Hydrangea arborescens, sometimes called Smooth Hydrangea, is a native plant of eastern USA and was introduced to Britain around 1730.  In the wild it has flat heads of mostly small dull whitish fertile florets with only a few of the more showy sterile florets. Plant breeding has produced cultivars with more of the showy sterile florets.  A breakthrough was the cultivar ‘Grandiflora’ which has large round heads of sterile florets, followed by ‘Annabelle’ with even larger heads. More recently ‘Incrediball’ has been bred with flower heads the size of footballs.

Arborescens flower on new wood and so can be pruned back to a basal stool each Winter or Spring.  The cultivars with large flower heads and thin stems will need some support.

New varieties with pink flower heads are now on the market. We have Hydrangea arborescens ‘Invincibelle Spirit’, or more commonly called ‘Pink Annabelle’.