I planted my 20 ES 3 feet apart and it looks like they're gonna start really crowding next year....because they're 4 ft. high and wide. They've formed a gorgeous hedge loaded with blooms. Just what I wanted. The crowding this year serves to keep the blooms up...so they're leaning on each other for flower support. That works for me. The blooms are pretty monstrous...to the point where I pruned the blooms in size last year so they wouldn't droop.

Last year, I took a ton of blooms to put in vases in my house for a party the weekend after 4th July. I've got a lot of plants, admittedly, but I made note of the cuts. All of the plants that were cut, rebloomed. Consequently, last summer I posted a message here to reassure folks that cutting flowers from ES was OK.

The plant reblooms until late fall for me....certainly late October. I had beautiful blooms on Halloween.

I'm so convinced of the robust nature of this plant, I've started pruning it to make sure I've got a pathway.

What does them in is a wetting in near freezing temps. My first year, I still had them on automatic watering when we had a morning frost in September. It turned the leaves into cooked spinach. They are watered by a spray at base level, but the overspray did them in. Now I turn off the water in mid-September. Last year, they kept on blooming forever.

My plants are situated in an almost perfect environment for hydrangeas. They get about 4 hours of direct sunlight in the morning and filtered light the rest of the day. The filtered light is from a tree that killed 3 the first year. Too much root competition. Simply taking note of the tree roots and repositioning seems to have worked. The replacements are thriving.

As an aside, the "overloaded with fertilizer with shallow roots" plants I got last year have double the blooms this year. I'll just continue with my 10-10-10 fertilizing in the spring, but those other blooms are remarkable.

Companion plants for me are pink, purple and white Dead Nettle (lamium), Foxglove Grandifora (perennial), Monarda, Aconitum. And above the hedge on the fence...Japanese Wisteria, Amethyst, which I've l'espaliered against my fence at about 7 feet. I asked my nursery to order it last year. It's pretty adorable in the spring behind my low and leafy hydrangeas. This wisteria is supposed to rebloom in the South, we'll see what happens here year 2 here in the North. It didn't rebloom last year. However, this wisteria bloomed year 1 for me. It's a great vine that's about as invasive as my kiwi vine (another companion.) Perfectly manageable. All have same light requirements.

Otherwise, no fuss, no mess. I'll cut my ES down to the ground this winter. Had to cut almost everything off down to the ground this spring anyway. Probably will cut them down to the ground and mulch when they're done.

This beautiful hydrangea is a no-brainer for Northern Gardeners. Hope this helps.