Addicted to Hydrangeas

This year I have gone overboard on Hydrangeas! A few years ago I was afraid of them and avoided them. After owning a Nikko Blue Hydrangea for many years and it only bloomed a few times I had gotten turned off about them. I got turned back onto them with the variety known as Endless Summer Hydrangeas and my confidence was renewed!

This is how the flower starts out, which is even very pretty at this stage...

Then it plumps right out and looks like this....and as you can see it's a generous size.....The colors vary pinks and blues...I fertilized with Espoma, Holly Tone

My new favorite is the Limelight Hydrangea....this one is 3 years old and I am so delighted as to how well it is growing and blooming....If you notice the lime green tinge to the newer flowers and then it gets whiter, but still has some green, eventually it gets a reddish tone to it....they stay on through the winter....I planted 3 more of them along a path that leads to my bird feeders....

I recently acquired a PeeGee Hydrangea Tree and I am so looking forward to watching it grow. I am told to be aggressive in the spring and cut it back so that the new growth will have the long shoots that will bend over nicely....This picture shows it planted along my pathway, it replaced a Crabapple Tree that wasn't so great looking anymore....

This is closer view of the same PeeGee Hydrangea Tree.....there is some very soft pink in there too but it's visible in this picture. Did you know they create these Hydrangea trees by trimming the shrub as it grows to create the tree form. This is not a grafted tree.... (The blue flower is a morning glory that's growing on my arbor and managed to get in the picture!)

My next newcomer is this Pinky Winky Hydrangea (what a fun name).......

It's has very large panicles- up to 16" I've read. My shrub is not very large, but by next year I expect to see it develop nicely!

This picture is a close up of two levels of the flowers growth...the white is how it starts, then it goes to the pink color...they have firm stalks and paper like feel when they get to the pink stage.

Another newcomber is this Paris, from the Cityline series, a dwarf Hydrangea.

I also have one called a Forever & Ever, Red Hydrangea- soil ph is not supposed to affect it...it's a red flower/fades to purple...mine is not blooming, but here is a stock photo from the internet...