The Cityline® hydrangeas are like their namesake cities: classics, yet bold and innovative.

While many, if not most, new Hydrangea macrophylla varieties are rebloomers, the Cityline® group does what bigleaf hydrangeas have traditionally done: bloom exclusively on old wood.

What makes these plants noteworthy is their size and habit and their glossy, disease-resistant foliage. I suppose I should mention their vibrant flowers, too. When you get right down to it, if you want a fantastic mophead hydrangea and live in a milder climate, these are the plants for you.

There are five plants in the Cityline series, and Cityline® Paris is the smallest (1-2′) of the group. That small size is really important if you live in an area where H. macrophylla are quite vigorous; older varieties will get overgrown and tempt people to cut them back. The threat of untimely pruning is just as much of a hazard to flowering as is a late spring freeze.

Hydrangeas have long been a gardener’s obsession, and when you see the saturated flower colors of the entire line of Cityline® hydrangeas, you can see why. Pick one up when you’re next at your local garden center; they’ve been on the market for quite some time, so they should be easy to find. Even if you tend to get some late frosts, the payoff is worth a little cold-weather coddling.

A story about the plant-obsessed

Plant obsessions are not new to our industry. In fact, if you’ve worked in the green industry for a while, you’re probably not at all surprised by people’s plant infatuations. Even the most level-headed business person can turn out to be a competitive dahlia grower. What seems strange to other people seems perfectly reasonable to us. Remember the book “The Orchid Thief”? To most readers, it was a crazy story about plant hunters with a compulsion to find new orchids. To us, it was just our trade show and garden tour buddies.

Still, it’s fun to see our strange world get some attention in pop culture. For something more recent, here’s a quick read (or listen) about “plantfluencers” and the quest for a pink Philodendron.