I took a picture of my hydrangea more than a week ago, starting to turn pink but when I tried to put it on my computer (along with my daughter's graduation videos) it says my space is full. I wanted to post a photo because it's the earliest I've ever had a hydrangea blooming. I didn't have to cover anything this year, a first for me in many years of gardening. Also, it's a start from my mother's hydrangea that seems to tolerate our erratic weather better than others I've planted. I need to delete some stuff off of our computer and try to get a photo up.

Here is my mother hydrangea- she is doing fairly well :)

Before I planted her

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After I planted her, she was transplanted on Mother's Day

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This morning she had a couple new blooms on her.. my three other hydrangeas have been moved to more shade and are in ICU... LOL

Seems to be an amazing year for Hydrangeas!
After a late start, which was probably a good thing, all of mine are loaded with blooms this year.
Recent changes on the Photobucket website prevents me from uploading photos from any source. They said my browser is probably not compatible, but it is listed on their website as being acceptable???

Here are a few I snapped today at the nursery...This is why I love my job!

A giant, beautiful Snowflake:

Nikko Blue in neutral/sweet soil:

And a potted Endless Summer with Veitchii in the foreground (who knows, I could sprout a little seedling 'Blushing Bride' with the help of a bee or two...):

Beautiful.

This is kind of a dumb one, but my climbing hydrangea finally bloomed. 15 years!

The most interesting thing about the pic is that the buds you see in the foreground are Endless Summer. That's a 6 foot fence.

Here is a link that might be useful: Climbing Hydrangea and Endless Summer

Hydrangea Preziosa (when cooler than 90 degrees)

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Planted this spring. The flowers wilt at about 6 PM when it gets very hot (like today), but perk back up again the next morning. A neigbor's preziosa gets even more sun than mine and seems fine, so I am waiting for mine to outgrow its wilt factor.

These are all very pretty. I sure can't wait for mine to bloom soon.

Wild_belief, I LOVE the pink Nikko! I sure hope mine turns that pink since our soil is alkaline.

Vidaprodiga, Hopefully the plants will recover. That lacecap sure is pretty though!

ladywindsurfer, I sure hope you figure out the photobucket issue, I would love to see your pictures.

Keep the pictures coming!

I can't believe it.... I too have a climbing hydrangea that has a few blooms on it for the first time in about 15 years. Go figure.

Woodlander's in foreground and Tiara in back:

Beautiful!

Hello everyone. I'm a drop in from the Hosta forum. I love hydrangeas too although they are difficult to grow here. I noticed none of you are below a zone 6. I live in the interior of BC - zone 4/5 which makes it tricky. I've had two bushes that bloom whenever we've had a mild winter. Sometime I get a few blooms, a few times I've gotten many. The pictures below are 2008 which was probably the best ever. Last year and this year - nothing. This spring I moved the lacecap one to a new area in the woods. It is not as protected so we will see what happens. In it's place I bought an Endless Summer figuring I'd get some blooms off of it. You can see the blue tag in the picture. The flower is pink. I've already treated it with copper sulfate (?) to turn it blue. All hydrangeas want to be pink here. In the picture of the mophead type you can see that my application to acidify the soil was inconsistant but I kind of like the mixed colors on the same plant. I am thankful for the Annabelle which is hardy to zone 3. I've got bits of it in several places in sun and shade.

Oh My! Love, love, love your pictures, I went through some of your hosta pics as well and was drooling over them. I too am a hosta fan and love what you did in the area with the lawn chairs. I looks inviting and relaxing. Thanks for posting!

Melaroma, glad you liked the pictures. I do wish I could grow hydrangeas more successfully. We'll see what the endless summer does and maybe I'll get a few more.

The ES line should work great for your area mctavish! The Blushing Bride I think is even better for your area than the Original ES. TwistnShout seems very promising also!

Of my ES my BB has buds on the new wood and the growth on the old wood is still coming about slowly and has yet to show any buds, the original has buds all over the old and new so I think that they will do fine in your area. I have not tried the twist n shout yet but I might be yanking out a Nikko and replacing it with one. I here they do well on zone 4.

Melaroma, thanks for starting this lovely thread - all these photos above are so spectacular! Thank you for the candies, everyone!!!

