Hi Nik, We are also in zone 9 (central California) and are growing Awakening. It is quite vigorous and thorny and slow to repeat and suffered severely with powdery mildew in the spring. The flowers are not that exciting, around 3 inches across. We bought a grafted Radio Times rose (Rosa multiflora rootstock) around 3 years ago and planted it around 8 feet from the base of a Krauter Vesuvius flowering plum tree. RT decided the it would be more fun to grow as a climber and began to throw up long canes. The canes have invaded the canopy of this tree and you can now see huge (4-5 inch) spectacular flowers peeking through the purple foliage as you come down the street. Most of the flowers are, unfortunately, out of reach. And so one of my winter projects is to cut this monster back and plant it near a rail fence and train the canes horizontally. The repeat is much better than that of Awakening and the flowers are quite beautiful, thickly petalled and very fragrant. Downside: it is a bit thorny and suffers from a touch of mildew (as do many roses with exceptional fragrance) from time to time. Two other pink English rose climbers that we are growing are Spirit of Freedom (own root) and Wedgewood Rose (grafted). Both would be good roses for you to consider. Any yet another is The Generous Gardener, which is a blush pink to blush apricot. TGG seems to have less mildew than the others and has dark green, glossy foliage which is quite attractive. Good luck in your choice! John

OMG! No phone! That's my connection to the rest of the world! I can stay in touch while I weed,clean or doing laundry. I can't imagine, what happens if there's an emergency? I would be terrified! I have the option to answer or not so it doesn't bother me that it rings too much! Annie, your killing me! I love those pics. I keep going back and looking at them. I thought I posted a good box, I guess not.LOL Tracy, where did you go???? Fran, it's getting close for your turn:]

I would love to stay and chat girls, but I can barely keep my eyes open. It was a long day today. I will see you in the am. Karen, are you in my time zn? It's 10:00 here now, and we are almost neighbors. If so, 11 would be when she is posting and you might have a chance still : ) Shirley, that is another beauty, I love those types Fran, sounds like your feeling better still today, that's good! Soooo, what were the extras you were going to put in that box for me??? Denise, since some MEAN person stold that box from me I'm gonna have to try and work out a trade with you for some honeysuckles! : ) Yes Tracy, he was nice. LOL See you girls in the am!

What you describe is the natural progression of hydrangea blooms. Regardless of what type of blooms you have, they start a certain color. Then as the blooms fade, they change colors ending in brown. At this point, you can leave the brown blooms for winter interest or you can deadhead them. Transplanting and planting for the first time may have altered the normal color progression so I would not worry that it did not do that last year. The further south you are and the higher the temperatures, the faster this process can kick start. In this weird year, my shrubs began to flower early in March and the blooms turned brown about 2 weeks ago or so. As for what type of hydrangea, gift hydrangeas tend to be H. macrophyllas and are sold in grocery stores or florists. If the gift was a plant that someone propagated, it could be anything but H. macrophylla is the most common. Some newer H. macrophylla and H. serratas are re-bloomers too and, when you deadhead the blooms, that triggers the plant to produce blooms again. These two types of hydrangeas (the rebloomers and the once bloomers) normally produce invisible flower buds in July-August at the ends of the stems and they open in the Spring. Re-bloomers then also develop invisible flower buds again in May or June and these open in July-August. Other varieties of hydrangea that produce white blooms are H. arborescens (has white mophead-like blooms) and H. paniculata (has panicle-like blooms). These develop invisible flower buds in May-June and then flower in July-August. With few exceptions, these only produce white blooms. Below is a link to a website that can help you identify which kind of hydrangea you have for sure and it has lots of pictures that you can use to compare. The most common hydrangea is H. macrophylla and its blooms are in the forms of mopheads or lacecaps so people just call the plants mopheads or lacecaps. To tell which kind of hydrangea you have, click here: http://hydrangeashydrangeas.com/identify.html For information on deadheading or information on pruning, click here: http://hydrangeashydrangeas.com/pruning.html Feel free to spend time in the website as it has lots in interesting information. To keep the soil moisture in check, try using the finger method: insert a finger into a soil early in the mornings to a depth of 4" and water if the soil feels dry or almost dry. One gallon of water per watering is probably ok in Spring, Fall and Winter. About 1.5 gallons may be needed in the Summer. Once the plant goes dormant, you can water 1g once a week or once every two weeks if it is rainy. Continue like that thru Spring but stop if your soil freezes in Winter. Keep the plant well mulched all year around up to the drip line and feed it nce in Spring with 1/2 to 1 cup of organic compost, composted manure or cottonseed meal. It may be late to mention this since you planted last year but, lower part of the states, hydrangeas will do best in morning sun and afternoon shade. But it already sounds like yours is doing very well right where it is. To make sure that they blooms reliably, H. macrophylla mophead and lacecaps in cold zones are usually winter protected. You can find more information about this by doing a find in the forum for 'winter protection'. Luis