Hydrangea arborescens 'Balsam' (smooth hydrangea)

'Balsam' is also knows as 'Highland Lace' because of the lacy mophead flowers (see pic for 1,000 words of explanation).

These flowers are remontant - if you prune off the spent flowers, you will likely get a second flush.

The texture of the leaves are evocative of the Appalachian forests (even when seen from a car window - they are along so many roadsides in the mountains) so that Hydrangea arborescens fits into the native forest gardens and suburban-urban gardens of the East Coast with that sense of place many of us are cultivating in our backyards.

This is one of those hydrangeas that will give you fall color. It's the color of our favorite Kerry Gold butter from grass fed cows.

Smooth hydrangea is a cherished shrub that has two check marks in its favor:

✔ it's a native hydrangea
✔ it's a slow colonizer

We love plants that colonize an area. Colonizers do the work of filling in gaps for us, so we think down the road and give them extra feet to spread over the years. This native hydrangea is a gentle colonizer - it plays nicely with its neighbors.

 

We have two 'Balsam' planted in our woodland garden (along with a few secret ones that may be introduced one day - sorry couldn't help the teaser).

Here's an explanation of the flowers in the pictures.

• The big while ones are how they look in full glory.
• There's a close up of the full glory phase - showing how it has a few fertile florets flowers tucked amongst the sterile florets.
• Then there's a pic next to a true 1 gallon pot for scale (not one of the smaller "trade" gallons) and then a panned-out shot showing the habit in flower.
• We show two pics of the broccoli phase - just emerging green florets.
• Then two pictures of mature flower heads. They turn back to chartreuse green with age.

• spreads to colonize an area
• remontant if prune off the first round of spent flower heads (remontant means it will rebloom)
• cold tolerant
• heat tolerant

• remontant
• long flowering period
• cut flowers

Is this a pollinator plant?
Smooth hydrangea in general is definitely a pollinator plant. On 'Balsam' we see some fertile florets tucked amongst the showy sterile florets, but we have yet to see insects working them.

Other types of smooth hydrangea cultivars (lacecap types) are fertile and therefore bees come to them for nectar. We are collecting some to propagate and offer here in the future.

Rule of thumb: If you run across mophead smooth hydrangeas, such as this one, 'Annabelle', and 'Incrediball', you can assume they are mostly sterile. The fertile ones aren't quite as showy, so there's this trade-off to balance as best you see fit in your own garden. We like to have some of these mopheads coupled with less showy fertile forms. Personally, we enjoy looking at the fertile (lacecap) forms just as much as the largely sterile (mophead) types.