Depends. Are the backs of the leaves purple? Korina

I may be way off but I think it may be a Redbay tree. Rub the leaves and see if you get the smell of bay. It is a member of the Laurel family and is being threatened in Ga, North Florida and the Carolinas by the Ambrosia Beetle. You may notice some leaves that have a funny curl part to them. If so this is a Gall of somesort but it won't hurt the tree. If it isn't Redbay then it still may be a part of the Bay family. We planted a Redbay as a host to Spicebush/Palamdes Butterfly. But afterwards discovered that they prefer the Camphor trees that come up as volunteers in our yard. (I know they are invasive but we keep one or two trimmed back so that they have new growth to lay eggs on.) If you do have a Redbay or other member of that family, there is a group in Ga that collect the seeds in the fall to plant to get seedlings to replace the ones destroyed by the beetle. I ended up sending some seeds to a guy in Houston and he grew some to plant in the last native plant park inside the loop around Houston. They are a native plant there but they are very hard to find as seedlings. Hope this helps. Let me know if I am right.

Didn't know Mathlida Gutges is same as LA Dreaming! Great I can take that one of the list. I've almost picked it up 2-3 times. We moved about 70 hydrangea when we moved here from another WA area. They divide and can be moved easily in tubs. There are a lot of blue hydrangeas in acid soil that can be shifted to purple with the right amount of dolomite lime addition. The more color pigment in the blue the deeper the purple potential. Go too far and these can go pink or red. Three favorite examples follow. Hydrangea macrophylla 'Enziandom' is highly pigmented (as os 'Rhythmic Blue'). It's a stunner mophead in any color. Hydrangea macrophylla 'Eisvogel' is a beautiful blue lacecap in the Teller Swiss series that makes a nice purple. Hydrangea macrophylla 'Blaumeise' ('Teller Blue') is a larger petal lacecap with interesting past prime after colors. It goes pink easily with lime. But if you've careful at adjustment a purple is possible. Hydrangea macrophylla 'Leuchtfeuer' (translated "Firelight") is an old timer that likes to be a red. However, It's easy to take it towards a purple or it can be pushed to a blue. It will flower less densely in the shade as in the photo below, but can be covered with flowers with more sun. Uneven pH range in a 8' wide bush gave this. The florets centers are white at first and color fills in as it matures. Below is an unlabeled hydrangea that I couldn't resist getting. It had four 8+" mopheads on a 12" tall plant in a one gallon pot! There was nice pigmentation with a blue and pink flower each. Looking at the petal tips, purple potential is obviously there. I need to grow it in the yard to a larger size to see it's full potential. I will grow it with uneven pH distribution to try to get the multicolor effect again. I prefer unknowing the plant name. But this one had such large full florets, nice pigment density and a pearl like sheen to the petal base color. I have and have seen a lot of hydrangeas but not this one before. '(Blue) Enchantress' is a newer variety with larger than average mopheads and nice dark stems (we have a big one). The flower heads on the unknown are larger and fuller and more impressive than the 'Hamburg', 'Penny Mac'*, and some other larger flowered mopheads such as the 'Merrit's ____' series I've seen locally and at home. Flower size is more in the 'Gerda Steiniger' class size. There are larger cluster heads out there. *'Penny Mac', 'Nikko Blue' and 'nigra' compound mopheads can get as large or larger, when grown with an abundance of fertilizer and moisture. This results from side branch minimops adding into the cluster making them more dense panicle shaped than round.

Cori Ann, how wonderful to line up these lovelies for a little beauty pageant and some easy comparisons. I love them all, but only grow Young Lycidas. I'd go for Falstaff, but Munstead and The Prince will have to do for me and my lack of space. However, I'm nuts about Pretty Lady. I need a large bloomed HT with long stems for bouquet making. This is something I've neglected, and she would fill the bill, I think. And Polarnacht is so fabulous. It can certainly compete with the roses. Diane