Hi guys thanks for all your help- I am not going to repost in the other forum at this time b/c I think I got some very good information here. I went to walmart today and they were out of cactus mix. Sigh. They did have a bag of perlite tho- but I wanted to check with you guys first if this is the correct thing to buy, and if so- what do I do with it. I have a bag of miracle grow potting soil- I am assuming I need to mix these two together. I also have some small gravel- about bean sized. I plan to put him in a terra cotta pot since plastic holds the water and doesn't breath. I could use some instructions on the dirt mix tho- and as an aside- I purchased a succulent that needs to be repotted- do I use the same type of soil for him? I also have two lemon trees I grew from seed that I wanted to put into citrus mix, however they didn't even carry that this year. No they don't ever grow lemons, sometimes they flower but that's ok- the leaves smell really nice.

We live in a town that has "soil" that's called sugar sand. If you look at it, it's a gray sand with a little dirt. Growing grass is hard, but after being here 7 years, I've managed to. We've actually sunk a lot of money into real soil over the years; but will people realize it? Probably not since people come here from town with real soil.. There's an agent that likes to photo shop grass. I always know when one of her listings come through my email.. it's that photo shop colored grass. Deceptive? To me it is, especially since I worked my butt off growing grass. One said "highway barely visible" that would only be the case if you never looked out your window or into the back yard, AKA the highway. You could not avoid seeing the highway unless you drive up and enter the house with your eyes shut. In fact if someone from the highway tossed their gum it would hit the roof. Are you looking in NJ at some of the new communities we've walked? Orleans has a really nice community in South Jersey, very pricey for the area.. guess what you can not only see but hear? I have no clue how they sell them.. well, yeah, I do. They're nice houses but come on. Does the highway not matter?

Winter kill. I live just north of Concord, NH, and we got down well below zero this past winter with no snowfall, and down below -20 after there was a fair amount of snow on the ground. The previous winter was only a bit less harsh and so many plants were damaged by cold. You are even farther north than I am and so experienced the same type of cold. This type of Hydrangea, H. macrophylla, has older types that only bloom in spring on old wood, and those wouldn't bloom at all since all of last year's stems were killed off by the extreme cold. There are also some newer types that bloom on old branches from previous years as well as on new growth from stems that are growing for the first time this year, but they will be slow to bloom since they are starting from the ground. Usually the old wood and its buds are only hardy to - 10 to -15, so in milder winters it survives, while in really harsh winters such as the last two, these shrubs have to start with all new wood since the old wood has been killed to the ground. You can either live with having many blooms only some years, or you can plant either Hydrangea arborescens varieties like Annabelle (white) or Invincibelle Spirit (pink), or Hydrangea paniculata varieties such as Limelight, Little Lime, Quickfire, Little QF, Bobo, Pinky Winky, Vanilla Strawberry, etc. All these start in some shade of pale green to white and slowly change over the course of several months to various shades of pink.

Yes, it sounds like these hydrangeas are planted out of zone and winter kills the stems. When Spring arrives, new growth comes from the base/crown. If the hydrangeas blooms on old wood only, you do not get blooms on such a year. If the hydrangeas bloom on old and new wood, you do not get early blooms from the old wood but you should get bloomage from the new wood by late June or in July. This often happens with mopheads and lacecaps that are planted in cold zones. Or when temps get warm and awaken the plant from their winter slumber, only to get hit by freezing temps. Mopheads and Lacecaps that are rebloomers might help as these will develop flower buds from new stems also. You may have mopheads that bloom only on old wood so once the flower buds that they develop in July get killed by winter, you get new growth and no blooms. I would try to see if applying winter protection in the Fall helps some. Or plant hardy hydrangeas like Annabelle-types or any of the paniculatas. As far as pruning goes, you can prune the dried out stems all the way down if theyhave not leafed out by May. And as far as as the soil goes, just do the usual (1) keep them mulched with 3-4" of mulch up to the drip line, (2) fertilize in Spring after your average date of last frost and (3) amend the soil -if necessary- to keep the soil pH in check.