Japanese Snowball Bush vs. Hydrangeas: What’s the difference?
Do you want to extend the time that you have gorgeous blooms in your flower garden? If you love hydrangeas, then you are going to also love the Japanese Snowball bush!
I’ve never met a flower that I didn’t love. I’ll admit marigolds and geraniums are a little stinky to me, but I still think they are beautiful. I just try not to touch them!😊
Recently I did a few videos highlighting my Japanese Snowball bush and I got so many questions about how I had hydrangeas blooming in April. The snowball blooms look a lot like hydrangeas but they are not from the same family. Typically, hydrangeas bloom in June and usually last through the summer. Hydrangeas are wonderful because as the blooms age, they dry on the bush and change colors. They will begin to turn green with some of their original color still hanging around like a soft blush around the edges. The blooms can be cut when they begin to feel papery and will last all winter if left alone to dry.
Blooms from a Hydrangea Bush
Blooms from a Japanese Snowball Bush
The Japanese Snowball is completely different. The big snowball bloom is made up of tiny little flowers, much like the hydrangea. The bush begins to turn green and leaf out in March. And then in the beginning of April, the flower buds start forming. At first they are a beautiful, pale green and as it warms up, they begin to really open up and turn white. The snowball bush will continue to bloom through May, early June. It’s always gorgeous from Easter until at least Mother’s Day and beyond. When the snowball bush is finished blooming, the little individual flowers fall off and look like snowfall. The cool thing about the snowball bush is that as some blooms die, others are blooming and so you have a really nice, long bloom time. And, if conditions are right, they will bloom again in the fall. The amount of blooms will be a lot less than in the spring. When the snowball bush stops blooming, the bush still is a nice part of your garden’s landscape. It will drop its leaves in the winter.
Me holding a bushel of Japanese Snowball blooms!
Beautiful snowfall of petals — like a dream!
There are lots of varieties of hydrangeas. I’ve got oak leaf hydrangeas and regular hydrangeas in my yard. Oak leaf hydrangeas are really pretty too. They have a cone like flower and turn kind of pink in the fall. The foliage also is gorgeous and turns a rusty red in the fall. I don’t usually bring them in and dry them because they have a lot of pollen and other debris that sheds and is messy. The regular hydrangeas are the ones that I cut and bring inside. The trick is to wait until they start to feel a little like paper and then bring them in. I’ve tried several different methods and the one I think yields the best result is to put the cut hydrangeas in a vase with about 1 inch of water. This doesn’t shock the hydrangeas and they can drink a little but as the water runs out so does their need for water. Once the water dries up, they are dried and ready to use in an arrangement.
Closeup on a budding Oak Leaf Hydrangea to show the difference in leaf shape
Me with a basket full of Hydrangeas!
Here’s a breakdown of the differences between a Japanese snowball bush and a hydrangea:
Japanese Snowball Bush
Viburnum family
Green to white blooms
Blooms from April - June
Fast growing
Mature height: 8 - 15 ft
Mature width: 10 - 15 ft
Lighting needs: Full sun to part shade
Optimal growing zone: 5 - 8
Hydrangea
Hydrangeaceae family
Wide variety of colors ranging from green, white, blue, purple, and pink
Blooms from June - frost
Slow growing
Mature height: 1 - 10 ft
Mature width: 1 - 10 ft
Lighting needs: Depends on the type, but partly shady in my area
Optimal growing zone: 3 - 9