Hydrangea paniculata 'Little Lime'

[greenqueen]

Does anyone have experience with this hydrangea?
What is the true size in 3-4 years?
Will it stay at the 3 ft if I cut it down each spring?
How limey green do the flowers get?

[luis_pr]

Technically, it could get as big as 5' but that is a function of your weather, the length of your growing zone, availability of the nutrients, etc. That estimate is usually at 10 years though. So if you planted two twin plants, one in Chicago and another here in Texas, you would expect the one down here to get bigger faster at 10 years because our growing zone is longer. I have not seen LLs that are 4 years old but a 2 yrs old looked to be slightly more than 2'. The flowers were the usual limey color; you should limit the amount of light that it gets in order to keep them green longer (say 2 hrs or so?). If it gets a lot of sun then the immature blooms will turn white faster. Try pruning it every other year so pruning does not become an annual chore.

[greenqueen]

Thanks for your input Luis! I'm in Chicago, so much shorter season of course. Interesting on the amount of sun and the color change. It will get about 3-4 hours of hot afternoon sun, but That won't bother me as I'm looking at it for the size and large flower. I would be happy with white, actually, as they will be in front of a Viburnum lantana which is bluish grey green. I was a little worried the lime color might be too much.