UPDATE!: Proven Winners Limelight vs. Limelight Prime Hydrangea Experiment 🌱 

Love this update! I planted both last year. I find the Limelight grows much faster than the Limelight Prime. The Limelight almost tripled in size and the Prime only had slight growth.

I love your different experiments. I have really enjoyed your videos over the years!

I think it was a great comparison of the two limelight. I'd rather have the Limelight even if it does flop from the weight of the gorgeous hydrangea flowers. It's absolutely stunning. I have 2 primes and the blooms are nah! Nothing that makes me go wowwwww! I have a few hydrangeas little fresco ( too small to flower yet, and 2 gorgeous inspire hydrangeas ( in pots that I bring into my sunroom over winter as I don't want to lose them to the cold ). Hydrangeas are just a total wow statement in any garden.

Great update! I’ve been trying to decide which to grow, so very helpful! I absolutely love your videos! Hope more are coming soon!

Thanks for the updates and the insight into pruning to reduce the flop! Mine are 3 years in ground and are fixin to flop with this week's rain 😅

Thank you for sharing this tip with us! I will be trying this on some of my hydrangeas.

I have several little limes, a limelight prime and little lime punches in my yard. The little lime that was planted last year has HUGE blooms this year and is about 4 feet high and 3 feet wide. The blooms flopped following rainstorms and I had to stake the plant to support it and it's doing alot better. We planted the limelight prime this spring. I was told this plant would grow more upward than outward. I did see a video by Creekside Nursery where they showed an established limelight prime and it does appear to grow in this manner (it looked alot different that yours does -- maybe it gets more sun or something). It has plenty of space around it though so it's not competing with other plants. The blooms are not as large as the limelight or little limes but it's still a beautiful shrub. I think the little lime punches are my favorite. They grow in a more compact form and I think that really helps prevent them from flopping as much. I have recently seen several different videos that were saying if you prune a certain way, the panicles will not flop or won't flop as much. However, until the plant is established (year 3 or so) the branches may not be strong enough to prevent it from happening. As far as the deer, we have a ton of deer where we live. Last year I didn't put out repellent early enough and they did start nibbling on one of my hydrangeas. This year I was very consistent with applying Liquid Fence and putting out Irish Spring shavings the second I started seeing green on the shrubs. I didn't have any issue with deer.

1. The Limelight Prime is not as old or well established. 2. You planted the prime very close to an established shrub (the lime light). The roots of the lime light will out-compete the new shrub. You can see that the prime has light green leaves from getting less nutrients and water. 3. To make a comparison of any value to anyone, you need two plants planted around the same time.

As someone who has both Limelight & Limelight Prime (planted in spring 2021), no, the Prime blooms don’t generally get as big and floofy as Limelight, BUT they do get big (definitely bigger than yours have had the opportunity to get). An added plus for me is the colour impact they get. Limelight gets a pale pinkish but Prime gets a deeper candy pink. I find the colour of Limelight in general to be pretty but kind of blah. Prime on the other hand has the prettier colour for me. One of my Primes is about 4’ tall & wide and the other is smaller at about 3’. The blooms are about 8” in length. My Limelight’s this year are actually not as big but I think that’s because I didn’t prune it as vigorously. This year Prime has bigger, lusher blooms than Limelight. I much prefer the colour impact. Just to add, my Limelight blooms have never gotten as big as yours and I’m ok with that. I’m on the Canadian prairies (zone 3/4) so my season is shorter so I just do the recommended 1/3 branch prune but don’t always prune. I like my shrub on the smaller size because I don’t have a large yard, so a huge bloom isn’t my desired effect. Colour though, that’s my jam.

It has rained here in south Alabama every single day since June 28. My limelight primes haven't missed a beat. No flopping. At all.

Great compare video! Thank you!

I'd keep the limelight hedge. They are spectacular. It would be an immense job to take out. I use to have a limelight hedge and every spring, I'd trim it back about 2/3 down. The blooms were huge! I never had an issue with flopping. In my new house, I planted 2 limelight primes as I don't have the space for a limelight. This will be there 2nd year. Buds but no blooms yet.

You’d have to plant at the same time to get a good comparison. The blooms get bigger and mature each year the plant is in the ground. So it’s just too hard to compare such a new plant.

I bought and planted a 2 gallons size last May 2023. It flopped then and it flopped again this year. At least yours grew upright despite the deer munching on them but mine are just floppers and had been a disappointing purchase. Next year I'm thinking about using a peony ring to try to fix that problem. I'm in North-Easthern Illinois zone 5B or 6A(updated hardiness zone), Planted East part of the house so it gets full sun from morning to aroun 1-2pm. It is surrounded by hardy hibiscus so it is not "exposed" to heavy winds. Fertilized with slow release fert on spring (Osmocote plant and veg the green one). Maybe it gets better in 2025.

Try a quick fire. I planted one 2 years ago. The blooms are as big as limelight. They haven’t flopped on me. In eastern wa zone 6b and we don’t get that much summer rains. But the area I have it planted does get over head water from a sprinkler and no floppy blooms. It also blooms about 3 weeks earlier than my lime light. I have a little lime next to it. Blooms are smaller and it does flop

I have a lot of panicle hydrangeas and I find they all flop equally. But over the years I have bought enough steaks to stake practically every branch and that’s essentially what I do after a heavy rain storm. I have a couple recent videos on my channel and you can see that the steaks are pretty well hidden.

Interesting. My Limelight Prime has bigger blooms than yours Michelle. I would say their blooms more tubular(my term)😂 but still of a good size, in my garden at least.

The limelight prime has huge blooms too, I don’t know why your prime has small blooms. Maybe because it’s still young!

I wonder what the difference between Limelight Prime and Little Lime is. I have two Little Limes and the blooms look similar to the Prime. My Little Limes are on year 3 and they are about 4 feet tall. Last year my husband set a sprinkler on them during a long dry spell and all the water weighed the branches down as well. We haven't had rain for many weeks but I have just used a hose at the base to water now and then.

If I suspect that I was sold some primes mixed in with my standards for a limelight hedge should I call up the seller three years later 😅😂😢

Flop is just a fact of hydrangea life as far as I’m concerned. I don’t cut down all my azaleas after a thunderstorm knocks blooms off.

You didn’t plant them at the same time or even the same year. Year 3 is the magic number for most scrubs.

Microphone audio is low, sound effects are loud.

Bottom line - if it doesn’t make you happy remove it. Life is too short and garden real estate too scant to be looking at a plant that disappoints just because you spent money on it.