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endless summer a bust!
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Posted by manya 6-CT (My Page) on Fri, Jun 12, 09 at 13:09
| I have a total of 5 endless summers, planted in different spots in the garden. I have much experience with hydrangeas, with 2 glorious climbers, tardivas and tons of nikkos and lacecaps that bloom profusely every year. I experiment with the new ones. Annnabelle is a house-eater in my garden, limelights do well. Just the endless summers that sit there with great foliage and only one or 2 bloom buds. Not because it's still early, they have done this every year. They just don't flower well for me. Wonder if anyone else has this problem? |
Follow-Up Postings:
RE: endless summer a bust!
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| Same thing here. I'm in Illinois. I think they're a marketing joke. Westy |
RE: endless summer a bust!
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| After 3-4 years they are comming on-need to harvest blooms to stimulate new ones-try cutting the blooms and see what happens |
RE: endless summer a bust!
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Since ES came to the market propagation of traditionaly best selling cultivar, Nikko Blue almost came to the halt.
Not implying that it's might be your case, but I've heard of the several occurencies when unscrupulous growers potted their existent stock of Nikko etc in a famous blue pots in order to get more 'sale-able' plants in quick order. |
RE: endless summer a bust!
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- Posted by mxk3 z5b/6 MI (My Page) on
Sat, Jun 13, 09 at 14:17
| Oh, geez, I've been complaining about ES for years - foliage and plant form beautiful, but where are the flowers? I do see a handful more buds this year than in years previous, but out of 7 bushes (!) I have about 7-8 buds total. I call that a bust. If I hadn't invested so much money in them (yea, I'm one of the fools that ran out as soon as they hit the market and paid top dollar for them....) I would replace them. Give me good 'ol Annabelle any day!! (or paniculatas or oakleafs) |
RE: bust
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- Posted by mxk3 z5b/6 MI (My Page) on
Sat, Jun 13, 09 at 14:23
| Ego45 - interesting point, I never considered that possibility. |
RE: endless summer a bust!
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| I have about 25 ES bought in the first two years of market. The ones in the pic are a few of the first ever. Definitely have moved a few around for wrong placement. My confidence in this plant is unshaken. |
Here is a link that might be useful: ES June 2009
RE: endless summer a bust!
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- Posted by carrieb 7 Philadelphia (My Page) on
Sun, Jun 14, 09 at 23:17
| My Home Depot purchase Endless Summer has been one of the best performers in my garden - and one of the very best of my 12 or so hydrangeas - since I purchased it 5 or so years ago. I wonder if ES has less winter hardy flower buds than some of the others, and the colder the zone, the less flowers. |
RE: endless summer a bust!
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| Well, my ES has been intermittenly performing well for the last few years, so I am not sure what to say... one year, I will have tons of flowers and then the next year, just a few. In fact, this year, I only have a handful of buds so far... Hmm.... I do take good care of my plants, and even cover them up when there was a late season hard frost. The ironic thing was, my neighbors saw my ES a few years ago, got envious and planted theirs too. Now, they really don't do anything to their ES, and yet, this year, theirs are completely covered with buds!!! Go figure... LOL |
RE: endless summer a bust!
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| The telltale thing for me is that I have about the same number of nikko blues that I have endless summers, about 8 or 9. None are all together so we are not talking about sub climates here. The Nikkos have good years and bad years, depending on the winter. Last year was great, this year so-so. Even being so-so, they will have more flowers than the endless summers! These plants were bought over the last few years, at different nurseries. For me the cultivar just isn't working. |
RE: endless summer a bust!
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| I bought an Endless Summer this spring and planted it and it has well over 20 mopheads on that little plant. It has sprouted new growth and is starting to sprout more mopheads on the new growth with the old mopheads still going strong. There is almost more blue than green on mine. I water it fairly heavily with deep watering or if it is wilting badly, I'll give it a gallon of water. I started it off with some Rosetone and sprinkled some Miracle Gro rose fertilizer granules around the outside and occasionally feed it with Miracle Gro liquid fertilizer. I really hyper-fertilize it, but it seems to be doing just fine with it. I would have got some Hydrangea fertilizer, but I have so much rose fertilizer that I just use that to keep the blooms blue. My ES is booming. |
RE: endless summer a bust!
