Ruby Slippers Oakleaf Hydrangea
| Qty | 1 | 5 | 10+ |
| Price per Plant | $27.50 | $10.00 | $8.50 |
Out of stock
Hydrangea quercifolia ‘Ruby Slippers’
The Ruby Slippers Hydrangea was one of two Oakleaf Hydrangeas (the Munchkin Hydrangea being the other) developed and released by the U.S. National Arboretum’s shrub breeding program in McMinnville, Tennessee. A 1998 hybridization of Oakleaf Hydrangea cultivars ‘Snow Queen’ and ‘Pee Wee’, it was officially released in 2010. With compact form and more predominant pink flower panicles, the Ruby Slippers cultivar is a better suited shrub for small residential landscapes than the species. Like the species, it is deciduous in nature and has wonderfully colorful flowers in the late Spring, early Summer. Flowers transform from white blooms to pink (more quickly than the species) to pleasant cream by the fall. Foliage turns from dark green to glowing red in the fall. The shrub is disease and insect free, and it prefers a full sun environment.
| Classification | |
|---|---|
| Diseases & Insects | Problem Free |
| Family | Hydrangeaceae |
| Flowers | White, changing to purplish pink very quickly and ultimately tannish brown, outer flowers sterile. 1 to 2 inches diameter; fertile flowers numerous, lacking character or good color. Flowers appear through June through July and persisting through fall. Best flowers in late May-early June. Flowers are borne in 4 to 12 inches long erect panicles |
| Growth Rate | |
| Hardiness Range | zone 5a – 8b *need help finding your hardiness zone? |
| Leaves | Opposite, simple, ovate to sub-orbirular in outline, minutely 3 to 7 lobed, 3 to 8 inches long, two-thirds to fully as wide, usually truncate at base and decurrent into the petiole, lobes broad, serrate and often slightly lobed, dark green and glabrous above, whitish to brownish tomentose beneath. Leaves change to shades of red, orangish brown in the fall |
| Plant Type | |
| Primary Features | |
| Size | 3-4 feet tall at maturity with 3-5 foot spread |
| Sun Requirement |
What am I buying?
We sell Ruby Slippers Oakleaf Hydrangeas as rooted cuttings. Taken from Wikipedia, “a plant cutting is a piece of a plant that is used in horticulture for vegetative (asexual) propagation. A piece of the stem or root of the source plant is placed in a suitable medium such as moist soil. If the conditions are suitable, the plant piece will begin to grow as a new plant independent of the parent, a process known as striking.” Put more simply, a rooted cutting is a small clone of the specimen from which it was taken. As a genetically identical clone, the cutting shares all the characteristic traits and attributes of the cultivated variety. Our rooted cuttings are 3-6 months old and 4-8 inches in stem length above the soil line. They are clipped from our private stock plants and grown in root pruning trays at our temperature controlled greenhouse.
When are plants collected?
Once your order is placed, your plants will be collected as soon as the weather permits. This time-frame is normally within 3-7 days. During heavy order periods (April-May), this collection time can grow to 10-14 days.
How are plants shipped?
All shipments are mailed via USPS Priority Mail using PirateShip.com. We monitor national weather conditions and temperatures for shipments. If at any time your order must be delayed for weather concerns, we will contact you by phone and/or email. The day that your order is completed or partially shipped, you will receive an email containing your package tracking number. You can also find this updated information by logging into your account on our website.
