Welcome to our zone 6A upstate New York garden on what we're calling "hedging day" - a perfect pre-autumn planting session where we're adding three distinct hedge installations that will transform our garden's structure and extend bloom times in key areas. Just days away from official autumn, this is exactly the right time to be putting woody plants in the ground.

Why Fall Planting Works So Well

Fall truly is one of the best times for planting shrubs and trees. While the air temperatures are cooling down, soil temperatures remain warm enough to encourage root development, giving these new plants months to establish before facing their first winter. The key to fall planting success? Keep watering until the ground freezes, which for us could mean continuing supplemental irrigation all the way through Thanksgiving or even to the end of the year.

Project One: Expanding the Hydrangea Room with Let's Dance Blue Jangles

Our hydrangea room, planted exactly two years ago in fall 2023, has been such a success that we're adding to it. After watching how well our original plantings performed through two full seasons, we're confident about expanding with a front hedge of Let's Dance Blue Jangles - bringing our garden's total hydrangea count to an impressive 206.

Why Let's Dance Blue Jangles?

This compact re-blooming macrophylla hydrangea solves a specific problem for our zone 6A garden. Traditional big-leaf hydrangeas have been challenging for us, especially during our true zone 5 winters. Even with our recent zone upgrade, we can still experience harsh winters that kill hydrangea buds on old wood, meaning no blooms for the entire season.

The Let's Dance series from Proven Winners changes this game completely. Through improved bud hardiness and remontancy (the ability to re-bloom), these hydrangeas produce flowers on both old and new wood. Even if a brutal winter damages the overwintered buds, we'll still get blooms later in the season on new growth.

At just two feet tall and three feet wide, Blue Jangles will extend our hydrangea room's bloom time by flowering both earlier and longer than our existing plants. That gorgeous deep green foliage doesn't hurt either.

Installation Reality: Working Around Infrastructure

Installing this hedge reminded us why we love one-gallon shrubs - they're so much easier to handle and plant. However, our hydrangea room sits directly over the main lawn sprinkler lines, making every planting hole a potential disaster. We had to abandon our usual auger approach in favor of careful hand digging with small tools.

The plants arrived shipped in cardboard boxes with their tops sheared off - a completely normal practice for online plant orders that actually benefits us by encouraging branching and ensuring plants fit safely in shipping containers.

Our spacing approach: two feet apart on center, with end plants placed first, then working toward the middle for even distribution. The golden rule of hedge planting - step back, look, and adjust before committing plants to the ground.

Project Two: New Gem Boxwood Hedge for Structure and Support

Our second hedge installation tackles both aesthetics and function. These New Gem Freedom boxwoods will create a formal front edge for the hydrangea room while providing structural support for the Incredible and Incredible Blush hydrangeas behind them.

Why New Gem Boxwoods?

We've had excellent experience with New Gem varieties in our garden. Unlike some boxwoods that brown out in winter, splay open, or develop branchy, unkempt growth, New Gem boxwoods maintain their neat, tidy habit year-round. They're also bred for improved boxwood blight resistance - important insurance even though this disease hasn't reached our area yet.

The Freedom variety matures to about four by four feet, but we plan to keep these sheared much smaller. One amusing note from the plant tag: they naturally develop an "egg shape," which we found oddly specific and entertaining.

Installation Challenges: The Reality of Wholesale Plants

Working with 16 boxwoods from a wholesale source taught us some valuable lessons about plant consistency. Some containers held single plants, others had three, four, or even five separate plants growing together. Root development varied dramatically between containers, and plants weren't always centered in their pots.

This variation meant we couldn't rely on container spacing for hedge placement. Instead, we used the established hydrangeas behind as reference points and employed our trusty spacing stick method - breaking a dowel to create a consistent measuring tool.

The digging proved even more challenging than the hydrangea installation. We hit sprinkler lines, discovered buried irrigation tubes, and even found an old log that we decided would make a nice pond addition after cleaning. By the end, we had nine plants in the ground with holes dug for the remaining seven - a testament to the infrastructure challenges of mature garden spaces.

Project Three: Gatsby Glow Ball Oak Leaf Hydrangeas

Our final hedge installation was refreshingly straightforward. We replaced struggling Mini Marvette hydrangeas with Gatsby Glow Ball oak leaf hydrangeas - technically not adding to our total hydrangea count, but definitely upgrading the performance of this back garden area.

Why Gatsby Glow Ball?

This fast-growing dwarf oak leaf hydrangea from Proven Winners matures to just three to four feet tall and wide - perfect for our space constraints. Unlike traditional oak leaf hydrangeas that fade from white to pink, Gatsby Glow Ball transitions from white to lime green, creating that distinctive "glow" effect that gives it its name.

Oak leaf hydrangeas bloom on old wood, are extremely cold hardy, and require zero maintenance - making them ideal for our zone 6A conditions. The buds are reliably winter hardy, so we'll get consistent flowering every year regardless of winter severity.

The Easy Installation

Since we were simply replacing existing plants in established holes, this installation took less than 10 minutes. The irrigation was already in place, the spacing was predetermined, and the soil was prepared. Sometimes the best garden projects are the ones that go exactly as planned.

Technical Details: Making Blue Hydrangeas Happen

Since we're pushing our new Blue Jangles toward purple and blue tones, we're treating them with aluminum sulfate right at planting time. While many gardeners focus on soil acidifier, aluminum sulfate is the actual required ingredient for blue hydrangea blooms - the soil acidifier just helps plants absorb the aluminum sulfate more effectively.

This treatment only works on macrophylla and serrata hydrangeas, and it's most effective when applied early in the plant's establishment.

Irrigation Strategy for Fall Plantings

All three hedge installations received immediate drip irrigation connections. For the hydrangea hedge, we used new cross-connectors (four-way connectors) that make complex irrigation layouts much easier to manage. Each plant gets its own drip emitter placed close to the root zone but not touching the plant crown to prevent moisture issues.

The key to fall planting success is consistent but not excessive moisture. These plants need steady water to establish roots, but they don't need the frequent irrigation that summer plantings require.

Lessons from a Day of Intensive Planting

Installing 26 plants in one day taught us several valuable lessons:

Wholesale plant quality varies significantly. Even within the same order, expect variation in plant size, root development, and container conditions.

Infrastructure mapping is crucial. Knowing where your irrigation lines, sprinkler systems, and utilities run prevents costly mistakes during installation.

One-gallon shrubs are ideal for hedge work. They're easier to handle, establish quickly, and cost significantly less than larger specimens.

Spacing tools matter. Simple measuring devices like dowel spacers ensure consistent hedge appearance better than eyeballing distances.

Fall timing is perfect for woody plants. Cool air temperatures and warm soil create ideal establishment conditions.

Looking Forward: The Garden in Transition

These three hedge installations represent major structural additions to our garden that will provide year-round interest and extended bloom times. The boxwood hedge will mature into a formal element that ties our hydrangea room together. The Blue Jangles will provide earlier and more reliable flowering. The Gatsby Glow Ball hydrangeas will offer that unique lime-green flower transition we've been wanting to try.

Most importantly, they're all planted just in time to establish strong root systems before winter, setting them up for vigorous growth and blooming next season.

Have you tackled any major hedge installations in your garden? What challenges did you encounter with spacing, irrigation, or plant establishment?

Thanks for growing with us!