I snapped a couple of photos this morning, showing how early and prolific the hydrangeas are all budding out this year in my zone 5b garden!!!

This is my Endless Summer, covered with hundreds of buds! The strange thing is, we had a few hard frosts early in the season, so there was some foliage damage, but then the temperature turned warm quite rapidly, so the buds just arrived much earlier than usual, and in huge numbers too! :-) Look how tall my ES are already!

These are my Annabelles - they are also budding out quite early too! So many buds... YAY! You also see that little Snow Mountain tree next to Ms. Annabelle - she is covered with buds too, though you cannot see them from a distance.

Here are a few pics of my hydranges.

Not sure of the type of this one. Bought it at a grocery store.

New Peppermint Forever and Ever -

Wow Ostrich your Hydrangeas look so good!!! I am so Jealous of your Annabelles!!! I only have the Blushing Bride so far starting to flower and Starlight. Along with my FE Summer Lace I bought new this year.

Lovely! Your Lacecap is beautiful. I love the light green color on your BB.

So far this is all I have: ES

Wonderful pictures everyone. I cann,t wait until mine start blooming .

Hi Everyone, I'm hopping over from the amaryllis forum and I too am in love with my hydrangeas!! Last year was the first year I got started and we put several dozen in the ground. Some I sat in planters until the fall and then they went in the ground, and this year almost all of them are showing blooms!! I'm so excited!! Some of them are just loaded ( a bud on just about every branch ) and others have a few.

David Ramsey is just loaded, can't wait!

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Here is Let's Dance Moonlight, last year, this year it is absolutely loaded there must be 25 blossoms on this...........

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We bought 2 Tovelits and put them in planters on each side of the house for the summer and then they went in the ground and there are probably 6 to 8 blossoms on each of these.......hope the're as beautiful as last year.........

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F&F Blue Heaven was just rooted cutting we found in a nursery and even this has 2 buds on it.........

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Domotoi was a large plant last year and loaded with blooms, this year it just has a few, I think the deer were munching on this....

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I'll just do one more, I could go on forever.....last year my F&F Together was so beautiful and the fall colors took your breath away, I can't find one bud on this one yet, I look every day............
this sat in a planter also for the summer......

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and the fall colors.........

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I hoped this would dry this color but it didn't.

Hope I haven't overloaded you with too many pictures, I think this is going to be an exciting year!!

Donna

Post all you like, We love seeing these pictures. What is the name of that last one? The pink and yellow, is that F&F together?

It is such a pleasure looking at all those beautiful hydrangea blooms. I'm in love.
Our ES and one lacecap are in bloom. And I planted a few more recently. I hope next year I can have more beautiful blooms.
Happy gardening
Changsong

Yes it is, too bad it couldn't be dried at that stage, sure was beautiful.
Here is another that was beautiful last year, a little tiny plant but it also did well for it's first year in the ground and has several buds for this year. It will be interesting to see how many of these bloom the same color or will adjust themselves to our soil. Here is Cityline Paris........

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and Glowing Embers, I have two or three plants with this label and they are all different! All pretty though, I guess I won't know which is the real Glowing Embers.

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the second Glowing Embers has a totally different texture as well as color and the leaves were more rounded.......

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Here is a hydrangea that we found growing over a fence at a Golf Course in Rhode Island and I just had to stop and look at it and there were 3 huge plants so I'm afraid I helped my self to a few snips to root and they did root! So, I'm looking forward to seeing them flower as they did set buds!! I call this one Gold Course Blue, maybe someone has an idea what it could be?

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Thanks for looking, Donna

Wow! There are some seriously green thumbs and seriously talented photographers in here! I especially like that photo of 'Tovelit' in your first post, dondeldux.

I can't help but to post a few more- I'm lucky enough to work with and be surrounded by hydrangeas all day every day, this year is shaping up as a once-in-a-decade year for blooms! (In GA anyway) And I've finally learned to always keep the camera in my pocket...

H.s. 'Akishino-Temari' in all its glory earlier this season:

And a couple of shots of one of the display beds at the nursery:

I've been trying to figure out a way to get a shot of this entire bed, but even 25 feet up on my orchard ladder, I couldn't catch the whole thing with any clarity. These photos don't do it justice, but there are easily 50+ different hydrangeas in this planting- I think it would take a panoramic camera to get the whole thing.

