I planted this bed 6 years ago. Although you can’t tell, there are also 4 Endless Summer blue hydrangeas in here. You can just see the foliage of one of them at the right end of the bed in this photo.
Usually both the blue and the pink hydrangeas bloom together. But this year we had a very unusual winter. As a result, only the smooth hydrangeas and their cultivars (hydrangea arborescens) are blooming right now. Macrophylla, or big leafed types, if they are going to bloom at all, will be blooming much later this summer. I can see a few buds on a couple of mine.
And of course the paniculata (or “peegee”) and tardiva types naturally bloom later as well. They most likely will not have been affected by our killing February cold snap because they are extremely hardy.
Even lacecap types like ‘Lady in Red,’ which prior to this winter had been threatening to overtake my garden, died back by about half and is blooming, but only sparsely. It was a freakish winter for hydrangeas!
So that’s why I am so delighted by these ‘Invincebelle Spirit’ Hydrangeas. I have posted about them before. You can read that post here.
This is what that garden looked like last year, from a slightly different view. I am not sure that I miss the ‘Endless Summers,’ at all this year. Do you?
Gardendaze 