Sorry, I don't have a Pinky Winky, but I am also DYING to lay my hands on one too!

I have Pinky Winky, 2 of them actually. Unfortunately, I just planted them this year (1 only 2 weeks ago), so they haven't bloomed for me yet.

Aren't you glad I responded since I can't answer any of your questions? :~)

Bogie, how big are your Pinky Winky's? And also, where did you get them from please?

I picked up one today, couldn't resist. They had two sizes $28 and $38, went for the bigger one. Bet it is going to be a winner, red stems and this one has some nice blooms on it, not opened yet. Carroll Gardens and they do mail order.

One PW I got at the local Agway in a 1.5 gallon pot. The other one I got at Moonshine Design Nursery; it is slightly smaller and was sent semi-bareroot. Both plants transplanted well for me.

I looked yesterday and the larger one (about 2 ft tall) has set a bunch of buds and should bloom in the next couple of weeks.

Here is a link that might be useful: Moonshine Design Pinky Winky

I got a 'Pinky Winky' mail-order two years ago; it was just a couple of small sticks when it arrived. Until a month ago it lived in a pot because we hadn't decided where to plant it. Occasionally it dried out, it was rarely fed, and still it produced a crop of flowers. The flowers and the leaves aged to beautiful shades of burgundy in autumn. A really good plant, in my opinion.

I planted a small Pinky Winky in the fall of last year, and it wintered over very nicely in the ground and is currently growing and forming flower buds. I got it very reasonably on ebay--seems like it was about $12 or maybe less. I am excited to see it bloom soon!

I just purchased a Pinky Winky at Loblaws in Ontario, Canada, for $17.00. It's about 3 or 4 ft. tall and has seveal blooms on it. I am very excited to see it change color! It was such a great price, I'd love to get another one if there are any left!

We have nice looking Pinky Winky's at our local Home Depot store. Tons of them. Odd place for them? Anyway, haven't been there in the last few weeks, but they must have had two dozen of them (2-3 feet tall) for $6.99.

WHAT!? nd_garden_gal_71, you have a ton of Pinky Winky at your local HD stores??? I am green with envy! Now, are you in ND? North Dakota? Is that where it is? Are you serious that they are selling 2-3' PD's for $6.99? It'd be a crime not to get one then!!!

Both my larger and smaller Pinky Winky's have started blooming. The small one looks really funny since the bloom is bigger than the rest of the plant. The larger PW has some white and some very pale pink at this point.

Now the next big test is to see how they fare over the winter.

Both Home Depot and Lowe's have/had them here in SW Ohio. I bought one earlier in the summer and it's doing well growth-wise. Blooms were few, small, and unremarkable which doesn't surprise me considering the small plant.

Yes, North Dakota. I can't imagine why they wouldn't be in everyone's Home Depot? Yes, our Lowe's store had them as well, but they sold out of them a while ago.

GOOD GRIEF! Garden gal and mrgpag, you are both making me very, very envious!!!

Now, if only some kind soul would post a pic here and put me out of my misery!!! LOL

'Now, if only some kind soul would post a pic here and put me out of my misery!!! '

I could post a nice picture of Home Depot. Will it help?
;-)

GEORGE!!! No, I want a nice picture of Lowe's instead.... :-)

I've checked both Lowes and Home Depot - no luck! Does anyone know where you can find Pinky Winky in Massachusetts?

I would post a picture but mine is too small and the blooms are already faded. Just planted this spring. Hopefully I can get a good picture next year.

I have two Pinkie Winkies that I bought last year. One is doing fabulous but has yet to change to a two tone. The other is not so good with insignificant flowers. If it's a Paniculata, I have grown it, over the years. It seems to me each one, even within the same variety, has its own quirky personality, like people. Half the fun is figuring out what each one needs to do it's best, given the enviornment.

I have a highly indpendent 7X7 Limelight that thrives on neglect and blooms like crazy and another that needs to be cut back by a third, fed and watered or it pouts. Maybe it was an abused seedling. I am only half joking. :)

I just planted three shrubs a couple weeks ago.
They were budding when I planted them, and now starting to flower. Yeh!!

So far I'm very impressed.
Can I expect the blooms to last a couple months?

I recently planted four Pinky Winky hydrangeas that I
found at our new Home Depot. Their blooms were huge when
I bought them and are now starting to turn pinkish. I just
love them. The Limelight and Tardiva are other favorites.
I just love these hydrangeas because they bloom on new
wood.

I as well purchased Pinky Winky last fall.
This is in Canada, zone four

I was worried about the plants survival and did put lots of mulch around the plant.