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| I got my ES last year at the end of the season clearance for $1.50. It looked quite ragged, but I have no other Hydrangeas, so I didn't figure I was out much if it didn't make it. I didn't know that it might be considered a non-performer until after I planted it. At least I was prepared. So far, I only have 2 clusters of blooms & they're lavendar. I was hoping for blue & added Rhodo fertilizer twice but still no blue. The plant looks great otherwise, but sorta small. Not sure how large it will get. I might try the Rose fertilizer to see if that gets me blue blooms. |
RE: endless summer a bust!
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- Posted by jant z6MA (My Page) on
Tue, Jun 23, 09 at 16:43
| I gave up on 6 of mine...one or two at a time. The darn wilting I couldn't handle even though it was in moist soil, mulched...dah de dah. Even in only morning sun, at 11am? BAM...down for a nap... lol. Plus I had the same exp as many others...just not enough blooms to warrant babying them. There are prettier, easier hydrangeas out there. I'll stick with the Paniculatas thank you very much. |
RE: endless summer a bust!
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When I read this, not necessarily addressed to ES or other particular cultivar, 'The darn wilting I couldn't handle even though it was in moist soil, mulched...dah de dah. Even in only morning sun, at 11am? BAM...down for a nap... ' advice from the very respected gardener is always comes to mind:
-when buying macrophillas/serratas ALWAYS wash out the potting medium they had been growing and replace it with a mix containing at least half of your native soil. Idea behind this treatment is that in order to root hydrangeas faster growers using very well (TOO well) drained porous potting mix and unlimited watering and fertilizing. This way they got 'ready-to-sell' plants within 1 or 2 growing seasons.
Plant's roots being growing in such conditions have a hard time to adjast to the new growing conditions and learn how to get moisture and nutrients from the surrounding soil.
Change the soil, plant as early in a season as possible, baby them in a first summer and next year you'll have a self-sufficient plant! |
RE: endless summer a bust!
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| I love my Endless Summer. The first year it had flowers on it when I bought it. It flowered very little the second year and I was ready to give up on it, but last year it did very well and this year it is blooming profusely. I would love to post a picture but I cannot figure out how. |
RE: endless summer a bust!
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| I was not impressed w/ my ES the first 2 yrs however now going on 4yrs it is a reliable bloomer for me. I have over 40 different H. mac. varieties and this is the one that always blooms regardless of late spring freezes. |
RE: endless summer a bust!
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| I have had 3 in pots for 4 years now and have just transplanted them to the garden. They are always covered with blooms and didn't even mind the transplantation. WE don't get much cold weather here so maybe that is the problem. |
RE: endless summer a bust!
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| hi, I am fairly new ( okay a newbie)to growing hydrangeas. The kids got me a mophead ( purple) for mother's day last year. I kept it in a pot for the summer with the plan to move it inside. But I had no where to put it inside so in late summer I transplanted it near a lilac tree where it would get some shade but plenty of morning sun. I didnt protect it, and we had a freeze in early March. I did end up with one nice flower. The outer leaves are starting to turn like a dark fusia color (?) So, not sure if it is going toward purple or pink. I just had 2 ES and one limelight delievered yesterday and they will be going into a shady area. Anyway my question ( which I know will be hard to answer to some degree because of varitables) but how rapid of a growing plant are these? Thanks for your help |
RE: endless summer a bust!
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| I have 2 ES. one droops and the other has 2 buds. Is clay soil the problem? Do I need to check the ph and add aluminum sulfate, if so how much, and when? |
RE: endless summer a bust!
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| Perhaps I'll feel differntly next year but I planted my ES in May and it has been in constant bloom since June. It currently stands about a foot tall and has 21 active blooms and 13 more about ready to open any day. If that's a bust then bust my entire garden. Mine is in a foundation planting on the west side of my house in partial sun the soil is clay mixed with leaf mold. Wallabutterfly my ES was in a 6" pot in May and was about 8" tall so it's grown about 4" in 2 months |
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