I got a chance to visit w/ the nursery mgr re: the real f/s hardiness of LD under our Iowa Summer sun ~ apparently even if this beauty was raised in OK it was grown in their nursery (as we all assume) & our Jul & Aug sun would wilt & scorch these beauties! As sturdy as F&E & BB stems are to hold up their blooms, the still need some protection from sun if one want's un-scorched blooms!

Wonder why the tag do not specify ~ plant will undoubtedly survive but to survive as beautifully would be a big question! No suggestion was given about need for a *parasol* to prevent blemishes!!!

FWIW!

I have owned three Starlights for some years now. All three are in dappled evening sun and only wilt in Summer droughts like all other hydrangeas do regardless to location without additional water in droughts. It does not seem very sensitive to sun like others are in my yard that I have had to move to extremely shady areas. So it might be worth a try in that area. The Starlight is a worth wild hydrangea to have in your yard. Very compact and small unique lacecap flowers. Reliable heavy bloomer on new growth and will constantly rebloom across the season. Never tried the Moonlight since I had plenty of reliable mopheads already.

Hi hydrangeasnohio ~ I almost email'd you directly as I thought you might have one & won't mind sharing your experience ~ & now to know you even have 3 of them, great!!!

I have a good site (noon to 5pm sun) for 1 but not all three ~ I'm now considering setting both that the nursery is still holding for me in the sunny site (late AM to sunset) & see how truly f/s hardy L'sD is!

Thank you for your input, it helps me rethink keeping all three!

I think noon to 5pm will be fine by next year, no problem. I am sure you know that the 1st year is always a struggle till they get settled in. Late AM to sunset is risky business. But Starlight will be your best chance of a big leaf and you will be a slave to them this year for sure...lol Mine are all budded up ready to bloom soon!

After picking up a Let's Dance Big Easy ('Berner') the other day, I did some brief research on the series, and...

Looking at the patent info, the female parent plant of the entire series is none other than ES Original ('Bailmer'). To this end, I would suggest treating this series just as you would ES.

If you have any additional questions, you may try contacting the breeder himself, who is Tim Wood of Spring Meadow Nursery, Grand Haven MI. He has a blog which I posted a link to below. Look's like he's done some great work in developing plants for Proven Winners, noteworthy for those such as Incrediball.

Here is a link that might be useful: Tim Wood's Plant Hunter blog

Wow, very cool link, ty! Very cool to see the plant he found in the woods to make so many, including the Incrediball.

"While none of these selections are all that attractive, they were exactly what plant breeders needed to make the next big step."

"And the great thing about this is that we have only just begun to see the power of traditional plant breeding."

My two favorite quotes from the link....Seems Tim Wood's/PW have more to come in the future.

WOW indeed & thanks so much for the link ~ will have to keep going back to read more ~ an excellent link!!!

However ~ still not convinced & need more definite reassurance on LD - Starlight's f/s hardiness! Am not new to slaving in the first couple or so years after planting & even moving *Hy'dra Divas* around to find ideal sites ~ I was younger then didn't mind chasing both sun & shade around (believe it w/ umbrellas even!) ~ patience is the key now & w/ prime real est getting crowded, have to!!!

Finally got 2 LDs situated in 2 different p/s sites. I had to dig up 2 clumps of Hostas right at the edge of the f/s where I thought to set all 3 LDs originally, if only they were honest to goodness f/s hardy. Unfortunately there was only room for 1 ~ glad that the the nursery understood & took the 3rd back & just traded for annuals, I needed anyway.

That's it for Hydrangeas, for this piece of soil ~ have only room for Roses & Clems

lol..you sound just like me. Just posted in another thread that I removed a hosta for a FE White Out the other day. I managed to find one more spot though...lol..Going to take out a Spirea that I planted years ago for another hydrangea. It was a Full sun spot that has became very shady now. The spirea leans for the sun and just doesnt look like it should. 2 of my LDs now just started to bloom. Hopefully I will post some pics soon. My 3rd LD was the one in the most sun in the wide open. It really took it on the nose in April. It had to completely start over, but is showing many buds.

h'nohio ~ looking forward to news on the 3rd L'sD & pix if you have some!!!

