Lovely pictures!

My Gosh!
Your flowers and your photography are awesome!

Beautiful, beautiful!

I am envious of your pretty and un-chewed-up flowers. Grasshoppers and other insects ruined mine this year and then the excessive rain followed by extreme record-breaking temps...what a year. Of course, the weeds and invasive vines are doing great!

The butterflies, dragonflies and bumblebees (etc) do improve the looks of my flowers though. I have been taking lots of pictures to enjoy when winter comes (ugh). I appreciate their colorful and intriguing visitations to my gardens. :)

Yours are just perfect and very lovely.
I am so happy for you.

Thank you for sharing.

~Annie

Looking at them again. That Limelight Hydrangia is so pretty.
I want one of those!

:)

~Annie

Thanks, Girlgroupgirl and Annie! Yes, Annie, you should definitely get a Limelight. I bought my first ones last year. They were very small, but have grown strongly. They're beautiful! I have to move one because my dirt road was widened this spring, and Limelights get so large that it'll spill over into the road before long.

I'll probably be looking at more Limelights, and possibly other hydrangeas, when Bluestone has its annual sale next spring..... I also have Sadie Ray (highly recommended!), Endless Summer, a quercifolia, and Little Lamb. I think I've traded in my rose and iris addictions for a hydrangea addiction. :-)

Great photos!

I second the vote for a Limelight. Mine is in its third year. I love it. It blooms a long time, early and is a fast grower. I like it better the Little Lamb.

Thanks, Gldno! I like it better than Little Lamb, too. Although I'm not 100% certain my Little Lamb is what it's supposed to be. So far it's produced a foot-long panicle with individual flowers every bit the size of Limelight. I'll have to inquire at the Hydrangea Forum. GardenWeb solves all my mysteries. :-)

Thanks for posting photos of hydrangeas- can't grow them here. I'd love to see some overall shots of the shrubs, hint hint.
Renee

New camera..what did you buy? We have a digital that is only about 3 yrs. old and I have a difficult time seeing through the small viewer and even viewing what pictures I've taken. Need something simple that fits my eyes and lack of technology knowledge!

Renee, most of my hydrangeas were planted last year and were little more than twigs at the time. So they're still pretty small, but doing very well.

Pippi, I use two cameras, an Olympus DSLR, which is what the new lens (a 70-300 zoom) was for, and a Pansonic Lumix FZ35 superzoom. The latter is my second Lumix FZ camera, and I can't recommend them highly enough, especially if you don't want to get into changing lenses, etc. They're sophisticated enough to let you do your own settings if you want, but if you don't, you'll get great results by leaving it on iA (Intelligent Auto).

I'll post a link to my Flickr page below. The current pictures were taken with the above two cameras; older pics were shot with my older Lumix FZ5.

Here's one of the Limelights. It was somewhat bigger before a deer discovered it.

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This is Sadie Ray, also new last year. I'm impressed with its development. All the hydrangeas, by the way, froze in June (along with all my apples) and had to start over then.

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And this is Endless Summer, not new but very slow to bloom for me. This is its best year so far. I think it's too cold here for it.

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Since these are rather blah pictures, I'll add one I like better: a petunia.

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Here is a link that might be useful: Susan's Flickr Photos

Awesome photos, especially the last one. My hydrangea Ayesha is full of blooms ready to open, I absolutely love the shade of blue on your hydrangea, which one is it?

Annette

Thanks, Annette. The blue is Endless Summer, my oldest but not my favorite. It's really too cold for it here; it dies to the ground in winter, and its blooms are sparse. This is its bluest year, probably because of the fertilizer I used: Lilly Miller's Ultragreen for Azaleas, Camillias, and Rhododendrons.