This is very exciting. Can't wait to see your pictures. What type of shredded leaves do you use as mulch?

Somewhow I overlook this particular thread where a lot my own thoughts on a subject "Nikko is no Nikko" was expressed. Coincidently, just yesterday in a '2007 Banner Year...' thread I wrote two fairly lenghty posts on a subject. Just copying them here, Posted by ego45 6bCT (My Page) on Thu, Jul 19, 07 at 10:35 "Katy, I certainly respect your opinion and I'm myself having some 'issues' with Nikko, however would like to say a few (actualy not just a few [g] ) words in its defence. First and foremost, exactly in a same way as PG become a common name for all paniculatas for non-gardening public ( or Xerox for any brand of copy machine, Jeep for SUV etc), Nikko Blue name for many years was and for the general public is an equivalent of a 'blue mophead hydrangea'. Not a very long ago, before current hydrangea cultivars craze took a place, Nikko or Nikko-alike hydrangeas were the only choice for the most homeowners. Given its name recognition and ease of propagation/growing to commercial size mass growers even didn't want to bother with ordering new name tags or marketing efforts. That is how market become saturated with generic 'me-too-like-Nikko' mopheads all bearing the same NB name. Add to this a fact that if you sell your house new owners wouldn't remember (even if they'll be interested to even ask you the names of hydrangeas) neither name Dooley or Altona or any other names you grow except one, NIKKO. It's a brand name. Period. What is sold under this name is a different story. I'm writing this for so long just to make a point that there is a Nikko and there are a Nikko-types. My guess is that to find and identify 'true' NB in a sea of N-types is a job for high professionals or CSI. I'm myself grow 8 plants that could be named NB based on a first glance appearance, but I suspect that only 2 of them are true NB. This one (about 20 y.old and inherited with a house) and another one that I propagated myself from it. It has a dark green heart-shaped, but slightly elongated fleshy leaves and the most important(!!!) has an ability to produce flowers from a secondary buds along the stem if top bud is killed. No, I'm not saying that it will defintely produce it, but may produce it as it happened in 2004 (you may remember that sudden drop from 20F to -10F overnight in January'04). That year it was one and only macrophilla in my garden that produced flowers. Handfull, in August, but still did. Of course, position, soil content, sun-wind exposure playing very important role in a color, appearance and performance of any hydrangea in a garden, so lets not paint TRUE Nikko by the same brush as its impersonators. :-)))" Posted by ego45 6bCT (My Page) on Fri, Jul 20, 07 at 0:35 "I'm probably beating the dead horse here, but still want to add a few things regarding the Nikko. What are those so-called remontant hydrangeas, Dooley, Penny Mac, All Summer Beauty, ES etc? They are SELECTIONS. That's right, they were not discovered in a wild and brought to you 'as is', nor they are the product of many years of hybridization efforts. They were simply SELECTED for their specific treat-ability to bloom from a secondary buds along the stem or on completely new wood. In another words they are NATURALY occured variances of the existing plants. The only questions is how the owners called them before they were SELECTED, RENAMED and commercionalized? I'm 100% sure, answer is - Nikko Blue, as it was and still is a generic name for a generic mophead. I hope you noticed that all so-called Nikkos are not equal, neither in size, habit, form, color and size of the leaves nor in a color, density and size of the flowerheads. That is because they are propagated from the different parent plants. And those parents were propagated from the different parents and so on so on. Some parents had all necessary attributes of the 'original' Nikko, but some kept only part of them and as generations of vegetative propagation went by some attributes were lost as unnecessary for the plant, but name stayed the same. On an opposite side, some qualities were naturaly enhanced as plants were adopting themselves to the new growing and harsher conditions. That is why we have some Nikkos that are not blooming in z7 CT and ES (formerly Nikko Blue according to my theory) that is blooming in z4/5 MN." And another coincident, in another thread someone from z5/MA posted this with a picture of a perfect dk.blue hydrangea. Posted by littleonefb z5MA (My Page) on Thu, Jul 19, 07 at 23:54 "My neighbors voted 2 pics of standouts and they have been this way for a couple of weeks. This one of a blue hydrangea which gets darker as the flowers fully open with the nasturtium underneath them. I have no idea what kind of hydrangea it is. Hubby gave them to me about 26 years ago around Easter time. He bought them in the market because they where blue and he knows I love blue flowers. I took the chance that they would be hardy to this area and planted them in the bed under the front picture window and held my breath till the following spring. Sure enough they have been there every year and blooming away, except the summer following that bitter cold winter we had. Only 3 blooms that year. The stems readily root right through the mulch when held down by a rock, so now I have the 2 original plants that I keep cutting back as they get to large, 2 others from rooted stems and my neighbor has 6 of them that I rooted for her. If anyone can give me an idea of what kind it is, I'd love to know. I never see anyone else growing a blue hydrangea with flowers this deep a blue." Can't be a one warm winter fluke, 26 years of continuous bloom says something or not?

Hey Hay, Mine are in a bright northern exposure, too. A north-facing foundation planting, to be exact. They get a few hours of morning sun, and a bit of late afternoon sun. Come to think of it, I didn't do much flower harvesting this year. Maybe that's why they're so late to re-bloom. It's hard to say as they're so young, one and two-year olds. I might try and remember to dead-head those May flowers next year and see if I get an earlier re-bloom. All these flowers-to-be are killing me, though some of them have actually had enough time now to open up. We are still frost-free here. Sometimes it doesn't frost until the first week of November. 70's and 80's this week.

Even without a pre-emergent, summer survival of spring planted grasses is touch and go (the pre-em actually doesn't cost you much, if anything at all). They simply don't have time to develop adequate root mass before summer hits. Consistent watering can get you around that...and of course, can also set off some nasty fungal issues. But those can be dealt with as they arise. Tupersan or Tenacity are fine at seeding time, and can be reapplied. Once. That will get you through the silly season of weed growth and into the earliest part of summer. Post that, the optimal answer is to wait until the grass has been mowed three or four times, then spot-spray weeds that do sprout and use a pre-emergent again at that point. Crabgrass will continue to sprout until soil temperatures drop under 65 or so (it's most energetic warmer), so even a late-applied pre-emergent has some benefits. You're likely to still have breakout issues for some years. Pre-emergents are around 90-99% effective. Crabgrass can drop hundreds of seeds per plant without half trying. So some will still sprout. Fortunately, Weed B Gone with Crabgrass Control is very effective on sprouted crabgrass, and can be spot-sprayed even when the lawn is very young. It may damage or kill some surrounding grass at that point, however. By the third or fourth mow, the grasses will be much more resistant to it and damage will be minimal, if any at all.