Every day I take a walk around my garden, and check my ‘Endless Summer’ hydrangea for buds.
I don't see any flowers, do you?
And every day I sigh, and walk away disappointed. But one day I was on my knees, weeding a bed about six feet away, and happened to glance over at my bloomless shrub.
Wait! Do I see a flash of blue?
There's a flower in there!
Hidden in the interior of the shrub, scarcely visible unless you move branches aside, one blossom was in full, true-blue bloom. Who’d a thunk it? The shrub itself is larger than last year, and despite the predations of insects, seems to be vigorous and thriving. I suspect it would be flowering more if the summer were warmer. And I did find another still very immature flower bud, but only one.
Peek-a-boo!
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What is life, and what is gardening, if one is not always ready to make new friends and make new experiments?
Vita Sackville-West
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Hi I’m a garden writer on an online news site in northeast Michigan http://www.infonortheast.com, working on a story about hydrangeas this week. Absolutely loved these hydrangea blogs, and have just subscribed to Cold Climate Gardening. Do any of you find the ‘Forever and Ever’ hydrangeas to be better or worse than the ‘Endless Summer?’ I am writing for a readership in mostly zone 4 with a few pockets of zone 5 in microclimates at the shores of our many lakes. Appreciative of any info with these new beauties, as I have stuck strictly with H.arborescens ‘Annabelle’ after countless fruitless tries in the 90s with ‘Nikko Blues.’ The ‘Annabelles are lovely here, and ‘limelight ‘is good too, but most who try Endless Summer are not completely thrilled, having problems with very limited (if any) blooming. Then there are the few freaks who still have there Nikkos doing well 10 years later, but I think these are all waterfront lucky devils.
Laura, I received Forever and Evers to trial as well. Only one made it through my special brand of neglect, the original one. It gets the same protection as the Endless Summer and doesn’t have any blooms this year, but it did pretty well last year. I think Zone 4 gardeners have to really want a blue flowering hydrangea enough to baby it, because they sure aren’t as winter-hardy as the Annabelles and Limelights, nor as forgiving of a cool summer. I really did love the look of the double pink F&F, but it died of something unrelated to hardiness.
I have 3 ES planted in a group. Yes, I bought the hype unfortunately and these green balls are in a prominent place in my circle bed. One bush has had three or so blooms, one has had five or so and one has none. None of them bloomed before August. I’m new to hydrangeas but my other ones (annabelle, peegee, quick fire) are flourishing and full of flowers. I live in Maine in zone 4. Do I dare transplant the ES to a less prominent place? I’d love to get more color in that spot.
In one of my previous posts on this topic, one commenter had given their recommendation about the best transplanting time, but I can’t find the comment. You can transplant them, but I think I would wait until all danger of frost is past in spring.
Mine is blooming, but not as well as it did last year. My lacecap has no blooms though. Every gardener I speak with has the same problem. Must have had something to do with the weather.
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I pruned mine a bit early and was worried as we had such a cold winter (at least it was for us here in the North West of England). But whatever I did it liked it and is covered in flowers. I always prune quite hard as soon as the plant starts to produce new shoots. That way I can see the final shape that I want and it obviously doesn’t harm the plant.
I gave up on Endless Summer when I lived in Michigan – what’s the point in a bloomless hydrangea? (well, ok, maybe the foliage serves a purpose sometimes). Even finicky mopheads seem to do much better, given a little winter protection.
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Mine is completely bloom free too…
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Wonderful, there’s still hope. I haven’t seen any blooms on mine yet.
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It’s always a welcome surprise to find blooms where we thought there were none! Love that blue.
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The peek-a-boo blooms are blooming on old wood. That must be under the snow line. My ‘Bailmer’ (Endless Summer) had only 1 bloom this year, which is very disappointing. It might be time for me to transplant it to the compost pile.
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