I'm loving the shots so far- keep them coming everybody!

Oh my! Love the picture of the akishino! I had never seen one like it. I would love to have a hedge of blue hydrangeas like in that last picture. Maybe when I move down south someday. Thank you for posting.

Here are a few more...

Edgy Orbits purchased last fall and overwintered in the pot

Preziosa

Quickfire just starting her show

This was purchased last fall, labeled "Penny Mac". It was white when I bought it, so it could be Blushing Bride or Mme Emile.

Wild Belief, your Akishino-Temari is Beyond Belief! Soooo beautiful and your blues are very lovely. Everyone's pictures are beautiful! This is shaping up to be a great year for hydrangeas, everywhere I look every plant is budded up like I've never seen before! Lots to look forward to. I found a new variety in a nursery today and I will post a new thread about it because I don't want anybody to miss it, take a look, Thanks, Donna

Edgy Orbits, I don't believe I've seen that one before, very pretty with that picotee edge! I really like that one!

Donna

a few more pics -

Endless Summer Original-

Endless Summer BB -

Viva Doublicious-

Endless Summer in

Pink--second year in a pot

My current favorite. Lady in Red. I love the speceled color
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Getting out of hand. I'm going to need to cage it or something next year.
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One that was here when we moved in
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Wow!! Just love it when they spill all their blossoms over a stone wall!! Just be careful when you mow the lawn!! Just lovely...........

This is the first time i have ever planted/grew hydrangeas so be easy on me :) Unfortunately with our massive amounts of rain we have been having the hydrangeas havent been at their best this spring.

ES Twist n Shout

ES Original

ES Original

Sadly we had a frost back in early May and that took a toll on some of the buds and foliage...

I have a serious case of envy going on here! Sadly, hydrangeas fear the sound of my plodding footsteps. I've killed one outright, and here is Endless Summer which I bought from a nice garden center year before last:

She did have a few anemic (pink) blooms on her. She's on the east side of the house. What do you think? Does she have too much competition with the Harison's Yellow rose beside her? Is it chlorosis?

I have finally had a good year with the "heritage" hydrangea my parents brought me from North Florida five years ago. I'd love to know what its name is, if anyone recognizes it. I've been able to use its flowers in church this year for the first time:

We currently have 3 Hydrangeas that we planted just recently. I think one or two arent too happy with how much sun they are getting early on. =(

Anyway, we have A Nikko Blue, an ES blue, and a Forever and Ever RED hydrangea. I havent seen too many red ones. Hopefully it wont change up.

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This ES is not doing so hot with the crazy heat here lately. Im going to need to put up a little shade for it since it was just recently planted, and give it a good morning soak a couple times a week.

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Thanks for posting all the lovely pics everyone. Mine were hit by a late may frost so although they are all budded up the foliage looks burnt and they are slow to recover so I think I am going to have to deadhead most of them before they bloom so they can put energy into foliege recovery. The ones that were close to the house are doing well though and if we ever stop raining and get sun so they can bloom I will be posting my own pics.

New bloom on ES Original. Really excited it's turning blue!
My apologies about the quality of the pic - took it with my Iphone.

In all my years of gardening, this has been the best for hydrangea blooms. I have some French mopheads that I planted 5-6 years ago that bloomed for the first time this year. I'm assuming it is due to all the rain we have had in north Georgia.

"Bluebird" lacecap

French mophead

Annabelles

Invincebelle Spirit

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I wasn't sure if I would like it, but I decided I do. It brings color to a spot that's otherwise all green. I didn't realize that the blooms mature to almost white, but that's ok.

Unknown lacecap

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This is my Forever & Ever Double Pink, which has been in a pot for a couple of years now. This year, it has lots of lovely buds!

I went to Montreal this past weekend and was amazed at all the Hydrangeas they had growing. Here are a few pics.

New bloom on ES Original. It is blue and violet. Very Beautiful.

I added Sulfur about a month ago and my ES blooms look just like yours. Half Pink half purple. Starting to think that I should have left them pink as my other ES is blue. I need to post pictures.

You all make me jealous! First year blooming on F & E Blue Heaven. What can I do to encourage more blooms? Or will it bloom more in subsequent years? I just planted in 2009. I did winter protect well too.