Introducing Hydrangea anomala subsp. anomala -- the other climbing hydrangea vine. Rarely offered, and less showy than its more common cousins, anomala’s robust, shiny dark green leaves and pleasant white flowers are a refreshing change of pace for the discerning eye. Deciduous. Zones 5-8.

A lusty and large growing climber, Schizophragma integrifolium var. molle tolerates more sun than most of the climbers and grows with intent. Blooms are huge - a foot across. This vine needs a good stout wall or tree to climb. Zones 6?-9.

Hydrangea seemannii is indeed an evergreen hydrangea vine but it is difficult to site in this country where it is happy & so is rarely seen. Apparently it grows well along portions of the west coast where the climate is moderate. Native to the Sierra Madre mountains in Mexico it is usually listed as a Zone 8 plant. We have not been successful in growing it outside here at the nursery, but it thrives when we protect it through the winter in a container. The flower is white, mostly fertile with only a few sterile sepals. Handsome, dark lustrous foliage.

Schizophragma hydrangeoides ’Moonlight’ has luminous silvery-green foliage with dark green veins in its youth. The summer flowers are white, lacecap inflorescences. A true clinging vine, it grows most happily on stone or brick or up a shady tree. Were it never to bloom the foliage alone is dazzling. It’s the first of the "hydrangea" vines to leaf out in spring for us a few weeks before its cousin ’Roseum’ or the larger, rampant Schizophragma integrifolia (either form we grow). As for Schizophragma megalocarpum we are standing back in some awe. It’s been close to evergreen in our zone (semi-deciduous would be the textbook claim) and acting like Lance on steroids without the years of denial. As to Moonlight, it’s best in part shade to shade. Zones 5-7.

Schizophragma hydrangeoides ’Roseum’ is a blush-pink flowered form of the Japanese climbing hydrangea vine. It is pink for us in the south only upon first opening, becoming white under our heat & humidity. But for those few days it reminds us that spring is a time of wide possibility. Even pink. A true climber it will attach to your wall or tree and head up. Deciduous, for shade in zones 5 to 7, it may reach 30’ in time. Slow to bloom if it can climb.

Unlike most climbing hydrangeas ‘Skyland Giant’ is eager to bloom and for us has shown flowers in one gallon containers. This is a selected form of climbing hydrangea (Hydrangea anomala subsp. petiolaris ’Skylands Giant’) with sterile sepals more numerous and larger than the species. It was found at the New Jersey State Botanical Garden at Skylands. It shares similar traits with the species in other respects, somewhat slow to establish, a true climbing vine with root-like holdfasts, blooming most heavily when frustrated in its climbing. Deciduous. Zones 4 - 8.