Tim Boebel

I've been a Garden Center Manager in different cities and capacities in the Northeast since 1990, and throughout that time I've been plagued by customers complaining that their hydrangeas never bloomed. I eventually realized that everything we know about growing hydrangeas comes from books written in warm climates—the South or Northwest, Europe, Japan, New Zealand—and that no one had really tried to come up with a way for Northerners to get blooms on these plants. But I couldn’t just tell my customers that, because by this time I had personally sold thousands of hydrangeas, and (cheers to Martha Stewart) hydrangeas had become the biggest-selling plant at the garden center! I didn’t just WANT to find a solution to this problem, I HAD to. So I started a collection of hydrangeas on which to experiment that now totals close to 300 cultivars, and after years of tests and trials with these plants, I've come up with a solution for the Northerner who wants her hydrangeas to actually bloom. The slideshow above shows 12 of my favorite hydrangea cultivars for growing in the North. These picks are based not only on how well they bloom in the North, but also on the vibrancy, uniqueness and longevity of their blooms, and the overall form of the shrub. A lot of strong bloomers didn’t make this list because of the weakness of their stems. There are many promising newer cultivars that I’m tempted to add to this list, but I find I can’t effectively evaluate a hydrangea unless it’s been in my garden for at least 3 years. My first garden center job was in the Buffalo, NY area. I was fresh out of college with a degree in English Education (not that I’m a teacher at heart, I was more interested in writing, but trying to keep it practical…) and found that quite contrary to the dreams of my advisers, there were precisely 3 English teaching positions available in the entire state! I subbed a bit then went looking for a summer job. I fell in love with horticulture immediately. So much so I was promoted to Nursery Manager by fall. After moving to Central Virginia, I picked up a similar position, and found that even in that mild climate hydrangeas are often reluctant to bloom. The problem is that they bloom on old wood—at least those of the species most in demand ('macrophylla,' to be exact). Couple that with the inability of their ‘old wood’ to survive winter temperatures under 10F or so and you begin to feel the frustration of us who know what wind chills of -20F feel like. And how those hydrangeas love to tease us by being root-hardy enough to shoot back up every spring with such lush, dark green foliage. They mock our hope. . . . . . . So to come up with a method for getting these plants to bloom in the North, I had to find a way to 1. Get them to set flower buds close to the ground 2. Protect these buds through the winter, and 3. Bring these buds through to the bloom stage. Right now I am merging my love for writing with my love of horticulture: I am writing a book, tentatively title HYDRANGEAS IN THE NORTH, so all of us Northerners will finally have a hydrangea resource that is relevant to us. And for our yearly hope for blooms on our hydrangeas: finally some satisfaction. . .