Schizophragma Climbs in Popularity

Schizophragma hydrangeoides, while called the Japanese Hydrangea-vine, is not actually a hydrangea. It is, however, in the Hydrangea family. At first glance, at a distance or when out flower, it can look very much like Hydrangea anomala petiolaris the Climbing Hydrangea. But upon closer inspection the two are easy to distinguished because true Hydrangea has 4 petals (actually sepals) while Schizophragma has one solitary heart-shaped sepal. Another useful clue is that Schizophragma hugs a tree or wall more closely than does Climbing Hydrangea. Both are beautiful vines to be sure, but if I had to choose between the two I would choose Schizophragma because the flowers are showier and there are more cultivars to choose from. 

Schizophragma climbs and clings by means of small aerial roots. It looks great growing on a wall or on a tree. It is hardy to zone 5 making it a bit less hardy than Climbing Hydrangea. It can be slow to get started but grows rapidly once it gets going. It can take full sun, partial shade or shade but seems to do best in partial shade.

An elegant vine when grown on brick

This vine is a tower of white when grown on a large tree

The blooms range from 8 to 10 inches in diameter. They appear in late June to early-July and last for around four weeks.

Schizophragma has showy pure white blooms with tear-drop sepals

The cultivar 'Moonlight has the added bonus of attractive, colorful foliage. The leaves are steel-blue with contrasting green veins. The sepals are typically larger and showier. This is perhaps the most popular cultivar.

'Moonlight' has showy steel-blue leaves

The cultivar 'Rosea' is, as the name indicates, pink. The sepal color can vary from year to year based on the weather. It can range from pure white to a rich pink. Every years is a surprise! The sepal size is larger than typical and can be quite showy.

The cultivar 'Rosea' has pink sepals

The cultivar 'Strawberry leaf has distinct foliage with deeply toothed leaf margins. The sepals are pure white and typical in size.

'Straberryleaf' has a distinctive dentate leaf margin.

There are two variegated selections, however, I don't think they are yet available in the United States.  I found the gold variegated form at Liss Forest Nursery in England and a Silver form at a small nursery in Japan. Both plants add extra color after the flowers have faded.

Liss Forest Gold

A silver variegated form

Windmills-TM is a new selection of Schizophragma integrifolium commonly called the Chinese Hydrangea vine. It has long narrow, pure white sepals. It is rated as a zone 7 plant so it is best reserved for milder climates. I selected this plant out of a batch of seedlings and have been evaluating it over the last 10 years. The extra large flowers are both remarkable and elegant.

Windmills is a new selection of Schizophragma integrifolium

Schizophragma is gaining in popularity, however, it is not easily found at your local garden center. If you want to try this vine you will most likely have to buy it via mail-order or over the internet. I really like this vine and I think you will too.

Plants on Trial - Lonicera vines

It’s a shame that Honeysuckle vine has gotten a bad rap. Lonicera japonica, the Japanese Honeysuckle vine is to blame of course. It has proven to highly invasive, particularly in the South East. Birds love the fleshy fruit and deposit the seeds along fence rows and thus miles of fence lines in the East have been engulfed by this aggressive vine. As with most invasive plants, it is a regional issue. The USDA plant database shows it as being escaped in Michigan, however, I’ve never seen it to be a problem. The point is that there are many excellent vines in this genera that are well behaved and garden worthy depending upon where you live. In addition there are also native species that get neglected simply because of this guilt by association.

On my trip to England, I was fortunate enough to catch some of the early flowering varieties of Lonicera in bloom at the RHS trials in Wisley Gardens. The bright orange, red and yellow flowers drew me in and the thick, sweet fragrance lured me even closer and I ran from plant to plant clicking photos and sticking my nose into each bloom inhaling the rich aroma. These are twining vines and they need support to climb. They will not adhere to brick or bark as would ivy or climbing Hydrangea. And as a twining vines go these plants require more structural support than Wisteria or Clematis. At Wisley they loosely wrapped a tube of chicken wire around wooden poles with the vines planted in between the two. This worked brilliantly, as the British say.

It was a tad early to see the majority of these vines in flower, so what follows is a snapshot of some of the early flowering varieties.





The showiest plant in bloom was Lonicera x heckrotti (Goldflame Honeysuckle) which to the best of my knowledge is a hybrid that contains the genes of three species; our native Lonicera sempervirens, Lonicera etrusca a Meterianian species and L. implexa a species native to Africa. It is an everblooming vine with rose-pink tubular flowers adorned with an orange-yellow interior. The plants I sniffed were wonderfully sweet and intoxicating.