It looks terrific this year, of course not all that large yet, but there are eight very large blooms on the shrub, and they are just beginning to get some pink showing on the lower part of the flower.

I put in Annabel as well but did not put much mulch on it, and it is not in the same location. It is just hanging on. Will cover it with more mulch this year in the fall.

I as well purchased that green plant of hydrangea Limelight but have not yet planted it.

New to Hydrangea myself. But they are a show stopper in the garden it seems to me

Have to be careful in my garden for hardiness.

Pleased to have this forum to learn more

Can someone speak about the watering needs of pinky winky?

My newly planted shrubs are showing some yellow leaves. I've been watering every 2 days because of the heat. Its in southern, full sun exposure. You think I'm watering too much?

I have two in my yard and about 20 in a planting at the arboretum, and they are doing fine but the flowers have yet to resemble anything close to what you see advertised. Average size flowers with just a hint of pink - rather typical of the species.

I was told I could plant pinky winky in full sun. Can you verify this?

Hi Lydiajean - Pinky Winky is a paniculata & is supposed to be able to handle full/sun - in our zone all of my 7 H paniculatas are in f/s exposure ... even my 2 Tardivas, known as late bloomers, started flashing in July in the past 3 seasons.

Marshall - Your comment posted Aug 7 '08:
"they are doing fine but the flowers have yet to resemble anything close to what you see advertised."

I'm glad I opened this thread as Pinky Winky is in my wish list for this year ... will perhaps wait before investing. How old are yours, do you suppose the multi-pink color of her blossoms will appear with age?

TIA
Ditas

I planted Pinky Winky in full sun last spring. It was a small plant I received through mail order. In my area it wasn't available in the nursery until mid-summer. It made it through the winter which was nastier than usual. The leaves are beginning to emerge now. I have some fencing around it because the deer like to chew on it. It did experience some leaf spotting on lower leaves last summer and I removed those. It didn't wilt in the hot sun like my macrophylla did and that one has shade for part of the day.

I just planted 2 Pinky Winky's two days ago in different locations and both are showing brown curled leaves. What am I doing wrong?

We have about 10 PinkyWinkies we planted last year thoughout our landscaping. No winter protection, we live in an open water area, and they are doing great. Leaves are beautiful green, stems are red. Just starting to show some buds now. They were gorgeous last year with huge flowers that were an array of color from white to deep burgandy.

kjwill, to answer your question, I think they need more water. They are more drought tolerant once established. I notice some of the curled leaves as well even though I watered but our spring was very dry, but since we have had quite a bit of rain in the last month or so, there is no more curled leaves. The plants looks amazingly healthy. I will post some pictures when they have bloomed.

Do Pinky Winky stems stay red in winter?
How does it do if flower heads left on during winter?

In winter Pinky Winky's flower heads are brown as are the stems in my garden. Pinky Winky is the left shrub in the photo (sorry for the poor quality, but it was the best I could find of this plant in winter.) I like the brown blossoms as a contrast to the white snow and evergreens nearby, so I don't trim them off until early spring. I don't find that leaving the flower heads on causes stem breakage in heavy snow or any other problems, and the flower heads hold on until I cut them off.

In the future, you may get better response if you start a new thread. The place do that is on the main page of this forum, all the way down to the bottom.

Pinky Winky Hydrangeas need just the right spot. I live in Bethesda, Maryland in zone 7A. It's spring, 2016.

Five years I bought three small pinky winkies from the nursery and planted them in a partially sunny area. After two years, with an annual dose of Miracle Grow, they were established but small and fragile-looking and had only 1-2 white flowers. Plan B. I dug them up in July, yes, the worst time of the year, and planted them in plain old Maryland soil in full sun without other plants around them, gave them a single dose of my old standby Miracle Grow, and threw a little mulch around them, and ignored them except to water them when it everything in the garden was drying out. In full sun with a little bit of shade in late afternoon, they thanked me and grew to twice the size without flowers by the fall!

During Year 3 with one dose of Miracle Grow, and watering them during dry times a few times in the summer, they quadrupled in size with lots of flowers, starting white and turning pink over the summer. Year 4 with one dose of Miracle Grow, and occasionally watering, they reached five feet by four feet with even more flowers. Gorgeous! I can hardly wait to see them this summer in Year 5.

My lesson learned. Yes, I know that a little Miracle Grow gives them a boost, but I think any flower fertilizer would do the trick. The key is to plant them in a sunny spot with nothing around them and ignore them unless it gets too dry during the summer. I've never seen them wilt but just watered them 4-5 times during the summer.

There's a parade of deer that regularly march through and eat everything in my garden, but they don't touch my gorgeous Pinky Winkies. It's a mighty plant that thanks you over and over again.

