Feature: The Sentimental Favorite

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Hydrangeas

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One of the South’s most celebrated blooms, the hydrangea is a welcome Lowcountry mainstay, offering its varied and delightful colors at eye level—where its efforts to please can be most appreciated. Hydrangeas give us the background, foreground, and framework for an ornamental landscape. In fact, they have so many winning attributes, it’s hard to pin down just one reason why the shrub is so revered by Southern gardeners and so prevalent here. But Sidi Limehouse, hydrangea expert and enthusiast, has a pretty good idea. “People love them because they’re beautiful, easy to grow, and relatively pest-free.”

But according to Limehouse, a Johns Island native whose countenance strikes an uncanny balance between Grizzly Adams and Jerry Garcia, “The long-standing affinity for hydrangeas here also has a lot to do with tradition and nostalgia. People want to grow what their mothers and grandmothers grew.” And, coming from the founder and owner of Rosebank Farms, where he grows 200 different varieties of hydrangeas, it’s an informed opinion indeed. Raised on Mullet Hall Plantation, which his father purchased in 1938 on the very day Limehouse was born, agriculture and horticulture are part of his birthright. A little more than a decade ago, his interest in hydrangeas sharpened, and he developed an avid admiration for the shrub, becoming something of a practical expert (and collector), mostly, he says, “By a lot of trial and error.”

For centuries, hydrangeas have been the darlings of the summer landscape, brightening up shady locations with massive clusters of vivid blue, bold pink, or snow-white flower heads. Even the foliage is attractive, with the added bonus that some varieties boast burgundy leaves in the fall. Hydrangeas first became all the rage in Europe after being imported from Japan and China in the mid-19th century. Even though we’ve since acquired some varieties from overseas, our most time-honored types seem to be those native to the Southeast, like the oakleaf hydrangea, first catalogued by John Bartram when he made his famous wilderness trek. “Lately there’s been a Southern resurgence of interest in hydrangeas, due in part to the nostalgia factor, but also because of their accommodating nature, and the fact that they make a great cut flower and dry beautifully,” says Limehouse. Despite all the hype on the new hybrids, he doesn’t recommend them, warning, “They only bloom on new wood and aren’t as hardy or robust.”

According to Limehouse, a hydrangea’s ideal growing conditions include lots of water when they’re first planted and balanced moisture in the soil thereafter. “They like morning sun and afternoon shade,” he says, adding, “For the average person, growing hydrangeas in a container is the most practical avenue since it’s easier to control soil conditions.”

Another chief reason hydrangeas continue to captivate us is their curious, ever-varying hues. Most varieties found locally are blue because of the high levels of aluminum in our soil. This staple shade can be manipulated into a rainbow array of colors by simply changing the soil’s pH balance. Adding superphosphate and lime to a hydrangea’s surrounding soil will produce pink blooms. Limehouse says that one of the most coveted colors is a rich purple, which can be achieved here by planting a red hydrangea—the region’s soil, dense with aluminum, will infuse the red with blue and, like some mystical act of alchemy, issue a deep amethyst flower.

Whatever the basis—nostalgia, beauty, ease—the South’s long-held love affair with this bewitching, color wonder of a flower persists, and the hydrangea will no doubt continue to grace our landscapes large and small in its abiding iconic fashion.