The *~heat~wave~* didn't help despite religious H2Oing ~ as expected I'm dealing w/ the grilled-veggie-look (quite sad!) ~ am used to it w/ these semi-divas. My ? ~ would you clip all the nursery grown blooms (now toasted) or leave them to protect whatever new attempts at leafing out etc they may try?

Appreciate your thoughts ~ TIA

To answer your question in my opinion I would clip it to force new growth that should be more adapted to its new exposure. What a year to plant Macs in. I planted 2 new ES in morning sun only and that White Out that have been a thorn in my side. We are in a HUGE drought also like many are. My 3rd LD had Coneflowers come up out of the blue around it. I have never had things spread like this before. I have Coneflowers, Shasta daises & many other things running wild. I have been pulling many and treating them as weeds. The Coneflowers look so good in that spot and healthy I decided to leave them, but that LD has suffered for it buried behind them in the shade now.

Those are the Coneflowers in the pic that popped up this year from seed. Never in the past have I had Coneflowers any where in my yard get that tall. Let alone in one season from seed. I have found a new location for the LD about 6 feet away to the right where that hosta is. In the wide open with only some creeping phlox basically to contend with. I am waiting for fall to transplant it with this weather. My 2nd LD had about 6 flowers on it and then went into grow mode and have left the flowers buried in the foliage. I had a Blushing Bride do the same thing this year. Neither have behaved that way before. My other Blushing Bride is doing what it has done every year, so I dont know whats going on....lol. Here is a pic of the first LD. It has bloomed well and is currently showing more buds and is behaving how they always have in the past.

That LD definitely looks happy. Sometimes things don't end up where you expected them to. Definite quirks of the hobby! That said, it hasn't seemed to be a bad year for ES original and it's cousins ^. They have made progress with regular waterings. The same cannot be said for BB, as you mentioned. Mine only produced small flowers on old growth, and new growth barely reached 18". Sun, shade, didn't matter. Maybe they needed more water and fertilizer than everything else? And fertilizer isn't a whole lot of good without some rain.

I know what you mean about the seeding/spreading flowers. Echinacea, rudbeckia, and the shasta daisies have gone NUTS and apparently love drought. In fact, I had shasta daisies at the front of a border, and they reached 50" tall this year, which has to be a near-record. My coneflowers and rudbeckias are at least 40" tall. But I figure since these clumps of flowers love drought so much I figured I'd move them out of the way of other things that need the room. Low and behold, they didnt' suffer when I moved them. Beyond that, pruning and composting are an easy solution to nuisances.

Yea I moved around some coneflowers this year and they were fine also. I gave some Shasta Daisies away and trashed the rest. Those coneflowers in front of my LD popped up beside where my downspouts drain off my garage. Years ago we dug a big dry well with small gravel for the downspouts and stacked some big rocks on top to make it look better. The closest coneflower is atleast 12 feet away. I guess they liked the moist soil there and some how seeds found their way over there. On the south side of my home I had a clump of Rudbeckia that spread the entire length of the 30 foot bed across the front. I let them stay and just made the bed wider to accommodate them. I am starting to believe global warming is real now and we did jump a climate zone. I have never seen things spread this aggressively before.

In the past my BB and LD have been some of my most reliable reblooming Macs. I have one of each doing great like prior years, but others just growing foliage like crazy. Couple weeks ago I gave them some 0-45-0 to try to snap them back out of it. My 2 older original ES are having an ok year at best. They both put on 6-8 flowers and just sort of stalled out. No more new foliage or flowers so far. I dont think the macs have enjoyed this wacky up and down weather this year. Although my Twist n Shouts, Summer Lace, and 3 out of 4 Blue Heavens are having their best years ever. All other Macs seem to be suffering to one to degree or another. Very confusing on what is to blame exactly and how to remedy it. Especially when they are all having different issues.