Alice Oakleaf Hydrangea
Hydrangea quercifolia ‘Alice’
Plant Details
USDA Plant Hardiness Zones: 5a-9b Find Your Zone
Plant Type: Deciduous Flowering Shrub
Height at Maturity: 6-8′
Width at Maturity: 6-8′
Spacing: 6′ apart for hedge; 12′ or more apart space between plants
Growth Habit / Form: Bushy, Mounding
Flower Color: White aging to Pink
Flower Size: Large: 10 -14″ long!
Flowering Period: Summer
Flower Type: Single in large, long clusters
Fragrant Flowers: No
Foliage Color: Green – Bronze, Maroon & Purple shades!
Fragrant Foliage: No
Berries: NA
Berry Color: NA
Sun Needs: Part Shade (morning sun with afternoon shade or all day filtered sun)
Water Needs: Average, low when established
Soil Type: Clay (amended), Loam, Sand (amended), Silt
Soil Moisture / Drainage: Well Drained Moist
Soil pH: 5.5 – 7.5 (Acid to Slightly Alkaline)
Maintenance / Care: Very Low
Attracts: Visual Attention
Resistances: Disease, Drought (when established in part shade), Heat, Humidity, Insect, Mildew
Description
A fabulous introduction from Michael Dirr, the ‘Alice’ Oakleaf Hydrangea is a mounding shrub growing 6 to 8 feet tall and equally as wide that features beautiful arching flower panicles up to 14 inches long, and is noted for its disease-resistant and prized for its spectacular fall foliage. The pyramidal flower panicles are densely packed with pure white flowers for 6 to 8 weeks during summer that gradually age to pink. Large, 8 inch long deep green, oak-like leaves turn attractive shades of bronze, maroon and purple in autumn and persist on the branches well into winter. Mature stems display exfoliating bark that reveals a rich brown inner bark that provides interest in the garden during winter. USDA Zones 5a to 9b
Landscape & Garden Uses
Growing in a mound 6 to 8 feet tall and equally as wide, the Alice Oakleaf Hydrangea is ideal for use as a specimen, in groupings, or as a warm season privacy hedge in landscape and flowering shrub borders. A nice accent or corner plant in home foundation plantings or against a large, windowless wall. Right at home in the partially shaded woodland border and a fine addition to Hydrangea gardens, white theme gardens, cottage gardens and cut flower gardens.
Suggested Spacing: 6 feet apart for hedge; 12 feet or more apart space between plants
Note: For our customers who live and garden north of USDA Cold Hardiness Zone 5a, where the Oakleaf Hydrangea is not reliably winter hardy, you’ll be happy to know that it can be grown in containers that can be brought indoors during winter and place back outside when temperatures warm up in spring.
Growing Preferences
The Alice Oakleaf Hydrangea is very easy to grow in most any moist but well-drained soil with average fertility, preferring a soil rich in organic matter. Sun exposure will depend on your location. Plants will grow in full sun to part shade in northern zones 5 and 6, and shade to part shade (morning sun with afternoon shade or filtered sun) in zones 7 and further south. For best flowering, we suggest 6 hours of direct sun light per day. As with so many other ornamental plants, a constantly soggy or wet soil is problematic. Highly resistant to pests and diseases.
Note: Oakleaf is a Hydrangea quercifolia (oakleaf) species that produces its flowers from buds that formed on “old wood” (during the previous year). Oakleaf hydrangeas typically require little to no pruning. They are best left alone. That said they can be pruned to remove a stray branch or to reduce size.
For proper pruning time and techniques on various types of Hydrangea see: How To Prune Various Types Of Hydrangea
Helpful Articles
Click on a link below to find helpful advice from our experts on how to plant and care for Oakleaf Hydrangeas.
How To Plant Hydrangeas In The Ground & Pots
How To Prune Various Types Of Hydrangea
How To Fertilize And Water Hydrangeas
Plant Long & Prosper!
Meet The Wilson Brothers & Staff
Questions? Contact Us
Working with a number of plant suppliers, I had my doubts about in what state this shrub would arrive in a 3-gallon pot. It was in PERFECT condition…although it was hot outside, there was zero sign of wilting. Well done!—————————————————We are so glad you are pleased and we hope you enjoy it for years to come! Thanks for the kind words and great review! 🙂 Beth Steele | WBG
Updated landscape, all plants shrubs from Wilson Bros arrived healthy. In ground ~2wks, all thriving.—————————————————We are so glad you are pleased and we hope you enjoy them for years to come! Thanks for the great review! 🙂 Beth Steele | WBG
The hydrangea arrived in perfect condition and was leafed out well. I planted it in its spot along with existing oak leaf hydrangeas. It is doing well. Just wish I had caught the hungry rabbit that took it down by half. It is better protected now!!!————————————We are so glad you are pleased with your purchase! Darn rabbits!! Thanks for the great review! Beth | WBG 🙂
These plants are not the easiest to find at our local nurseries, and while I was skeptical of ordering them online, I was not disappointed! The plants arrived promptly and were very well packaged. The plants themselves just look healthy! Will order more next year!!!——————————————–We are so glad you are pleased and we hope you enjoy them for years to come! Thanks for the kind words and great review! 🙂 Beth Steele | WBG
I just installed 8 plants plus others from you. Believing that a picture is worth a thousand words, I’m sharing these. My home is 21. The front bed under the two windows had very sickly Indian hawthorns, the largest was completely dead, two were bald except the very tips and the fourth was vigorous on the remaining 1/4 (3 years of pruning away dead limbs made a lopsided mess). After removing that one and cleaning him up, I transplanted him to a spot in my backyard. What you see planted, from left to right, a mock orange that I have trained into a tree: front row is 6 Tom Thumb Arborvitae, back row is 2 fire power nandina, the Slender Hinoki, and 2 more nandina. I have left space for one more mock orange. This garden bed is L shaped. The leg of the L has foxtail fern. In the second picture you can see I have foxtail fern scattered about. That bed also has firepower nandina in it. All of the new plants remain happy one week after planting.