I have had pinky wink for quite a few years now and it is one of my least impressive paniculatas. To be fair it is only in partial sun but the blooms are quite small. I much prefer my limelight, quickfire, burgundy lace and grandiflora.

Picture 1 July ..2 later Oct ..in sun all day ...Zone 6 Boston area

Pinky Winky in September in all day sun central NH. It starts blooming in late July here and starts developing pink in the lower blossoms in each cluster in mid-August. To give an idea of scale, the spiral trellis on the right side of the dark arborvitae is 5' tall and a bit up slope of PW, so PW is about 8' tall and 10' wide at 5 years old; it was less than 1' high when planted.

Hydrangea paniculata Pinky Winky - I have 18 of them that were purchased and planted by a license nursery here in GA - Zone 7B. They are now 4 years old. I get lots of brackets but they either just do not open showing the blooms or I have blooms that are really tiny/small and the color is not white/pink/salmon at all or there is only a few clusters. Frankly I am so disappointed in their lack of showmanship. I fertilize them in spring with 15-30-15 - I have tried pruning them back somewhat as well only deadheading them at other times. I spent a lot of money with into this well thought out design - as a hedge behind a small castle stone wall and further behind that I planted Giant Green Arborvitaes . I don't know what else I can do and really don't want to remove them and start over with a different plant. Any suggestions would be appreciated.

How much sun are they in? The paniculatas are very sun tolerant and tend to bloom the most heavily in more sun than not but even in light shade they should flower well. And skip the fertilizer - it is not necessary, won't encourage any heavier flowering and could actually be retarding it.

GG48 said pretty much what I would have. Perhaps not all day sun in GA, but at least a half day. I added composted manure to the whole bed before planting, and mulch with wood chips every few years, but mine (photo just above your post, taskmis) has never been fertilized and was planted in subsoil. I would assure that yours are getting adequate moisture but not overly wet, and hold off on the fertilization. Are they growing? Photos available?

Yeah, paniculatas like PW typically do very well. It is a good choice so check: (a) that you are not feeding it too much fertilizer - a single application of a general purpose, slow release fertilizer in the Spring should do well for the whole year (assuming your soil has no mineral deficiencies); (b) paniculatas need more sun but do not go overboard with sun exposure or the leaves may complain; (c) watch out for deer/squirrels/etc, pests that like to eat the flower buds and which would prevent you from getting bloomage; (d) do not prune them once they leaf out (just in case you are pruning when the shrubs are developing the flower buds). They bloom quite early here too so it is best to not prune once they leaf out. Instead, prune when they have lost their foliage or better yet, do not prune at all. If planted where they can attain their estimated size at maturity, hydrangeas should need minimal pruning. Maybe only pruning of any stems that died out during winter.

Some shrubs may need 2-3 years to develop a good root system so they shrubs may delay blooming *or may delay good blooming) until then.

Also, maintain the soil as evenly moist as you can so the plant does not abort the flower buds during a dry spell in late Spring or Summer... 3-4" of mulch helps with watering issues... Water when soil feels dry to a depth of 4". A 1g to 2g watering is sufficient (depends on how to tall the plants are) per watering when the soil feels dry or almost dry.

Very unhappy with mine. It's now about six years old and not more than 4 feet tall. I have it planted on S side of house. I make sure it's watered and fertilized, weeded and mulched, for all the good it does. I am considering moving it to the N side of the house where it will get afternoon shade and protection from the wind. I am open to suggestions.

Hello, Erika. Can you please supply more information so someone can help you: Where are you at (city, state, USDA Zone)? Can you post a picture of your PW showing the surroundings? Do you know what is the soil pH there? Do you also have to amend the soil due to the pH not being acidic? Is PW suffering from winter stem die back? How often do you fertilize, how much and with what fertilizer? Do you know how much sun it gets (from what hour until what hour) during the Spring? during the Summer? How windy/bad is it -you said you wanted to protect it from wind- in its current location? Thanks in advance, Luis

My pinky winky tree is hardly turning pink …dies it mean it’s not getting enough sun ?

All paniculatas need more than 6 hours of direct sunlight (full sun) to perform their best.

Note: more sunlight makes the blooms turn color faster. PW should turn pink in stages though and bloom after the likes of Bobo and Quickfire.

Proven Winner's Blooming Comparison Chart has PW blooming in mid-season so pink shades of color would appear afterwards by 4+ weeks. Local weather can also influence blooming times and color changes.

https://www.provenwinners.com/plants/hydrangea/pinky-winky-panicle-hydrangea-hydrangea-paniculata

Mine has already turned pink. I am in zone 6b.