Good choice! It is an extremely hardy and well foliated plant, as shown in the link below. A tight spacing of 6' should be fine since it is estimated to be 6-8' at 10 years of maturity. It also takes well to pruning should you ever need to do that too. The older the plants that you buy, the less waiting that you have to do. Do consider that the plant is deciduous during winter, not evergreen (I mention it in case it makes any difference to you). Luis

Here is a link that might be useful: {{gwi:23222}}

Today, I called the local nursery and spoke to the manager to try and get a discount on Limelight. Surprising me, he told me that he cuts his own and his client's Limelights down to 24"(!) every spring and they come back to about 4-5' high by end of season. I asked him why he cuts down that drastically, and he didn't really have a good answer, except that it wasn't to get rid of winterkill--it was more of an elective shaping pruning.

Based on his experience, he recommended spacing Limelight at 3-4' apart, which, given other posts I've read here, would be way too close. I was originally planning to space at 6' apart, but he didn't think that would give me a fully connected screen, or would take forever getting there. Given that he cuts to 24" every year, I can see why he would think that limelights don't get to the quoted size of 6-8' tall and wide in our area.

So I thought I'd check with those of you who have an actual Limelight hedge out there to see how far apart you spaced your plants. Is 6' too far? Is 4' too close? Is 5' better? Did your limelights really mature to 6-8 X 6-8, or do they fall short of that in some zones? How short do you prune your limelights in the spring?

Thanks,
gardenerzone4

I planted 14 in a hedge row last year, with a spacing of 5'. They're still too young to say for certain, but the upper reaches of a few of the larger plants come fairly close to each other already. One thing to note is that as youngsters (about half of mine were 1 gallons), they often seem to be growing stronger to one side or the other, which can make things a little uncentered for a while; it takes a few years for them to really fill out. I also bought four more well-developed pinky winkys (3 gallons each), spaced them at 4' a piece, and they're already fairly thick at the top, though it's still easy to distinguish from plant to plant.

My local nursery does the same thing yours does, on their specimen limelight, but I think it's basically in order to keep growth upright and blossoms large; theirs still shoots up to six or seven feet every year, but it's a very straight, upright growth. I'm still debating whether I should prune mine down this year, and then let them do their own thing from now on, so I have a more standard size between plants, or not.

You have to consider her purpose; she's working for high-end clientele, who don't want to wait and are willing to pay for it. To me, ten years for fully mature, healthy shrubs that basically won't require any maintenance throughout their life sounds just about right, and it's not like they don't look good before that time.

Also, I wouldn't question Limelights getting 6' tall - that would be a considerably smaller than average specimen.

i cut mine back in spring and one is good and full. the other one is leggy and limbs can barely hold the flower heads..why?

New hydrangea shrubs sometimes produce big (read: heavy) blooms that the "new" stems cannot hold upright. Many paniculatas like Limelight do this (flopping) when young but, as the stems get older and the shrub becomes established, the harder, older wood in the stems becomes stronger so they flop less. Reduce pruning to minimize flopping.

If you need to remove spent blooms, you can deadhead the blooms (not the same as 'pruning') at any time: https://plantaddicts.com/pruning-hydrangeas/

Why did you prune them? It isn’t needed to have a healthy plant, and as you now know, growth on Limelight doesn’t necessarily look better when it is pruned, though I have seen lovely pruned specimens. Pruning can cause the plant to grow long whippy stems and will usually produce fewer, larger flowers, so it is difficult for the long, new wood stems to support the flower heads.

Yours honestly looks to be too close to the building for a shrub that will get to at least 8’ tall and 8’ wide. I would consider moving it out from the building so it can grow to its natural size. Then the branches will harden as they age to provide more support and the blooms will still be large, but not quite as large, so not stress the branches so much.

Depending on where you are, you may find that giving this plant more sun when you move it will also help. My panicled hydrangeas in NH grow in full, all day sun. Because Luis is in TX, his need some shade during the hot part of the day and water, but mine haven’t been watered even in drought since they were three years old.