Lonicera x italica is another early bloomer. It too was fragrant but the blooms were not as showy as Goldflame.




Our native species Lonicera sempervirens was in flower. While it does not have the fragrance, I love the contrast between the intense orange-red flowers its attractive blue-green foliage. The flowers are more pendulous, more tubular than other and so you only get a slight glimpse of the yellow hues hidden within the tube.




Two Lonicera periclymenum (Woodbine Honeysuckle) cultivars were in flower. The cultivar ‘Munster’ sported yellow flowers with a hint of pink in the buds, while ‘La Gaserie’ was a lighter cream-yellow and pink in bud. Both plants had good fragrance. The cultivars ‘Belgica Select’ and ‘Graham Thomas’ were showing buds but were not in flower. The popular cultivar ‘Serotina’ was even further behind.

Lonicera x tellmanniana, Lonicera henryi, Lonicara x brownii and their cultivars were not yet in flower.

If you are interested in learning more about these interesting vines I would suggest you visit http://www.clematis.com.pl/wms/2494791.html. It is the website of ornamental vine expert and Clematis breeder Szczepan Marczyński.

I’ve visited Szczepan in Poland a few years ago and fortunately for me the Lonicera vines were in full bloom. Oh how I love fragrant plants.

Plant a Hydrangea on your Tree

There are few plants that create as much excitement as does Climbing Hydrangea (Hydrangea anomala subsp. petiolaris) especially when seen in full bloom, lighting up the trunk of a tall oak tree. This is an outstanding plant that deserves greater use. Climbing Hydrangea is native to the woodlands of Japan and coastal China. The lacy, creamy-white blooms are 6 to 10" in diameter and appear in late June or early July. The blooms are actually comprised of numerous small flowers, some fertile and some sterile. The sterile flowers are larger and showier and encircle the smaller fertile flowers in the center of the bloom. The effect is unforgettable! Climbing Hydrangea is an attractive plant even when not in bloom. It has glossy heart-shaped leaves and cinnamon colored stems with exfoliating bark that make this plant interesting all year long.
Climbing hydrangea can reach heights of 50 to 80 feet if it has the support of a large tree to do so. It looks great on tall trees, on stone pillars, on brick walls or cascading over a rock pile. It is not overly aggressive like some vines can be. Dr. Michael Dirr, author of the Manual of Woody Landscape Plants calls it "The Best Vine!"

Climbing Hydrangea is most often sold as a container grown plant. Planting can take place from spring until fall. Plant it next to a brick wall or aside tall tree with an eastern or westward exposure. The planting depth should be the same depth as it was grown in the nursery. On poorly drained soils, planting depth may be raised several inches and soil should be sloped up to the original soil level of the container. The addition of organic matter such as compost, aged manure or peat moss will improve plant growth. Once situated at the proper depth in the planting hole firm the soil around the root ball and water thoroughly to remove any air spaces. The addition of a surface mulch of 3-4” will help retain soil moisture. Climbing Hydrangea is not the fastest plant to establish and growth will be slow for several years after planting. Once established the growth will improve with each passing year.

Climbing Hydrangea is a great plant that has tremendous potential. Few people have ever seen this plant. Once they have they will never forget it and will most certainly want one of their own!

There are several new cultivars of climbing hydrangea that are worth looking for. 'Skyland's Giant' (see above image) is a new variety selected for especially large flowers. 'Fire Fly' is a new variegated selection of climbing hydrangea that is simply spectacular in in the spring when the plant flushes. It has the same great flowers as the species. As the season progressed the variegation becomes less pronounced.

Addicted to Hydrangea

In the small coastal village of Varengeville-sur-Mer, in Normandy France, I had the pleasure of meeting the worlds foremost Hydrangea experts Robert and Corinne Mallet. Inside their small cottage, stacks of books, piles of herbarium specimens and a mass of photography towered about me and surrounded me. Everything within site, including the Mallets themselves, revolved around the genus Hydrangea. Call them advocates, fanatics or just plant crazy; they’ve devoted their lives to growing, studying and promoting Hydrangeas.

While I have other pursuits in my life, you might also call me a bit of a Hydrangea nut. After all - it was I who had traveled all the way to France to learn from the masters. Yes, Hydrangeas are a unique group of plants that can cast an inexplicable spell on those who grow them. To know the charm, beauty and usefulness of Hydrangeas is bound to create an enthusiast to some degree.

