Endless Summer Hydrangea Diary

October 25th, 2008

I love my Endless Summer Hydrangeas, I’ve blogged about them before (See related posts below) and I’ve got… about 10 of them I guess. I’ve also given them as gifts.

I love the big bright blue, pink, and purple flowers of big mophead hydrangeas, they really brighten up shady spots, they’re some of my favorites. But here in zone 5, most varieties just do not bloom. They can’t make it through the winter and then don’t have any blooms on current year’s growth.

Endless Summer is different it can make it through the winter, and does bloom on both new and old wood. Excellent, I love it. Yet, some people do not. After reading posts such as this one I thought that I should do a diary to show just how well mine perform.

So I took pictures, every week or two, all year. Now, let me start out by saying, we had a very cold spring and some late frosts, so it got off to a slower start this year.


May 1st, the first picture. Later than normal with the cold weather.

May 12th, growing good.

May 26th, getting bigger, you can see the first of the flower buds.

June 1st, freak late frost, pushing things back again, flowers will be later this year.

June 17th, the smaller ones on the left are just about blooming, the bigger ones on the right still building on greenery.

June 22nd, the first bloom, pink, on the far left.

June 30th, now some blue blooms on the left, and the big one is about to bloom.

July 6, big one is blooming.

July 22nd, very bloomy.

August 17th, older blooms are fading, new wave starting (this year’s wood).

Sept 17th, notice the old blooms turning a dark red - this adds additional interest that I really like.

Oct 15th, still blooming, and check out the deep red spent blossoms.

Then it was killed last night, Oct 24th, in a hard freeze.

So, we had blooms from June 22nd to Oct 24th and this was a very late starting year. Usually it’ll be blooming by early June. I really like how even the old flowers still look like flowers because they redden. Some of my blossoms were blue, some pink. My soil naturally produces pink blooms but I try to change them every once in awhile (with obviously mixed results).

I do protect these during winter. I put a fence around them, like a coil, and then loose fill it with leaves, as much for the rabbits as the cold.

So there you go, big blooms for four months. I like it. I recommend it. To view all the pictures I took of it this year go here.

Related posts:

  1. Endless Summer Hydrangea
  2. Buying for Bloom Power
  3. My New Plant Wish List
  4. Blooming!
  5. Asters or Mums for Fall Color?

Posted in: Gardening, Plant Profiles » 

5 Responses to “Endless Summer Hydrangea Diary”

  1. tina  Says:
    October 25th, 2008 at 3:18 pm

    I agree, these Endless Summers are GREAT! The sister plant ‘Blushing Bride’ are also very good plants. They tend to get more pinkish than Endless Summer. Great array of photos!

  2. James Mann  Says:
    October 29th, 2008 at 4:25 am

    I like what you did with this post, it really give me an idea of how a Hydrangea grows.

    We are still learning but I think that next year I will add a Hydrangea or two to our flower gardens.

    I think I will start a diary of the flowers we have in our yard. It’s the perfect way to remember what they did all summer long.

    Thanks

  3. Kathy from Cold Climate Gardening  Says:
    November 4th, 2008 at 5:49 pm

    Your post inspired me to go through my photos to see how far along my ‘Endless Summer’ was compared to yours. Here are my findings.

  4. dlyn  Says:
    November 5th, 2008 at 12:16 pm

    I love mine when it actually blooms and it is worth keeping around for the years when it does well. This year, I fertilized it wrong because it got very tall and lush, but only two flower heads, and those very late in the year. Do you fertilize yours and if so, what do you use?

  5. Abby Lanes  Says:
    November 22nd, 2008 at 11:05 am

    That is a fantastic idea! Lovely hydrangeas.

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