Consistent sky-blue flowers on a bigleaf hydrangea selected for surviving winters that kill others in its class. Hydrangea macrophylla Let's Dance® Sky View® 'SMNHSME' grows 2 to 3 feet tall and 3 to 4 feet wide in part shade, hardy from Zone 4 through Zone 9.
Consistent blue is harder to get than it sounds, since most varieties drift toward purple as soil pH shifts. It reblooms, flowering on old and new wood.
Bigleaf hydrangeas change color with soil pH. Acidic soil below about 6.0 gives blue, alkaline above 7.0 gives pink, and the range between produces purple or a mix of pink and blue on the same plant. White varieties stay white. Aluminum sulfate pushes flowers toward blue and garden lime pushes them toward pink, and either takes a season to show.
Older bigleaf hydrangeas flower only on old wood, meaning buds set in late summer for the following year, so a hard winter or a late frost could cost a whole season. Most varieties now bloom on both old and new wood, though the second round is lighter than the first. Prune in summer after the first flowering and no later than August, since cutting in fall or early spring removes the buds that carry the heaviest bloom. Dead stems can come out in spring, once new growth shows which ones are dead.
Zone 4 hardiness plus reliable bud survival makes this one of the better choices for a cold garden.
Size at Maturity
Height 2'- 3' Spread 3'- 4'
Growing Zone
USDA Hardiness Zones 4-9
Lowest Temperatures -30°F to -20°F
Light Requirements
Part sun to part shade - 3 to 6 hours of direct sun, or dappled light through the day
Special Conditions
Reblooming
Seasons of Interest
How to Plant
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