I agree completely with mxk..Annabelle would be my pick for your location...super hardy, bloom on new woods, never fail in blooms, huge showy flowers, right amount of sun, you can practically cut Annabelle down to a 3-5 inches of stems and will grow back to 3 ft in one season and bloom..as for quick fire, I have one in the garden, i like it but it is a giant...and a very fast grower (and I have annabelles to compare)..I put this plant in the sunniest spot for all my hydrangeas, get about 5 hrs of sun (9 am to 2 pm) then cast over by some shade from a nearby building...dont have problems with flower production..my QF is almost 7 feet tall and 5 ft wide...it takes a LOT of space...you will never find the ES and other mopheads this big and can tolerate that much sun...Annabelles can get really big but if you cut it down every season, you can keep it at 4X4 or so...I think a zone 5, with NE winter exposure is tough even for ES to winterize - a lot of flower buds will die from winter burn...and in spring, the plant maynot get enough sunlight to bloom if the location has only 2-3 hrs of sun..would go for Annabelle for sure...and yes, there are two exciting new Annabelles to release in the mkt by 2010...the incrediball and the invicibelle...incrediball is supposed to have enormous flower head (size of a basketball)...and invicibelle will have smaller flower heads and bloom in pink...all annabelles, up to now, are white...so i think you will have a lot of options coming 2010..keep an eye on these plants when to come to a garden center near you.

You can grow about any hydrangea you want in your zone. For lacecaps, you can try Lady In Red, Kardinal, Blue Wave, or Lanarth White. Those are about the extent of the lacecap macrophylla color spectrum and some of the easiest ones to find. There are some double-flowering ones too but don't get quite as large. Especially, try Wilkerson Mill gardens at hydrangea.com - theyre in GA and would probably be worth the trip to one of their open house sales.

Roses are a different story entirely. With roses you have to fight the rot longer, not to mention fungus. Too moist and they will rot or develop fungus, too dry and they won't root. You have to use sterile medium for roses (vermiculite, perlite, course sand, or sterile seed starter mix.. i.e. peat moss and vermiculite). Once you take the cuttings, immediately put them in water. Bottom heat also seems to make them root faster with use of a heat mat and you don't want to mist the cuttings as much like you would a hydrangea. Use a 10% hydrogen peroxide/water solution in a spray bottle to mist to help prevent fungus. Allow the container to have some air exchange so some fresh air can get into the cuttings, while keeping the humidity up. I use a clear plastic tote with the lid loosely on top, not snapped completely on the tote. Set in front of a window until they root. When you take your hydrangea cutting, you want the stem to have two sets of leaves (so two sets of nodes.. one set on top, then one set on the bottom). You want to pick the leaves off the bottom leaf nodes but do not damage the nodes. Leave the top set of leaves just as they are. I don't cut the leaves back at all. Some people cut them in half but I don't really find that necessary. Leave only around a 1/2 inch to an inch of stem below the bottom nodes and trim the rest as the stem below that will likely rot and the roots will develop about a 1/2 inch below the node upwards to around an inch to an inch and a half above the node. So you want to have about two inches of the cutting into the soil. You want one set of leaf nodes above the soil, and one set of leaf nodes below the soil. Make sure your potting soil or seed starter mix is moist and well drained.. not soggy. Stick a pencil or whatever into the potting soil to make a hole for your cutting, place your cutting and lightly tamp the potting soil around the cutting, do not pack it too tight. I use anything from seed starter cups (3-4" pots), to plastic drinking cups (the larger ones), and even Red Solo cups.. lol. Just make sure to make cuts in the bottom so water can drain out. I like the larger cups because you don't have to repot the cutting very fast. It takes the roots a while to fill the cup. A clear cup allows you to watch the roots. Once the roots reach the bottom and fill the cup, you can repot the cutting into a larger container. If you use rooting hormone, before you place your cutting into the soil, dip the cutting in water, dip in your rooting hormone.. if it's powder, tap off excess. If you use liquid let the cutting sit in the liquid for a few seconds to a minute to let it take up the hormone. Then place the cutting in the medium. The setup I use for my cuttings, like I mention above is simply a large clear plastic tote from walmart. They are around $10 for a large container, maybe a few bucks more for the really big ones. If you only have a few cuttings you can take the large freezer zip lock bags and place cup and cutting down in a bag, blow to fill with air, zip the bag and place in a window. One cutting per bag. Keep the bag inflated, so refill with air as the bag loses air. You want to see moisture condensation on the sides of the container/bag so mist the cuttings lightly when you put them in the container. And mist from time to time with a spray bottle. I see roots usually within 10-14 days. It is too late in the year to plant newly rooted cuttings out so overwinter indoors or in a garage if you live in zone 7 or lower. I hope I covered everything. lol

I think someone recently asked or said something about this European Series and they got them from Wayside but others may sell them too. The series per se is marketed by Plants Nouveau but they don't get into the retail plant business that I know of (they are kind of like testers and marketers). Willoway Nurseries, selected HDs and selected Lowes have been known to sell these. However, this late in the growing season, you may find very few. Stocks should be resupplied in the first quarter of 2016.