shou’ hydrangea. And that gets us excited about thinking about what the future might hold for breeders that are looking to improve upon qualities of these plants. So that’s one that’s been quite exciting for us to play around with.

And the list goes on and on. I mean, it’s not a short list of cultivars and species that we’re playing around with here at the nursery trying to understand the full spectrum of options that are out there.

Margaret: Right. I mean, then there’s the one serrata, I think, and I think that’s a little bit hardier-

Adam: Yeah, so Hydrangea serrata is very closely allied to the macrophylla. They look comparable, except it probably has a full zone of additional cold hardiness within its constitution. And that really has been a group we’ve been really excited about. A lot of those are lacecap flower presentations, and there’s some really fun foliage colors there.

There’s a beautiful gold-foliage selection called ‘Mountain Mania’ [photos above and top of page], which my friend Ed Bowen introduced a few years back. And that’s been a really popular one for us this year so far.

And some other fun one, ‘Omaka Variegata,’ it’s another variegated one with kind of a knitted gold—it’s almost like somebody threw a gold net over the green leaves to give it a unique texture and color, coupled with those lace cap flowers. So yeah, the mountain hydrangea I think is another group that’s really worth taking a closer look at, especially for those that are gardening a little colder than the big-leaf hydrangea traditionally wants.

Margaret: Yeah. I mean, I don’t know how you keep up with all of them though. I mean it must be fun; it’s like a treasure hunt to find things, but wow, there’s a lot going on.

Adam: It is. As I said, it’s a mind-boggling group that really requires constant attention to learn about the new forms that seem to hit the market every single year. And to compare them against some of the classics, some of the older ones, that are still really incredible plants.

There’s frequently a rush to get the new, new, new, but we all also need to remember that some of the old ones are really still tremendously wonderful plants in the garden. One of my very favorites is the ‘Bluebird’ hydrangea, which has been around forever. Yes. And you mentioned the ‘Tardiva’ hydrangea, which is an excellent plant that’s been around for a long time. There’s some great old players that we shouldn’t forget about as well.

Margaret: Right. Well, Adam Wheeler of Broken Arrow Nursery, I’m so glad always to talk to you and to see you when we have our open day/plant sale each spring. And the nursery of course is open and then you also start in late summer, I think you start taking orders for fall shipping. You do mail order as well. So some of the hydrangeas, I imagine, will be in there.

Adam: Absolutely.

Margaret: Yeah, so that’s great. Well, thank you for making time. I know you’ve got a million plants to go propagate and figure out and do this, that, and the other thing, too, so thank you.

Adam: I appreciate you having me on, Margaret. It’s always fun chatting plants.

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MY WEEKLY public-radio show, rated a “top-5 garden podcast” by “The Guardian” newspaper in the UK, began its 17th year in March 2026. It’s produced at Robin Hood Radio, the smallest NPR station in the nation. Listen locally in the Hudson Valley (NY)-Berkshires (MA)-Litchfield Hills (CT) Mondays at 8:30 AM Eastern, rerun at 8:30 Saturdays. Or play the July 27, 2026 show using the player near the top of this transcript. You can subscribe to all future editions on iTunes/Apple Podcasts or Spotify (and browse my archive of podcasts here).