Oak Leaf Hydrangea (Hydrangea quercifolia) is a shrub that is commonly found in Alabama. This deciduous shrub grows up to 6 feet tall and 7 feet wide with a coarse and bold character. Its leaves take the shape of a black oak leaf, except they are two times larger, often growing to 10 inches. In the fall, the foliage turns a beautiful red to maroon color. One of the nicest features of the oakleaf hydrangea is its many trunks continually peel away, leaving behind trunks in various shades of cinnamon, orange and brown.The flowers of oakleaf hydrangea are produced in July in fat, terminal clusters from 6 to 12 inches long. Oakleaf hydrangea flowers begin life as a creamy white, but during the next month, they change to a light and then dark pink. By October, the flower heads change to a paper-bag brown and are excellent for dried flower arrangements.The oakleaf hydrangea was first discovered and named by John Bartram in the latter half of the 1700s, while he and his son William were exploring southern Georgia and Florida. Bartram was a self taught botanist who was the first to ship many of our native plants back to an eager English gardening public which simply couldn’t get enough of this country’s floral bounty.