Though I had to cut mine to the ground this spring they are up to 12 to 16 inches. I noticed that one of them is beginning to set flower buds. Last summer I counted 25 blooms on one of them at one time. I know a lot of people are having trouble with them, but I've been very happy with them. Mine are on the west side of my house. They are however in a pretty well sheltered area with light shade but fairly bright light. I do think that the sheltered area is the key to their doing well.

Mine died to the ground but is really popping up now. It's about a foot high. Mine never took on the lavender tones. It was a simple pink all summer which was a disappointment. Maybe this year it will accept the sulfur I added to the soil and perform as advertised.

Last Feb I attended a presentation at the Washington County Hort. Society's Spring Fling. The presenter, a nurseryman, said that ES needed three good seasons before it would take off. And it appreciates all the water you can give it.

I'm starting year three with mine.

I'm not all that enthralled with the new, pale pink one. Lots of money for what looks to be a ho-hum plant.

This is the 3rd year for my Endless Summer, I was really looking forward to it taking off. BUT it's dead! Not one little sign of growth........I am bummed........Don't know yet if I will invest in a new one or not.

Jenny P

Jennypat, it may show some life yet....I just today finally found some green starting on my two ES plants.

Phyllis

I will keep hoping, but it sure looks dead! I will water it, and leave it for now.

Jenny P

I've planted several at my house and at clients. I've found they do best with plenty of moisture, lots of fertility and bright shade (more light is better then less). Also, though I usually purchase smaller plants for most things, ie #2 shrubs, ES hydrangea is worth buying as older, larger shrubs. Plant as early as possible, fall planted will not make it through.

Plants in less then ideal conditions, or young plants can be very late to come back in spring.

Ted

Why are people so enchanted with this specific hydrangea?

The price is enough to scare me away, plus my Annabelle & Limelight hydrangeas are terribly pretty (not to mention hardy)!

p.s.: I think the new pink strain of ES is called 'Blushing Bride'? For the record: its not rated hardy here (zone 4), only to zone 5... I hate it when they lie on the tags.

I had two Endless Summer's but here in Zone 3 I lost alot of Perennials this year as January was horribly cold with very little snow cover. One ES of mine is completely gone (I think) but the other one is just now showing life at the ground level, so I'm hoping it will make it. Next year I will mulch it.

Personally, I find it an over-rated plant, much the same as daylilies, but perhaps for different reasons. Hydrangeas in general can be quite attractive in my eyes, but the ones with such high cost in money and time fussin' just don't compute.

I dug mine up and gave it to a neighbor.

I first saw them in a local news show's gardening segment. They really sang the praises of them making them sound like the best thing since sliced bread.

My endless summer is small (About a foot tall) but happy in a partly shaded southeastern corner of my yard. I can see two flower heads that have started to form. For the past two winters I have put about 3 inches of mulch on it and waited till late april to remove the mulch.

The "forever and ever" hydrangeas look interesting to me (especially the red variety). I saw the pink/blue version at home depot-and it seems to have stronger stems and flowers than the endless summer ones.

Well it's certain now, my Endless summer is a goner! I think I planted it in the wrong spot. It was under an oak tree, so it was dry, shady and in the winter didn't get a lot of snow cover.

I might try again, but I don't know if I am willing to spend the $$ on another experiment!

Jenny P

I've never heard of the Forever and Ever variety. Are they hearty to Minnesota, what do they look like. I would love a red variety. Any info on them would be appreciated. My Annabelles, and PeeGees do wonderful in Shade/sun mixture, but my Endless Summers ones are worthless.Does Home DEpot still have the Forever ones, and where else are they for sale. >^,,^

The home depot in mpls had the blue/pink variety when I was there last week. I think they are supposed to be about as hardy as the endless summer ones.

Here is a link that might be useful: forever and ever website

Well shoot! I wish I would have seen this before I bought three two weeks ago. We moved from CA last year and I was missing hydrangea in my yard. I thought endless summer was a sure winner when I came across it. I guess we will see how they do. My whole yard is partly shaded, with filtered light throughout the day. I found the bigger container ones at Menards for $16.99. Home Depot wanted the same price for 1 gallon containers. Gosh I hope they do well.
I did come across a Pinky Winky Hydrangea at Home Depot, they also had Limelight. I snatched the pinky winky right away. They were 8.99 for 1 gallon. These are so gorgeous. I can't wait until it blooms.

I have not had any problems with mine. Mine is on its third summer, and it actually threw off a second plant from a branch that had been trampled down into the soil by my dogs. They are currently about 18" high and both have several blossoms forming on them. I have them in bright shade that gets sun first thing in the morning , and the soil is quite rich and holds onto moisture. Mine are turning pink becuase I haven't added ferrous sulfate to the soil to try to shift them to blue. I'm going to see how I like the pink and then decide whether to modify the soil.

first of all isn't it aluminum sulfate not ferrous sulfate that you add?Mine is a total dissapointment, bought it about 3 years ago , when you had to be on a list to get and paid a small fortune for it. It is up about a foot now, no flowers yet, last year none, but I had moved it to it's new place last year, so I thought let's wait and see, if it isn't blooming this year it's a goner, where can I get limelight, I have a lot of different ones, pink lacecaps, white lacecaps, peegee's,tardiva,maybe that's the same as peegee? and quite a few annabelles and they all do great.It's on the westside of the house in sun in the afternoon and pretty sheltered in the corner of the house, what am I doing wrong???

My ES's require a lot more water than my others. As for Limelight, Garden Crossings has it as well as Bluestone.. I got one from Bluestone last year. Very small, but it still produced a couple of blooms last summer and has nearly tripled in size this year.

