Pinky Winky Prime® Panicle Hydrangea

The two-tone effect is the whole appeal here: the panicles blush from the bottom up, so each cone carries hot pink at the base and pure white at the tip for weeks before the color takes over completely. This Proven Winners® selection, Hydrangea paniculata 'ILVOHPPRM', grows 6 to 9 feet tall and wide in full sun to part sun, hardy from Zone 3 through Zone 8, and reaches full size in three or four seasons.

The flower heads are large, pointed, and often stretch a foot or more long, opening pure white in midsummer and deepening to a saturated pink by fall. They cut well fresh and dry well for winter arrangements.

How much pink you get depends on where you garden. The change is driven by cool nights, so northern gardens color up strongly while warmer southern gardens tend to hold cream and soft blush instead. If the flowers look dry rather than coloring, it usually means either not enough water or nights that stay too warm.

At this size it works as a hedge, a screen, a specimen at the back of a border, or trained into a small tree. Panicle hydrangeas flower on new wood, so a hard winter cannot take the display, and soil pH does not affect the color. Cut back by about a third in late winter. It takes most soils except very wet or strongly alkaline ground.