Yes, it seems to be absent in many places. I lost one 2-3 years ago and was looking forward to getting a new one from the same place (locally) but they did not 'get' it or did not order it last year and this year. This time of the year (June-July), I would expect to see the paniculatas for sale and, while they brought VS, there was no LQ. :o(

Sounds like it should've grown larger by now. Consider your soil conditions and any need to change them (richness, nutrients, mulch, etc). Otherwise it might need more time. Also, I've mentioned this many times on the forum specifically regarding QF: If you prune in August or any time after, you risk preventing next year's bloom depending on where you cut, so either prune immediately after the blooms turn dark pink - or - let it go all winter and cut off the spent blooms only (no other stems or nodes) AFTER new growth has begun. I think I pruned mine last july and it's completely loaded with buds right now.

"In fact the person who told me it would not bloom this year if I cut it back in the Spring runs a garden and florist business." It's because they're kind of correct. If you chop it back to the ground, blossoms are way, way less likely. Not entirely impossible, but far less likely. So if the plant was heavily damaged and has to regrow from the base, it probably won't blossom well next year. It will devote its energy into regrowing greenery. But you might get lucky and still get some blooms. If you cut it back too hard a bit later on, you're not going to get much in the way of blossoms. There's no hard and fast rule as to how hard you can cut when, because it's going to be very seasonally dependent. Before growth starts or as leaf buds form in early spring? You can always remove up to about a quarter (to a third, but that's pushing it in my experience with mine) at the cost of little to some minor blossom power. Later on? That number goes way down...fast....as our winter-to-spring cycle goes around here in the Northeast. You know the cycle; 50 one day, 80 the next. Cutting back too late in spring is also going to deprive you of most blossoms, if not all, as you'll take off the forming buds on the branch tips. This is not a case of being wrong, but giving you the shortest blanket advice without being wordy. Since I'm regularly accused of being overly wordy (cough) around here, this is the kind of advice an overly-shorthanded person might give. In this instance, the longer if-then-else clauses of the more wordy advice are actually more correct, but require that the person read through. You want my advice? If you're dead-set on having it bloom, clean out the dead stuff in spring, shape as you absolutely have to, and wait until after it blossoms to do anything else. It's not the optimal time to reshape a hydrangea, but if you keep it watered and lightly fed, it'll adjust. Shape it better then. Plan on moving it in late August as summer starts to fade to give it the maximum time to adjust to its new home, as you mentioned above. While we're not likely to get that kind of storm again for quite some time....well, they said that the last time, too. And here we are.

@luis_pr, it’s performing well, though just now starting to turn pink…in comparison, LQF and QF started turning pink two or three weeks ago. It doesn’t bloom earlier than either of those shrubs, perhaps around the same time as Fire Light, which is a few weeks behind the Quick Fires. It doesn’t grow as quickly as full size Quick Fire, either. Here’s a pic of it, taken today, in my most neglected bed, with Walker’s Low and spirea. I guess all things considered, it’s doing pretty darn good - it gets no supplemental water and is blasted by the sun all day long. Part of it has been browsed by deer; I find it interesting that they come around to the back of the shrub so they don’t have to brush against the nepeta on the other side, which they seem to find too stinky for their tastes!