It was our first summer in our house in Minnesota and I noticed some potted white hydrangeas at the grocery store (of all places.)  We had a lot of work to do on the garden beds before we were ready for planting (weeding, digging up unwanted plants, moving rock), so I wasn’t planning on buying bushes, but they were so pretty and they were on clearance for some crazy price like $15/each.  I felt like I couldn’t resist.  I come home from a quick grocery run with a trunk full of bushes!  Thankfully, Jeff is used to my antics and, as long as it’s not a rickety chair that will collapse if he tries to sit on it, he’s pretty relaxed about me bringing surprises home.  What I had purchased impulsively were Annabelle hydrangeas and they were a serendipitous find.

This was the summer I planted them and they just took off!

I have loved hydrangeas since I knew what they were.  They have long been my preferred bloom for bouquets.  Much to my dismay, I didn’t have much success with them in my Pennsylvania house.  I was just starting to make an effort in the area of gardening and I didn’t know anything about new wood growth vs. old wood growth, pruning, fertilizing, or anything else that might’ve helped the bushes produce better.

When I drove home with the Annabelle hydrangeas in my trunk, I was hopeful that I could make a go of it even if I felt the nag of skepticism based on my past hydrangea failures.  To my delight, the Annabelles did beautifully.  Even in the harsh Minnesota winters and even through the Polar Vortex of January 2019, they thrived and prolifically produced blooms each summer.

Over our years in that house, I harvested bouquets from my Annabelle hydrangea bushes to enjoy around the house and use for photoshoots and still-life vignettes.  I loved being able to simply walk outside with a pair of shears and trim off what I needed.

And, as a bonus, Annabelle Hydrangeas also dry beautifully in the fall.  As the late summer turns to early fall, the Annabelle blooms start to dry on the bush and turn a light pear-green.  You can read a post about how to dry Annabelle hydrangeas HERE.

I loved having bouquets of dried blooms through the fall and even into the winter until things started to bloom again in the Spring (which takes a little while in Minnesota!)  I even used them in my Christmas decor one year.  You can read about that HERE.

I fell so in love with my Annabelle hydrangeas that I planted hedges on two other sides of the house when we renovated those beds.

Sadly, that was just a couple of years before we moved, so I didn’t get to see those hedges develop.  I hope they are being enjoyed by the new owners, though!

So, as I’ve been working on the garden beds in this house, I knew I wanted to add Annabelle hydrangeas.  While we weren’t ready to plant in the front garden last year (we had some exterior work like removing overgrown trees & bushes, installing a new roof, painting the trim and siding, cleaning the brick, and replacing windows & shutters that needed to be done first), I couldn’t help but look for Annabelle hydrangeas at local garden centers.  Maybe I would plant some in the back if I just couldn’t wait a year.  Well, I wasn’t able to find any.  I ended up planting some Limelight hydrangeas in the back, which are going to be perfect around the fence and pool, anyway.  This spring, though, I was on the hunt for Annabelles.

I figured I just hadn’t looked extensively enough last year, but they were proving to be elusive again this year.  The local garden center owner who drew up a plan for the front of my house told me they had Annabelle hydrangeas coming in (which were a featured part of the plan), but when the shipment finally arrived, it didn’t include Annabelles.  I’m sure I’m known as the Annabelle-lady in that nursery because I kept stopping by and calling to inquire about Annabelles.  I just didn’t want to miss them!

When I got back from my creative retreat, I stopped in again.  They hadn’t come and the owner wasn’t sure if he’d be able to get them.  He told me they are viewed as an “old-fashioned” hydrangea and they just aren’t as popular as some of the newer, more colorful varieties.  The fact that he called them old-fashioned made me like them even more than I already did if that was possible.  He then asked if they had recently been featured in a magazine or something because four other people had been asking him for Annabelle hydrangeas.

Now, I was on a mission.  I called around to nurseries in my area and none of them carried Annabelles.  One of the garden center owners said he had never even heard of them, which I found surprising.  Anyway, on about my 10th phone call to a nursery in Frederick, MD, about 45 minutes away, I got the answer I had been waiting for.  They had eight 3-gallon Annabelle hydrangeas.  Even though I had just spent 11 hours on the road driving home from Isle of Palms the day before, I hopped in the car and drove to pick up four for my front garden.

I started planting them yesterday, but it’s a slow process given I have to weed the beds (these are just normal weeds, not my current arch nemesis), dig the holes, and spread mulch, but I’ll keep working through it a little each day.

I keep thinking that I can’t wait to see how these bushes (and the whole yard for that matter) look in four or five years, but then I realize I’ll be 50 when that happens, so the bushes can take their time maturing!  If these Annabelle hydrangeas are anything like the ones I planted in Minnesota, I’ll be enjoying blooms from them in no time while I’m still in my 40s.

So, in a nutshell, here are the things I love about the Annabelle hydrangeas –

• They have beautiful white blooms that are a good size for a bouquet.  Incrediball hydrangeas are a new-and-improved version of Annabelles, which have bigger blooms and stronger stems, but I feel like the blooms are almost too big for bouquets.
• I like that the blooms turn green in the fall (sticking to my color palette) instead of red or pink.
• The blooms dry with very little effort and can last for several years if gently handled.
• The flowers bloom on new growth instead of old growth, so you don’t have to baby the bush over the winter.
• I have found them to be low-maintenance and prolific, which is a good combination for someone who likes to plop a plant in the ground and hope it does okay.

The one downside is the stems can sag under the weight of the blooms after a rain.  I did some research on this and planted a low boxwood hedge in front of the Annabells to give them some support.  You can also build a cage for them out of wire fencing in the early spring before they start to leaf out.  They will grow into and eventually cover the fencing, which will provide addition support when needed.

I fertilized my bushes in Minnesota with Holly Tone in the early spring and pruned in either fall or late winter before the leaves started to come in.

Do you have a favorite hydrangea?