There are some 23 different species of Hydrangea. A few are evergreen, but most are deciduous forms of vines, shrubs or small trees. Where I live in Michigan, I can successfully cultivate about 10 different Hydrangea species. What is amazing is that only half of these species are readily available in the nursery trade and only five species of Hydrangea provide us with the hundreds of unique plants (cultivars) in which to beautify our gardens. While an unmentioned East Coast author (Martha Stewart) would espouse the beauty and bold brash colors of Hydrangea macrophylla (The Bigleaf Hydrangea), I would rather extol the virtues of some less glorious, but more reliable species. These Hydrangeas have proven themselves to be great garden plants for our harsh continental climate.

Climbing Hydrangea, Hydrangea anomala subsp. petiolaris (Eastern Asia, Zone 4 ) is a beautiful vine that climbs by aerial rootlets. It has glossy, heart heart-shaped leaves and white lacy blooms (corymbs) in early summer. It can be grown as a shrub, groundcover, or as a vine depending upon its culture. You have not lived until you have seen this plant in full bloom climbing up a tall oak tree. It is very happy on a north facing building or otherwise shady brick wall. I know of only a few cultivars, but most of them are hard to find in the market. 'Skylands Giant' is a selection with very large blooms. 'Tilifolia' is a selection with very small leaves, and ‘Fire Fly’ is good variegated selection with bold yellow and green leaves. All of these plants are worth hunting for and growing.

The Smooth Hydrangea, Hydrangea arborescens (Eastern U.S, Zone 3), is a wonderful, hardy plant that blooms in midsummer. It has the great advantage of blooming on the current seasons wood. This results in very reliable blooming regardless of frost or winter injury. The species is not a spectacular garden plant with its small mostly fertile flowers, but there are some noteworthy cultivars that are worth growing.

'Annabelle', introduce by Joe McDanials of Champaign, IL, is the most commonly grown cultivar. One is hard pressed to find any other cultivar of Hydrangea arborescens being sold today. There are some nurseries unknowingly selling the cultivars 'Grandiflora' as 'Annabelle'. True 'Annabelle' has very large, perfectly symmetrical blooms, while the blooms of 'Grandiflora' are often quartered and irregular. 'Annabelle' is very showy, but often collapses under the weight of its own blooms.

There is a need for more selections of H. arborescens. I would like to see an improved 'Annabelle' with sturdier stems. I also feel there is room for more lace-cap selections, especially selections made from plants like H. arborescens subsp. discolor which has light downy hair beneath the leaves and H. arborescens subsp. radiata which has snow white coloration on the underside of the leaves. I personally find these plants more graceful and delicate than 'Annabelle'.

There are three new introductions of H. arborescens on the market and both are very exciting. . Dutch horticulturist Wouter Kromhout brings us an exciting new lace-cap called White Dome This strong growing plant has extremely large dome-shaped blooms and large, attractive dark green leaves on a 5-6’ tall plant. This plant is exceptionally fine in the winter for its dried flowerheads look magical with a touch of frost or snow on them. (See image above). It can be mass planted to acheive the same winter interest you get with ornamental grasses like Miscantuhus.

Incrediball is a new and improved form of Annabelle with massive flowers and strong stems that hold up the blooms. This plant is larger in stature than Annabelle, reaching 4-4.5 feet tall.

Invincibelle 'Spirit' is the most exciting hydrangea introduction in years. It is the first pink flowerd form of 'Annabelle'. It was developed by Dr. Tom Ranney of NC State. Now we have the color of a Hydrangea macrophylla but with the dependability of H. arborescens. Very exciting!

Hydrangea arborescens is a very useful and adaptable plant. It grows in light shade or full sun, and once established it can be quite drought tolerant. Be careful not to over fertilize this plant or it will grow weak and leggy. I prefer to cut it back hard each spring to create a fuller bushier plant and to remove any winter damaged stems. In the landscape use it as a focal point for its white flowers can stand out from long distances. It also looks great in mass plantings.

