4 White Hydrangeas (Long-Term Review)

↖ DESIGN CHALLENGE ↗
What are the best white hydrangeas
to flank these patio doors?

The above photo shows a mock up of what I wanted to create: a pair of white hydrangeas flanking the patio doors of my kitchen-dinner extension. The hard landscaping had been completed in 2016, and I had already decided that this part of my garden was going to have a green and white theme. To that end, I had planted various box domes and cylinders to provide a backbone for the design. Now, I was on the look out for a pair of white hydrangeas to flank the kitchen doors.

This article documents my experience with four hydrangea varieties, providing valuable long-term insights into the strengths and weaknesses of each in a small-garden environment, where every plant must earn its keep.

Why Hydrangeas?

This part of my house faces North-East, so the beds close to the house are in shade for most of the day. There are limited options when it comes to shrubs that flower well in the north-shade of a building: Hydrangeas, Camellias, Rhododendrons and some Viburnums come to mind. As I already had plenty of evergreens I wanted something that would provide contrasting texture and provide seasonal change.

I decided on Hydrangeas not only for these reasons, but also because, when in flower, they feel more like herbaceous perennials than shrubs. They fit in so well with a summer border, flowering in July and August. Some even fade prettily, leaving attractive dried flower heads through the winter.

White Varieties I have Tried

I began my experiment by planting a couple of Hydrangea macrophylla ‘Koria’ either side of the doors. These were a bit of an impulse purchase having seduced me with their unusual starry lacecap flowers. The only doubt I had initially were the central, small fertile flowers, which were pink, and out of keeping with the otherwise white theme of my garden. I soon learned, was that even the white outer petals gradually turned dark pink as they went over, requiring dead-heading to avoid clashing with the white-theme. I came to realise that my white garden looked best when the flowers were large, bold and pure white. ‘Koria’ was just too bitty — a detail plant, great close up, not so good from a distance, so I considered growing a traditional mop-head hydrangea.

Before replacing ‘Koria’, I therefore trialled a white mophead hydrangea, growing it in a pot, so that I could observe it for a couple of years before committing. When in flower, it had beautiful white flowers, large and much more in keeping with my theme, but like ‘Koria’, they too took on muddy pink tones as they went over. Another downside (for my garden) is that both took on strong autumn colours, which were also incongruous with the rest of my white garden.

Finally, research led me to the smooth hydrangeas (H. arborescens) which includes varieties with pure white flowers that transition from green to white to brown — a colour palette that much better fitted my theme. What is more, the variety ‘Annabelle’ has huge handsome flower heads, over 8in (20cm) across, and is a more dramatic, upright shrub. Replacing ‘Koria’ in 2019, Hydrangea ‘Annabelle’ was a clear improvement, appearing by summer 2020 to be the perfect white hydrangea.

The Result by 2020

Unfortunately, ‘Annabelle’ has one major shortcoming — those big flower-heads flop terribly in the rain, and they flop big time, bending stems down to the ground and never really recovering. I have many Heath-Robinson solutions, with random bamboo canes and miles of garden twine, but have never found a really satisfactory solution.

My latest decision (October 2025), therefore, has been to dig up ‘Annabelle’ and replace her with an improved variety ‘Strong Annabelle’ which promises to tackle this exact problem.

Each hydrangea I have grown has its own page in this article, so use the list below to jump to the one you are interested in…