Snow in Summer
Snowball bushes are beloved plants that conjure up images of old gardens and homesteads. But what exactly is a snowball bush? This is one example of how common names cause confusion. Usually such names arise from physical traits of a plant—but they often apply to more than one species or family of plant. Both the hydrangea and viburnum families contain species and varieties that bear round, white flower clusters. The globe-like shapes also inspired the popular nickname “mopheads.” A viburnum species frequently referred to as a snowball bush is the Chinese snowball (Viburnum macrocephalum ‘Sterile’). The flower clusters on this spring bloomer—6 to 10 inches in diameter—are so immense and prolific they may hide most of the leaves on the shrub. The hydrangea species that is perhaps best-known as a snowball is the ‘Annabelle’ variety of Hydrangea aborescens, a summer bloomer with flower clusters up to a foot across. The shrub always blooms white, not to be confused with H. macrophylla or big-leafed hydrangea, whose blooms are pink, blue or purple, or a mixture of all these, depending on the soil chemistry. The “Pee Gee” hydrangea (H. paniculata ‘Grandiflora’) also has large, white flower clusters that appear snowball-shaped from a distance, but more snowcone-shaped up close. If you’ve longed for a particular kind of snowball bush you’ve admired from a distance but can’t find it at a store or in a catalog, ask permission to take a stem cutting. Viburnums and hydrangeas are fairly easy to propagate this way.