The Panicle Hydrangea, Hydrangea paniculata (Asia, Zone 3) is a wonderful, hardy species that also blooms on new wood. It flowers in late summer to early fall. The cultivar Pee Gee or 'Grandiflora' is an old, commonly grown cultivar that deserves retirement. It has large floppy white panicles. Superior cultivars are now making their way to market. Most of these plants were developed by Robert and Jelena DeBelder of Belgium. 'Little lamb' is a DeBelder introduction with a dwarf compact habit. The flower heads are petit but full. They emerge a pure white and change to a rich pink in autumn. Pieter Zwijnenburg of Holland developed ‘Limelight’ a plant that is making quite the splash in the US. This incredible plant is noteworthy for several reasons. It sports attractive bright green flowers on strong upright stems. It blooms in early July, which is quite early for the species. ‘Limelight’ is at its best in autumn when the green flowers transform to breathtaking shades of green, pink and burgundy all on the same plant. I have seen numerous other selections of Hydrangea paniculata that are yet unnamed or introduced. We are currently evaluating a few selections but want to make certain that they are distinct and worthy before introduction. Also of note, the USDA has been attempting to cross H. paniculata and H. macrophylla in order to create a hardy, reliably blooming plant with interesting colors. Time will tell if this effort is successful.

Hydrangea paniculata is very easy to grow and adaptable to most garden soils so long as is it not planted in standing water. This plant makes a great blooming hedge if you don’t over prune it. Just let it grow and enjoy the color.

Hydrangea quercifolia (South Eastern U.S, Zone 5) know as the Oakleaf Hydrangea is a wonderful plant with distinct oak-like leaves. It has beautiful white panicles in midsummer that often fade to pink as they age. It is also noted for its blood red fall foliage color. The cultivar 'Snow Queen' is perhaps the standard by which all oakleaf cultivars are judged. It has large, upright panicles with large sepals and deep red fall color. 'Snowflake' is a beautiful, double flowered selection with large, pendulous panicles. The sepals age to purple even as new white sepals emerge to create a beautiful contrast. 'Harmony' has curious globular blooms. It is strictly a plant for collectors. Mike Dirr introduced a selection called 'Alice'. She has large panicles, good red fall color and extremely vigorous growth. Here too, we are evaluating other new selections that may warrant introduction.

Oakleaf Hydrangea is very reliable, easy to grow and thrives on neglect. It is extremely drought and heat tolerant. It will thrive in full sun or partial shade. It will flower in heavy shade but it will grow at a much slower rate. Use this plant in large mass plantings in commercial settings or as a specimen in a home landscape. Grow in contrast with plants with fine textures and narrow leaves. Please note that the wood on this plant is quite brittle, so it should not be planted where ice or snow could smash its structure.

As you can see, the genus Hydrangea is wonderfully diverse. But don't just take my word for it - the best way to know these plants is to grow them. But be careful, it’s fun and potentially addicting.

If you wish to learn more about Hydrangea I highly recommend the following books; Hydrangeas, Species & Cultivars a two volume set by Corinne Mallet, Hydrangeas, A Gardeners Guide, by Toni Lawson-Hall and Brian Rothera, and The Hydrangea by Michael Haworth-Booth. I also recommend joining the American Hydrangea Society, or if you're in Europe, the Shamrock Society.

'Firefly' adds a new dimension to Climbing Hydrangea

A few years back, I gave a Hydrangea talk at Swarthmore College and I told the audience that there were no cultivars of Climbing Hydrangea (Hydrangea anomela ssp. petiolaris). This is no longer the case for there are now four new cultivars available in North America. The most intriguing of these is a new variegated form called ‘Firefly’. Ironically this plant was discovered by Horticulturist Dan Benarcik just thirty miles from Swarthmore.

Firefly is quite typical for climbing hydrangea when it comes to flowers and form. It has a beautiful display of lacy white blooms in early summer, and like the species it is a great choice for training up a tall tree. It takes a few years for climbing hydrangea to establish itself and to start climbing, but once it does it can grow about two feet per year. It is well worth the wait for few things are as beautiful as a tall tree covered with climbing hydrangea, especially when in full bloom. What makes ‘Firefly’ special is its attractive lime-yellow leaf margin that gives the vine an additional season of interest. Its foliage display is at its best in spring when the buds break and the variegation is at its brightest. The vine literally glows at this time of year. As the season progresses the variegation becomes less pronounced and in the autumn, long after the flowers have faded ‘Firefly’ looks just like your standard climbing hydrangea.

As a plant hunter, one of my goals is to find new plants that have additional seasons of interest. This plant certainly fits the bill. Garden space is a precious commodity and personally I have limited room for plants that provide only a few weeks of bloom and nothing more. Plants should look good when they’re not in bloom and foliage is the attribute that I look to first to provide interest. The flowers should be the icing on the cake.