Sorry; I was wrong about thinking that the Corintian Rose and Mauve cultivars as being new developments. Did some checking and now realize that a few years after more nurseries began offering the Ornamental trees, I must have seen a photo of the Corintian Rose which appeared to bloom more red colored. But the latest photos I have seen of the Corintian Rose seem to reveal that tree's blooms being more true to what reported descriptions of it have been turning up. Dr. Dennis Werner had successfully developed these Corinthian peach cultivars, and reports of them started showing up in web perspectives back over the winter of 1998-99. Those perspectives projected that nurseries would be making these trees available by the winter of 1999-2000. I have not seen the standard nurseries in my area offering these trees, but after I inquired about them to my favorite nursery on the northwest edge of town. They fairly easily found some being offered to the wholesale markets from a local regional grower. My extra research about the development of the different cultivars has reminded me of what I had obviously forgotten when I posted what I replied above. The truth is that Back in the winter of 1998-99; the cultivars which had already been developed were Corinthian, White, Corinthian Pink, Corintihian Rose, and Corinthian Mauve. With the Rose and the Mauve cultivars just now showing up more often on various web sites, must mean that now those cultivars are catching the eye of people more than the White and Pink cultvars are right now. One thing I do know is that the photos on the web of these trees do not capture the dynamic beauty that one is surprised to see in any of these trees that are thriving out in their planting beds. Must be something about the camera shots being so far away that the size and shapes of the flowers appear more non-descript in the photo's and also the amazing way that the sun make the colors of those flowers to appear so stunning must be an aspect that the camera's missed capturing in those photos of these trees that I have been more recently seeing on the Web. I know that the Pink cultivar blooms certainly are such, simply because a friend of mine planted four of these trees along the narrow strip along her front driveway and that boarders her neighbor's yard. The first Spring that her trees burst out in bloom, her husband who never seems to say much about the items at her house that we have planted, well even he, was taken aback at the sight of how stunning those blooms were. At first sight he rushed to get his camera and quicky attached that photo to an email and sent it to me to let me know how amazed he was at first sight of those tree tree's bloom. That was 3 years ago, and the only other item he has reacted the same about was after he first saw blooms, on the hardy, Blue Satin Hibiscus that I had trained up in a tree form and helped my friend plant at her house. Those clear blue...

Houston..Guess what? I felt the same way about my figs! I had a couple and they are not as sweet as many rave them to be to me, and I let them fully ripen. I was told the older the tree, the sweeter they get. Oh I hope so. Mine are only about 2-3 feet tall. I hope someday to get a VERY sweet one. Keeping my fingers crossed. You can have the cooler weather.lol It's depressing to wake up 5 days out of the week with cloudy skies and temps below normal. I get enough of that in the Spring, Fall, and Winter. Our summers are shrinking while just one state away they are boiling. Strange I'll say! Protect your trees for sure in that. I hope you have a pool. Josh! Well, would you look at that! Holding back for one of the best? Very very nice. Will you be separating them anytime soon or let them grow together like a mini forest? They look pretty good together like that. Are you growing them for fun, or for eventual fruit? I love them. 46 degrees! Well, I thought my weather was cold. You must still use some source of heat for those cold nights, or at least put the windows up. Wow. Well, I can understand why certain plants may be an issue for you there. My weather is much warmer than yours, but still I have a problem with some of the plants you mentioned too. But despite them odds, what you grow still seems to relish in your care. Good work. 68 this a.m. and light drizzly rain. It's breezy and feels like fall. I think our hot summers of past have all but disappeared for good:-( Mike

Virtually ALL hydrangea "trees" are some sort of paniculata, but the cultivars can vary. Macrophyllas and other 'old wood' varieties do not lend themselves to the routine pruning these need and they also are extremely difficult to train into a single, clear trunk. And Annabelles and other arborescens just produce too large an inflorescence on too weak of a stem to make a good standard. But......having said that, I've never seen any cultivar of paniculata that produced flowers in that manner......or any other hydrangea species for that matter. I'd be somewhat suspect of this plant -- not that it isn't a hydrangea (definitely is) but that there may be something else amiss with it. Perhaps a virus. Or maybe just stressed from hanging out at HD without proper attention :-) I'd wait and see. Regardless, you'll still be within their gauranty period if you confirm next season that all is not well. And jean's right....give that puppy a good drink!!

I think the reason you pics look different IRL is your camera angle is looking down on the table. Try squatting down and taking it from that perspective. Also, try with/without the flash. It took me awhile to get my indoor shots to look more true to life. I use a setting on my carmera "no flash in now light" and I feel that gives me a more true to life look. I like the pic vertical. If you decide to keep the plant, center it on the base and arrange it so the spill is onto the table base, not the floor. Another option which I actually prefer is to put a wicker basket below or to the side and use it more practically to collect small items that need to taken upstairs. Just me, but I don't care for the artificial flower arrangement. I much prefer dried ones if you cannot use real plants. I think you can get away with just two items on top and one below. Try the frame to the left and little candle next to it. Then a nice, oval mirror above. I would not trust command hooks for a mirror. I'd get the OOK ones ane make sure you have a good wire at the back of the mirror. There have been a few threads about stair remodeling with fabulous results, depending on the look you want, if you ever want to get them updated. There is a wealth of information here.