Purples occur in a narrow range of soil pH near neutral. They are very difficult to achieve so it is great when Mother Nature does it for you.

Some hydrangeas resist changing to blue and these are easier to turn purple. Examples: Glowing Embers, Masja and Merrit's Supreme.

Thanks Luis.

I got quite excited, prehaps prematurely, because these are the first to actually bloom in our new yard! We'll see what these look like when they fully open up.

From what I've seen the Merritt's series have the ability to do extremely well in the northeast US. Although not partcularly fast growing, these do seem to resist winters, produce a good number of blooms and always stay within the dark pink/red/purple area.

Thank you for the input.

I did a bit of research based on Luis' thoughts and it looks like our shrubs may be Glowing Embers. It makes sense as I was pretty certain that our soil was acidic (sandy, lots of pines in the area, etc).

jclay321, funny, I had seen that (your?) site while researching and the juxposition of the delicate purple blooms and ferns is fabulous. Our shrubs seem to be more dense and defined, if that makes sense.

On a just pure luck note, we had planted some zebra grass and underplanted it with v. carmel creeper (a beautiful chartruese color) in the large corner garden behind a couple of the hydrangeas. I assumed the hydrangeas would bloom blue at the time, but the purple blooms are awesome with the chartruese and the textures of the plants work really well together-we'll see how they develop.

I still haven't found my camera.