Hydrangea quercifolia 'Harmony'

The oakleaf hydrangea is the great four-season native shrub of the American Southeast, a large deciduous plant with oak-like leaves, white summer panicles, and peeling cinnamon bark. Hydrangea quercifolia grows wild in the rich woods of a small range centered on Alabama, where the naturalist William Bartram admired the shrub in the 1770s, and where the oakleaf is now the official state wildflower. 'Harmony' is one of the boldest selections the species has produced.

'Harmony' carries one of the better origin stories in the oakleaf world. The shrub was discovered in a church cemetery near Rainbow City, Alabama, by the father of the plantsman Joe McDaniel, and later introduced to the trade by Eddie Aldridge and his father. What makes 'Harmony' unmistakable is the flower: enormous, dense heads of sterile florets, packed up to a foot long, so heavy they arch the branches under their own weight.

Those massive heads divide opinion. 'Harmony' has both ardent admirers, who love the sheer abundance, and detractors who find the heavy, solid cones a little too much of a good thing. Either way the shrub delivers the rest of the oakleaf package: big, deeply lobed leaves that turn burgundy and bronze in fall, and cinnamon bark that peels away for winter interest once the leaves drop.

Site 'Harmony' where the weighty white heads can be seen and where the arching branches have room, at a woodland edge, in a large shaded border, or against a green backdrop that sets off the white. Fertile, moist, well-drained soil in shade or part shade suits the shrub, or full sun with mulch and steady water. Prune only just after flowering, since the plant sets the coming year's buds on old wood.