Tiny Quick Fire® Panicle Hydrangea

At 2 to 3 feet, Tiny Quick Fire is small enough for a pot on a patio and still gives you the full early bloom the Quick Fire line is known for. This Proven Winners® selection, Hydrangea paniculata 'SMNHPSB', stays 2 to 3 feet tall and wide in full sun to part sun with at least four hours of direct light, hardy from Zone 3 through Zone 8, and reaches full size in two or three seasons.

Flowering starts in early summer, well ahead of most panicles, with small white panicles in proportion to the plant. They pick up pink from the base as the season goes and deepen through fall.

How much color 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.

This size opens up spots the bigger panicles cannot take: a container by a door, the front of a border, a narrow bed along a walk, or a low informal edging in a row. 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 wants well-drained soil and handles sun, cold, and drought better than the other hydrangea groups.