The final picture is a bed in my backyard. In it are 3 Hydrangeas from you. On either side of the hydrangeas stand an oak that is native and probably more than 60 years old and a trellis for my star jasmine to enjoy. I originally bought the gorgeous snow cicle hydrangea. It did not like it here. I live in zone 8b and we had a rough dry summer. Hoping these three babies will survive. The one on the left came from you and has been in the ground since Spring. The two new ones look very content for now.
One last note, I have sung your praises with my sister in the Dallas area, my brother in El Paso, all my children from here to Virginia. I shared with the owner of my Landscape company, Vincent U. He is impressed. I love my plants.
Thank you——————————-Thanks so much for your review. Let us know if there’s ever anything we can help you with. 🙂 – Beth | WBG
The final picture is a bed in my backyard. In it are 3 Hydrangeas from you. On either side of the hydrangeas stand an oak that is native and probably more than 60 years old and a trellis for my star jasmine to enjoy. I originally bought the gorgeous snow cicle hydrangea. It did not like it here. I live in zone 8b and we had a rough dry summer. Hoping these three babies will survive. The one on the left came from you and has been in the ground since Spring. The two new ones look very content for now.
One last note, I have sung your praises with my sister in the Dallas area, my brother in El Paso, all my children from here to Virginia. I shared with the owner of my Landscape company, Vincent U. He is impressed. I love my plants.
Thank you——————————-Thanks so much for your review. Let us know if there’s ever anything we can help you with. 🙂 – Beth | WBG
Plants arrived in excellent condition and are now thriving with some new buds even though we’ve entered the fall season. Your company standards are very high relative to others in your field! Bravo!!—————————————————We are so glad you are pleased and we hope you enjoy them for years to come! Thanks for the kind words and great review! 🙂 Beth Steele | WBG
Hello,
I ordered a 3 gal. Alice Oakleaf Hydrangea on 6/11/20. You shipped it out to me on 6/13/20. It arrived by FedEx on 6/18/20. Wow, now, that is super fast service! And what arrived was a robust, fresh superior plant specimen —- not one leaf shriveled, not one side branch twisted, or worse broken, not dried out soil in the pot —- just a healthy, living absolutely beautiful plant!!! Thank you, Wilson Bros. for caring to grow and nurture such fine plant stock, and, moreover, for sharing your knowledge and expertise with the rest of us. I am so very pleased with my Alice Oakleaf Hydrangea, and it is enjoying a very special area in my garden.
Regards,
Frances L Phillips———————————————–We are so glad you are pleased and we hope you enjoy it for years to come! Thanks so much for the awesomereview! 🙂 Beth Steele | WBG
I ordered a 3 gal. Alice Oakleaf Hydrangea on 6/11/20. You shipped it out to me on 6/13/20. It arrived by FedEx on 6/18/20. Wow, now, that is super fast service! And what arrived was a robust, fresh superior plant specimen —- not one leaf shriveled, not one side branch twisted, or worse broken, not dried out soil in the pot —- just a healthy, living absolutely beautiful plant!!! Thank you, Wilson Bros. for caring to grow and nurture such fine plant stock, and, moreover, for sharing your knowledge and expertise with the rest of us. I am so very pleased with my Alice Oakleaf Hydrangea, and it is enjoying a very special area in my garden.
Regards,
Frances L Phillips———————————————–We are so glad you are pleased and we hope you enjoy it for years to come! Thanks so much for the awesomereview! 🙂 Beth Steele | WBG
I’ve been looking for an Alice Oakleaf Hydrangea for a few years but none of the local retailers/nurseries seem to carry them. Although I looked online a few times, I was hesitant to order from an unknown supplier. After researching through some internet review sites, I found some online suppliers that had very good ratings. Wilson Bros Gardens was one of them, and I was really happy that they had Alice in stock and in a 3 gallon size. It arrived more quickly than expected considering the delays everyone is experiencing due to an increase in online ordering, a result of the Covid-19 lockdown. I received the shrub very well packed and undamaged and very healthy looking, better than some other varieties of Oakleaf Hydrangeas I saw in the local retailers/nurseries. The price for the 3 gallon size and free shipping was very reasonable. Due to ever changing weather conditions here, I haven’t planted it yet but it will be in the ground in the next couple of days. It shows absolutely no sign of decline. I would highly recommend this nursery and plan to consider using them again as I expand my gardens.—————————————Thanks for the great review! We are so glad you are pleased! Beth | WBG
Plant came well packaged and healthy. It’s growing very well … looking forward to the blooms. Highly recommend.——————-Thanks for the great review! Beth | WB































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