These are fairly new on the market, I doubt you are going to find much hands on consumer experience with them. The marketing reads - " dwarf flowering shrub blooms on new wood, so you can do pruning in early spring, before growth begins. Flowering begins earlier than that of most varieties of Hydrangea macrophylla and continues on new growth into fall if spent blooms are removed regularly. " But, to take advantage of earliest blooms, in a Z5b you may need to offer winter protection for them so they are not dying back so severely every year.

Try waiting til Spring to prune back any winter damage or to shape if needed - don't prune in the fall in your colder zone.

I have this one too, and it is shaped so poorly. I'm tempted to prune it now, but there are buds on it and I'd lose the flowers if I shaped it now. Mine is tall and gangly, lacking leaves in the center. Based on the advice of others I'm going to leave it be and patiently see if it does indeed fill in this season. Then prune at the end of Summer.

Let some stems age not pruning to rebloom and we see this ...

The red fall color phase can be astounding on this otherwise considered a white flowered beauty!

You could call it "Burgandy and Ice", "White Surprize", or ''Snow White Becomes Evil Queen"?

Spring / Summer Phase

Fall Phase