Personally I love my red Cardinal Flower (Lobelia cardinalis) with my Nikko Blue. From Garden From 2009GardenPart 4 Or how about 'White Swan' Coneflowers? From 2009GardenPart 4 This was in July before it was in full bloom. The bright yellow Coreopsis 'Zagreb' blooms all summer and looks great next to the blue too. From 2009GardenPart3

after doing further research on TN Nursery (wholesale nursery also known as D&T) I guess I should not be surprised.. here is how their website lists this plant. which merges both terms into the description...I checked them out on daves garden, garden watchdog, and it was pretty bad reviews. nikko blue Snowball Bush Hydrangea macrophylla Nikko Blue ('Nikko Blue; Hydrangea) The Nikko Blue Hydrangea has blue blossoms on a plant with a strong constitution which make Hydrangea macrophylla Nikko Blue' one of the best Hydrangeas Hydrangeas produce some of the biggest and most beautiful flowers in the garden. New England is probably the hydrangea capital of the world. Take a drive through Cape Cod on a summer day, and most likely, you will witness a fantastic array of show-stopping hydrangea blooms. Types: The LaceCaps Lace Cap hydrangeas are large leafed varieties with flat flowers. The flowers are small in the middle and around the outside they have larger, ¾ of an inch size flowers with four petals. This is type of hydrangea often seen Cape Cod. They prefer morning sun and afternoon shade, but will tolerate full sun or as little as 3-4 hours of sun. Popular Lace Cap varieties: ÂLace Cap Improved  Large growing to about 4-5 tall and 3-4 wide. Flowers range from pinkish-purple to blue.

1818 Federal, size is caused by a combination of factors: how happy the plant is in its setting, how old the plant is, and genetics. I don't think that full sun in VA would be a good idea. It sounds like its current eastern exposure is probably good. I know that all along the east coast weather has played a part for the last few years in setting back big-leaf/macrophylla hydrangeas, with late frosts damaging opening buds or particularly severe winter temperatures killing back branches to the ground. I don't know if you noticed any type of cold damage, but this is one possibility. Did you get bloom? If so, was it in spring or later in the season? If yours is a relatively young plant, you won't find it putting on a lot of above ground growth in the first year or two as it is growing roots to support future above ground growth. Do you know the variety you have? Was it grown from a cutting of your grandmother's hydrangea? Current fashion in plants has the breeders trying to create smaller plants as many homes have relatively small yards that folks want to use for a multitude of purposes, and so often they are looking for smaller plants. So there are several H. macrophylla that are bred to be in the 2'-3' range, where your grandmother's may well have been something like Nikko Blue that can get to 6' tall and wide. If during the growing season your hydrangea is blooming and the shrub's leaves look happy (not a yellowish color or droopy) I wouldn't move it.

Nikkos with morning sun and filtered afternoon sun should be more than enough. My mom's Nikkos get morning sun (7 to 12) and hardy any afternoon exposure, her Nikkos been blooming nicely all these yrs... I don't have good experience for my plants get from HD or Lowes..you often find badly wilted Hydrangeas in these centers. I think true Nikkos don't bloom on new woods, so if the Nikkos you got has exposed to some kind of freeze earlier this yr, you won't get a lot of blooms. My mom likes to force some of her Nikkos and Endless Summer with high phosphate fertilizers (Vigro - colorburst) when she see the buds and the ES really likes it...but one thing tho, if you want blue flowers, if you use a high phosphate colorburst type of fertilizer, you probably will need to treat the shrub once or twice with Aluminum Sulfate (as soon as you see the buds) - 1 tablespoon per gallon (no more than one application per two weeks, do it not on the same week of the fertilizer appliaction) - drench the plants (make sure the soil is moist before the drenching).. my expeience with BB is it being a better bloomer all season, they will get sun burn, less wilting tho..but my mom doen;t like the white blooms as much - oh well... the Cityline series of hydrangeas can tolerate a lot of sun, at least in New Jersey, almost full sun, except days over 90 and no clouds in the sky..and if you can find one that's loaded with buds, you wont be disappointed..the flowers are large, very bright red/pink blooms, and last pretty long on the plant...if you want blue flowers, get Venice, Vienna or Berlin..Paris is very deep red and hard to change color...I have seen violet-blue Venice, pale blue Vienna in some gardens but if you get one from the nursery, chances are you will get the red/pink ones... good luck.. jmho.