I planted 2 ES's a few years ago. They are doing ok, at best. They have not had any flowers yet, but they are not totally dead yet either.
I have not been very happy with them, considering the price.

My Mother-In-Law has 4 or 5 of the ES along her house and they are big and beautiful. She said her secret is having them on a drip system. Her ES get watered every day by her timer-set drip system for about a half hour.

I've found several links, including from soil scientists at the U, that indicate that you should not use aluminum sulfate because the aluminum is toxic to hydrangeas and other plants. Ferrous (or iron-containing) sulfate apparently doesn't have the same toxicity.

I've learned my lesson about buying anything brand new. Anyone remember the Limerock Ruby coreopsis? I'm a huge coreopsis fan, so when I saw this new red variety years ago I spent quite a bit on several of them. They were rated zone 4. None of them made it, and now I see them rated anywhere from zone 5 to zone 7!

It's soooo hard to hold off on some of the newer cultivars, but I'm trying...

I think gardengal's mom in law has discovered the most important factor in growing beautiful hydrangeas, WATER! The plants very name refers to water.

I've had two ES for 3 years now and they've done great and bloom profusely once they start but I make sure to water them alot whether or not it looks like they need it.

My mother in law lost two over the winter and I asked if she had watered them well going into winter and she hadn't. I suspect that's why she lost them.

I have 2 ES's and they look great BUT they don't have many blooms. Only one or two. Do they need fertilizer and what kind? I have sprinkled some slow release around them.

Linda

And mine are pink--again! What a boring plant!

I don't mind the pink a bit. I just keep them watered and enjoy the blooms. Last year I entered ES blooms in our county fair and to my surprise won Grand Champion. I was really tickled because the decision to take them was last minute, almost an afterthought.

I have one and it survived all right. It did die down to the ground but by now it has rebounded and is blooming. It doesnt get very large ever, so I would include it around other small plants. But if you like them dont hesitate to get one. You will simply need to plant is with loads of compost, water well, put hay over it in the winter, and cut off all the dead stuff in the spring.

I posted before but mine are now coming up. Not very vigorously but coming. I'm puting "acid loving plant food" on them so hope they get speedier ! Next year I will mulch !

After 3 attempts I've finally had success with ES in SE Minnesota in unprotected area!! I watered it EVERY day in summer of 2006, accidentally cut it to the ground in fall 2006, then buried it in dirt for winter. It came back and is beautiful, at least 3 ft. tall with several huge blooms. I'm still watering daily--maybe that's the key, though I haven't seen it mentioned anywhere. Anyway, I now believe all the hype.

You're right eadams99-water definitely seems to be the key. At this point with my garden - Annabelle Hydrangeas and Varigated dogwood are about the most fussyness I'm willing to put up with in terms of watering schedule. If it gets into the 90's I will water everyday-otherwise it's every two to three days for me.

If I had an automatic watering system-that would be another story-hell, I might even try irish moss at that point ;)

I haven't seen much posting for folks in zones 8 or 9. I am from SF, California and purchased two ES from Lowe in the last two weeks, young plants in 8" blue containers. I selected the plants with a strong frame, not more than 3 branch per plant and there are very small buds. I will comment on its performance in a season or two and whether they are recurrent for folks out West. All I can tell right now is the foliage is pretty thin, unlike the Blue Wave and Nikko that we do have in our garden for a number of years. Probably this is due to being young plants. By the way, it is now named 'ES Original', has anybody grow and bloom 'ES Blushing Bride' or any of the other remondant types: Penny Mac, Mini Penny, . . . that are now available? From my reading, I do not believe this varietal would ever turn blue or purple since it starts off being cream and then turn light pink. Comments please. Thanks.

When I first bought mine three years ago, it had blue blooms. The second year it had pink flowers and wasn't doing well at all. I moved it this spring to a shadier garden spot (under oak trees) where it gets filtered light with some direct sun for short periods of time. I've been watering it frequently and it's doing much better. It has about 12 to 15 blooms on it. Although I like the pink flowers and I think they show up good in the shade, I'll probably add to the soil next year to get the blue flowers. This spring I also planted a zone 5 purple hydrangia I ordered from a catalog for $5. I figured for the price I'd give it a shot. So far it's doing fine, but we'll see what this winter does to it!

Two years ago I bought a large sized ES which has grown and bloomed quite nicely. Last fall HDepot had one on clearance for $5 so I bought it and divided it to make a cluster of three plants together like the MN Arborteum. This year I have three different sized plants. The large one, a medium one, and one that is only about 2 inches high. The two inch high one bloomed first, one large blossom that completely covers the plant. The others have many blossoms. I prefer pink flowers so have not added anything to make them blue. I added pine needles as mulch and last year that turned the flowers purplish. This year they are all still pink.

Since reading on this thread that they like lots of water I have been watering them daily. Can't say as I have seen any difference from last year when I watered less.

Bobbie

wow, when i bought my house here there were several hydrangias planted in every location in this yard. this is my third year here and here is the run-down... one is huge and blooming for the 1st time!! one is large w/NO blooms, one is medium w/NO blooms and the other 4 are small but one of the small ones has bloomed... i moved 3 of the 4 small ones just today so we will see how they fare... the small ones were all in spots that only get about maybe 4hrs of sun per day. i left the medium, large and huge ones alone and maybe, just maybe, one of them will bloom at some time. one of the small ones i transplanted is very wilty and so i guess i am wondering if they can be moved this late in the season... hahaha... good luck!!