Invincibelle Limetta Smooth Hydrangea (Hydrangea arborescens 'NCHA8' INVINCIBELLE LIMETTA)

Invincibelle Limetta Smooth Hydrangea (Hydrangea arborescens 'NCHA8' INVINCIBELLE LIMETTA) hy-DRAIN-jah ar-bor-RES-senz 'NCHA8' INVINCIBELLE LIMETTA
Deciduous Perennial Shrub in the Hydrangeaceae Family


“Smooth” or “wild” hydrangeas tend to grow to 4-5 feet high and sport gorgeous profusions of large pompom or lacey blooms, making them a wildly popular choice for privacy plantings, borders, or focal points in the garden. These shrubs grow extremely quickly and can actually be cut back almost all the way to the ground each winter, but don’t require shaping or deadheading during the growing season. Interestingly, these hydrangeas do not react to the pH in the soil by changing the color of their blooms like many other hydrangea varieties. Smooth hydrangeas always have greenish-white or bright white blooms that fade to a sepia-toned brown by fall and make gorgeous cut fresh or dried flowers.
Pros Profuse, giant white pom pom or lacecap flowers (great cut fresh or dried) Prefer part shade Easy to prune - just cut down to a few inches above the soil each winter and watch this plant start fresh each spring! Flower on new wood, enabling them to bloom after unseasonably cold weather
Cons Require quite a lot of water and will show their displeasure at being thirsty by pervasive leaf wilt Need at least a few hours of sunlight a day to put forth blooms Start each year pretty much from scratch

Plant Data
Mature Size	3 - 4 feet tall. 3 - 4 feet wide.
Growth Rate	Moderate
Sun Exposure	Partial Shade - Full Sun
Moisture Tolerance	Medium
Zones	3a - 9b
Tags	Attracts Butterflies, Attracts Pollinators, Attracts Wildlife, Container, Deciduous, Edging, Extended Bloom Time, Formal Garden, Foundation, Full Sun, Good for Accents, Good for Cottage Garden, Good for Cut Flowers, Good for Hedges, Good for Mass Planting, Hard Pruning Late Winter, Low Maintenance, Medium, Medium, Most Popular, Nativar, Normal Soil, Partial Shade, Partial Sun, Perennial, Rabbit Resistant, Reblooms, Showy Flowers, Shrub, Thrillers, Tolerant of Moist Soil, Well-Drained Soil
Flower Color

Related Articles
11 Common Hydrangea Pests: How to Prevent and Treat Them. All About Gardening, 2/18/23 17 Common Problems With Hydrangeas and How to Avoid Them. All About Gardening, 2/18/23 Hydrangea Leaves Turning Brown? Here’s Why, and How to Fix it!. All About Gardening, 2/18/23 Why Are My Hydrangea Flower Blooms Turning Brown?. All About Gardening, 2/18/23 How to Revive Wilted and Drooping Hydrangeas. All About Gardening, 2/18/23 How to properly prune hydrangeas. Illinois Extension, 3/10/22 How to Cut the Hydrangeas in Your Garden for Fresh Floral Arrangements. Martha Stewart Living, 8/20/21 Mistakes Everyone Makes When Planting Hydrangeas. House Digest, 7/6/21 How to Successfully Grow Smooth, Panicle, and Bigleaf Hydrangeas at Home. Martha Stewart Living, 7/1/21 A Month-by-Month Hydrangea Care Guide. Martha Stewart Living, 6/23/21 Garden guide: Everything you need to know about growing hydrangeas. Chicago Tribune, 6/9/21 How to grow hydrangeas. BBC Gardener's World Magazine, 3/12/21 What to Do If Your Hydrangeas Aren't Blooming. Martha Stewart Living, 10/10/20 How to Stop Your Hydrangea Blooms from Turning Brown, According to a Gardening Expert. Martha Stewart Living, 9/3/20 What Should You Do About Hydrangea Bushes That Are Getting Too Big?. Martha Stewart Living, 8/27/20 How to Choose the Right Type of Hydrangea for Your Garden. Martha Stewart Living, 7/23/20 How and When to Deadhead Hydrangeas to Keep Them Blooming All Summer Long. Martha Stewart Living, 7/21/20 It isn't Summer without Hydrangeas. New York Times, 7/1/20 Hydrangeas Explained. Midwest Groundcovers, 6/26/20 Five Mistakes You're Making with Your Hydrangeas. Martha Stewart Living, 8/26/19 How to Change the Color of Your Hydrangeas. Martha Stewart Living, 8/19/19 Why Isn't My Hydrangea Blooming?. Proven Winners, 8/1/15 How To Prune Hydrangea. Illinois Extensions How To Get More Blooms From Your Hydrangea. Tips on Pruning Annabelle Hydrangeas.


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Limited Availability

We try very hard to source exactly what you’d like, but sometimes growers run out of plants! While this variety is a great deal at the price shown, we know that it has limited availability. If you want the plant even if it might be more expensive, or in a different size or quantity -- after you place your order, just send us a quick note at help@northshoreplantclub.com. Then, we’ll try to get you some version of this from one of our growers. And if we can’t get it from anywhere, of course, we’ll send a refund!

Field-Grown vs. Greenhouse-Grown Plants

Plants which are well-adapted to our local climate are most often field-grown (outside). Field-grown plants are generally cheaper and have the advantage of already somewhat acclimated to our cold winters, but that means they’re not artificially far along in the spring and tend to bloom at the normal time in our area.

Spring annuals and tender perennials are typically grown in Greenhouses so they can be ready and luxurious exactly when customers want them. Some perennials are also “forced” into early bloom in greenhouses. In May, there can be a very big difference between field-grown and greenhouse-grown plants of the same type. The latter typically look good right away (so they’re a great choice where that’s important), but we typically pay a premium for it.

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We order from a rotating cast of the best nurseries in the Great Lakes region. It looks like we've offered this plant in the past, but the nurseries we're working with this week don't appear to have it in stock at the moment.

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