Introducing Hydrangea anomala subsp. anomala -- the other climbing hydrangea vine. Rarely offered, and less showy than its more common cousins, anomala’s robust, shiny dark green leaves and pleasant white flowers are a refreshing change of pace for the discerning eye. Deciduous. Zones 5-8.

A large growing climber, Schizophragma integrifolium var. fauriei tolerates more sun than most of the hydrangea climbers and grows with purpose. It clings by holdfasts to your tree, wall or house, but not your leg (we’re not talking Akebia here). Unless you’re a statue. And if so, pay in advance -- well in advance. Large white blooms in late spring will make a tremendous addition to almost any vertical space. Slightly smaller leaves and less tomentose than SKU #631, but otherwise very similar. I believe it was the learned, but apparently boring taxonomist Alfred Rehder who made the varietal distinction. Zones 6?-9.

Schizophragma hydrangeoides ’Moonlight’ has luminous silvery-green foliage with dark green veins in its youth. The summer flowers are white, lacecap inflorescences. A true clinging vine, it grows most happily on stone or brick or up a shady tree. Were it never to bloom the foliage alone is dazzling. It’s the first of the "hydrangea" vines to leaf out in spring for us a few weeks before its cousin ’Roseum’ or the larger, rampant Schizophragma integrifolia (either form we grow). As for Schizophragma megalocarpum we are standing back in some awe. It’s been close to evergreen in our zone (semi-deciduous would be the textbook claim) and acting like Lance on steroids without the years of denial. As to Moonlight, it’s best in part shade to shade. Zones 5-7.

Schizophragma hydrangeoides ’Roseum’ is a blush-pink flowered form of the Japanese climbing hydrangea vine. It is pink for us in the south only upon first opening, becoming white under our heat & humidity. But for those few days it reminds us that spring is a time of wide possibility. Even pink. A true climber it will attach to your wall or tree and head up. Deciduous, for shade in zones 5 to 7, it may reach 30’ in time. Slow to bloom if it can climb.