These Vanilla Strawberry Hydrangeas Would Be the Sweetest Addition to Your Garden

When you hear “vanilla strawberry,” you probably think of ice cream, right? Sure, those are great flavors, but there’s something else that comes in vanilla/strawberry: A flower—a hydrangea to be exact. And if you’re looking for a new addition to your garden, this right here is it.

There are many different kinds of hydrangeas, but the vanilla strawberry variety is one of the most unique—and one of the most beautiful. There’s a reason the American Nursery and Landscape Association named the vanilla strawberry the plant of the year!

Pretty in pink, the vanilla strawberry hydrangea—whose formal moniker is ‘paniculata renhy’—gets its name from what else but its colors, and how the colors form and evolve over time. You see, the petals of a vanilla strawberry hydrangea start off as white with just a tad shade of pink. As it grows, it becomes a deeper pink—almost a strawberry hue, if you will.

They’re honestly one of the most beautiful flowers to exist, and, surprisingly, one of the easiest to grow and maintain in a garden. The plant is super low maintenance and really doesn’t require very much from you for it to blossom. They do typically need a good amount of sun, though many times they’ll still blossom if they’re in part shade and part sun.

When in full bloom, vanilla strawberry hydrangeas can reach an average of about eight inches in length and six feet wide, so you’ll want to give it a good amount of space to grow. Experts say not to plant them any closer to a flower or plant that’s six feet away.

Like any plant, you’ll need to keep the hydrangea well hydrated. They’ll especially need the most water when they’re newly planted. But the good news is they’ll only need to be watered in the summer (more so on hotter days)—once winter freezes over, you don’t have to worry about them. They’ll lose their leaves and then sprout up again for the next spring season.

That said, you probably don’t want to fertilize the vanilla strawberry hydrangea in late summer or fall, since it’s at this time that the shrub is starting to “go to sleep.” And when it comes to fertilizer, you’ll want to use one made especially for hydrangeas so that it blossoms correctly.

You can find vanilla strawberry hydrangeas at most plant stores. And to you’re your life even easier, they’re even sold on Amazon.

If you do have a hard time getting them, other similar varieties include: “strawberry sundae,” which looks almost identical to the vanilla strawberry but grows shorter (4-5 feet); the “pink diamond,” a panicle variety similar in looks to the vanilla strawberry, but can grow up to 15 feet tall; or the “blushing bride” a bush with round white petals that turn light pink come fall. Any of these will add the perfect touch of pretty to your garden!

What do you think of the vanilla strawberry hydrangea? Would you ever add it to your garden? What’s your favorite kind of flower?