YES! YES! YES! That happened to my 3 ES. They bloomed beautifully the first year, then the second year, they hardly had any bloom but they grew like crazy with beautiful, gorgeous foliage... LOL! Anyway, the third year, they bloomed very well again. If I remember correctly, that also happened to quite a few other ES owners here too...

Nothing wrong with that,
-first year they were druged in a nursery with performance-enhancing chemicals for you to buy them,
-second year drug's effect wore out and they were working on a roots development, new canes producing, etc, but not on a useless (from the plant point of view, LOL) blooms,
-third year they become plants of their own nature and if it ment for them to bloom, they will.

Hi - Similar experience here - I purchased (fully bloomed) 2 ES & 2 F&E in '06 lured by the promises of annual blooms that my old Nikko only seldom delivered!
--Planted in f/s site - all the blooms fried & feared plants were hurt by our intense (mid-west summer) sun & heat, in spite of regular watering.
--Relocated (clipped all burned blooms) by mid-Aug & did well (ES #1) even threw up again some beautiful large blossoms by Sept/Oct!
--Last season, both did not grow much & only 1 smallish bloom on ES #1. I read discussions in this forum - lack of optimal sun exposure was the diagnosis. 1 F&E did quite well and gave good blossoms in perhaps the best partial sun/shade site. ES #1 did receive a bit more sun than her sister.
--This Spring, both ES were relocated in, what I think would be optimal site - opened up just for them last Fall. So far both are adjusting quite well ... new shoots from the ground as well as all the canes from last season (successful flat-board method of winterizing on the ESs saved old canes!) ... hoping for blooms this season! :-)

No more relocating after this ... I'll take your advice, Ego, & just patiently wait!
Many thanks!!!

My ES is going into it's second year and it only had two blooms last year. I did prune it to shape not concerned since they bloom on old and new wood. This was planted in July and I had the first two weeks of wilting daily and watering daily. Once it cooled a bit and got over the transplant shock I started using a 0 - 46 - 0 product. We had a dry fall followed by an above normal mild and wet winter here. Now in the second year it is covered in blooms on every branch. Some are even begining to open and I'm finding the ES experience easy a rewarding. Maybe it's just the warmth of living in coastal Va that has helped.

Some of my ?'s have already been answered from the posts above but to be sure do ES bloom on new & old wood and should most hydrangeas be planted in the sun? I have several and have them planted in the shade or part sun and shade. So glad to get answers for these problems for I love these bushes and was about to deep six them and give up trying to get them to grow here. Thanks and blessings, Margaret

Yes, ES bloom on new and old wood. I'm not sure about zone 5 and sun. Here if you plant in full sun they would either die or look wilted daily. I have 4 hours of morning sun and mine does well.

Zone four we were told to plant in full sun. They have since backed off that. It takes so long for ES to estabish enough root growth they wilt in full sun. Interesting comment about the growth hormone. I have never heard that before. Mine also missed a season of blooms. I transplanted it last fall so now I will wait and see if it made it through the winter.

I am very excited w/my ES - bot my first hydrangea last Fall & it seems to have overwintered nicely & now has the makings of 8 blooms when I counted yesterday (which is more than the 4 blooms it had when I planted it :)

- and now, from what I've learned on this thread, I won't worry next year if it just grows green & doesn't bloom!

All the Best, Tree

This is my 2nd year with ES and Forever & Evers. I just fertilized with composted manure and triple phosphate. My questions is: I don't see any new growth on last year's wood. New growth is coming up from the center. Will bud's (or new growth) form on the old wood or should I prune this away?
Thanks!

I've actually been a bit disappointed with ES. I have three of them. I planted them spring 2003 and of course they bloomed profusely that year. In 2004 I think there was maybe one bloom. In 2005 & 2006, nothing much again. Last year I fertilized heavily to get blooms and a much better performance on the one that gets a lot of sun. The other two that are in a more shaded location didn't do much at all. I have an arborescens hydrangea in the same area that blooms with no problem. I may move the two if they still don't bloom this year.

Although, this is the first year they didn't die back below ground, so.....I'm hoping I may actually get some old wood blooms for the first time which might help.

mine were poor 2nd year but great there-after

I wonder if the zone has a lot to do with it. It seems that those is zone 5 don't have as many blooms as those in higher zones. I have two ES and one Blushing Bride, which I purchased last summer, one ES is loaded with new leaves but the other ES and the Blushing Bride aren't producing new foliage nearly as well. It will be interesting to see what they do this summer.

In my iffy ZONE - a glimmer of hope on ES blooms at last!!! My 2 ES relocated to (perhaps their best site/part-shade) in mid-Apr ... Keeping in mind George's logical summation in this thread, I promised to leave them alone & just wait patiently.

I counted more than 20 broccoli-like clusters on #1 & 16 on #2 ... hurray!!! Even the couple of canes with bud clusters that poked thru the burlap covers & got frost bitten (during those 4 sub-freezing overnights, in late Apr) are doing OK albeit w/ obvious burn marks (curious to see how those 2 buds look when they open up).

note: I flat/board protected them last Winter as I wanted to save their old canes ... they were greening when I opened them in Mid-Apr. - dug up & relocated. Also, took great care & got the entire root balls.

I hope yours also reward, after initial disappointments!