Bobo® Hardy Hydrangea

Bobo flowers so heavily that the plant nearly disappears underneath. This Proven Winners® selection, Hydrangea paniculata 'ILVOBO', stays 2 to 3 feet tall and 3 to 4 feet wide in full sun to part sun with at least four hours of direct light, hardy from Zone 3 through Zone 8, and fills out in two or three seasons.

The panicles are large for a shrub this small and they come from the base of the plant to the top rather than only at the branch tips, which is what gives Bobo its density. White in midsummer, picking up soft pink as the nights cool.

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 blush instead.

The low wide habit suits a front-of-border planting, a container, or a run of several plants as a low informal hedge. Panicle hydrangeas flower on new wood, so the buds form in spring and 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 wants well-drained soil and handles sun, cold, and drought better than the other hydrangea groups.