Eclipse® Bigleaf Hydrangea

Big bi-color blooms and drama-inducing near-black leaves, the incredible First Editions® Eclipse® Bigleaf Hydrangea (Hydrangea macrophylla 'Bailmacseven') features incredible bright cranberry-red edges that feather into the creamy white centers! These blooms remain on the plant all growing season and deepen in color before becoming a lovely buff dried seedhead as the bracts remain showy until fall and even through the winter months!

Eclipse® is unique in that it has dark deep purple-black foliage that highlights these magnificent blooms! Eclipse® Bigleaf Hydrangea has lovely crinkled, quilted leaves with a toothy edge, remaining the deep green coloration all growing season long without fail! Staying color-fast until the fall! The sturdy stems hold these mophead blooms aloft over those dark leaves.

Bigleaf Hydrangea are gorgeous deciduous shrubs that are color-changing based on pH, growing 3-5 feet in height and width. Eclipse® is hardy and colorfast throughout USDA growing zones 5 to 9 and is very easy to grow. This cultivar is sterile and you will have no worries about self-seeding.

Planting and Application:

Eclipse® Hydrangea looks fantastic in the landscape! It is a must-have specimen plant and yearns for the spotlight! Try planting in highly prominent locations like by your front steps or front door, on either side of your driveway entrance, or as sentries before the start of a path leading to your backyard! The dark foliage and outstanding blooms light up garden borders, backdrops, foundation plantings, and privacy hedges!

These flowering ornamentals and their dark foliage look incredible in the cottage and Rose garden, adding intensity to formal plantings and beds, highlighting smaller plants around them, or in the opposite of a Moon garden! Try making a brooding Gothic garden bed filled with Eclipse® and other purple and near-black foliage plants, and burgundy and purple flowers!

The flowers are incredible as cut flowers and will become a highlight of your floral bouquets. Be sure to include some of that dramatic foliage! You can even preserve them! Let the mopheads dry on the shrub in the fall, becoming their botanical tan, then add them to dried décor and crafts! Plant a few extra shrubs in groups and rows to attract pollinators, giving both you and your butterflies plenty of these glorious flowers to play with!

• Incredibly Round Mopheads of Red & Cream Blooms
• Dramatic Dark Purple to Near-Black Foliage!
• Colorfast Leaves All Growing Season!
• Mid-Sized Full, Round Form
• Great Cut Flowers & Pollinator-Friendly
• Intense Coloration For Hedges, Specimens, Garden Backdrops & Accents!

#ProPlantTips for Care:

Bigleaf Hydrangea flowers the best in full sun and partial shade, doing best in more sun for the largest blooms in colder climates. But in the hottest of its preferred hardiness zones, plant in a location with afternoon shade or all-day dappled shade. Plant in enriched, highly organic well-drained soil that is consistently, yet moderately moist throughout the growing season. Hydrangea loves a 3-4 inch thick layer of arborist mulch around the root system, pulled back away from the stems and crown.

Bigleaf Hydrangea is pH sensitive, so for the reddest flowers you need neutral to alkaline soil, but in very acidic conditions, you'll see your blooms turn a darker purple hue! It can take years, but if you prefer the purple-on-purple look, add peat moss to your soil, and for red, add garden lime.

Macrophylla should be pruned in the very early spring just as you see the new buds beginning to swell. This way you can tell where winter dieback and living stem material meet and know where to prune. Remove an even one-third of the overall growth to create a rounded form and even growth. Every 3-5 years, it's recommended to perform renewal pruning by removing a third of the oldest, fattest stems out from the ground, leaving behind the youngest, most vigorous growth.

• Full Sun & Some Partial Shade
• Enriched Well-Drained Soil
• Appreciates Regular Moisture & Mulched Beds
• Prune Early Spring
• Sterile Seedless Cultivar

The First Editions® Eclipse® Bigleaf Hydrangea will add its magnificent coloration to your landscape, but only if you order today! This is a new offering that we're sure none of your neighbors will have this year, so be a trendsetter and drop an Eclipse® in your Nature Hills shopping cart today!