Silverleaf Hydrangea
Hydrangea radiata
A stunning native shrub endemic to the southern Blue Ridge Mountains. Bears white lacecap flower clusters in midsummer, but its most prized feature is the foliage: leaves are dark green above and coated in dense, snowy-white felted hairs underneath, creating a flashing silver display in the wind. Peeled young twigs have been boiled, fried, and eaten, and made into a tea — a minor, old use, not a modern food.
- Family
- Hydrangeaceae
- Type
- shrub
- Lifespan
- perennial
- Height
- 9–9 ft
- Spacing
- 6–6 ft apart
- Light
- sun, part shade
- Soil moisture
- moist
- Soil pH
- acidic
- Bloom
- May, June, July
- Bloom colors
- white
- Wildlife value
- butterflies, pollinators, mammals, songbirds
- Landscape uses
- border, naturalizing
- Native states
- GA, NC, SC, TN