Hi HnO - I ran to Lowes to check out F&E Summer Lace that you had to give in to! LOL ... no such luck Â:( ... all the Hs they had were the reg Pink F&E as well as the Blue. Like any addict ... since I was there & have several on wish list + must list, I came home with 2 musts & 1 whim (none Hs tho)!!! This AM I got 2 in & I'm simply happy - the holes were pre-dug last Fall, so t'was a cinch!!! Â;) Lowes will take the whim back, if I can't fit her in amongst the musts ... nice isn't it?! Â;)

Hi - Last year I experimented on trying to blueify my 2 ES & 2 F&E - I used both a/s & Tiffany's organic amendment suggestions on both sets. my nursery friend advised a/s solution applications in early Spring - 2-wk intervals 'til buds are ready to open - (due to the enormously long days of heavy rains/strong storms/tornados, in early Spring, I was late in my efforts). Results - F&E no response except 1 huge bloom turned dirty pink. ++ on F&E vs ES tho is, the sturdiness of canes & much larger blossoms shaped more like an upside down bowl. ES: more blooms (30 each) but due to skinnier stems, had to be corralled/supported, eventually - as far as attempts at color manipulations (a/s vs organic mix) ES2 on coffee, tea etc - stayed pink with only 1 light lavender. ES1 only 1 a/s sol. applic. = like a dish of pastel mints or Jordan almonds. See in the link posted. This season, I will attempt to apply amendments on time & see what happens. Another observation bet the 2 ... protected F&E showed up their green shoots, from the ground a week later than unprotected ES. So far not a 1 are showing any leaf buds bursting open on old canes. FWIW ... Happy season to all! Here is a link that might be useful: ES1 & ES2

I don't grow any of the Forever and Ever, but Endless Summer is fully hardy here, right on the border between zone 4 & 5. When we have good snow cover during cold temps, I get surviving leaf buds on the branches, and even last winter when it got into the negative teens when we had absolutely no snow, it still came through with flying colors and is blooming profusely. I have it planted in morning sun next to a building and only a couple hundred feet from the Merrimack River, so it may have some protection from any late season frosts. For me it's a no fuss plant. I do have H. All Summer Beauty, which is always a bit taller than Endless Summer and doesn't have quite as many flower clusters, though they tend to be bigger. It's paler in color than ES. It's in the same bed as ES though it gets a bit more sun. The bed is really old horse manure plopped down about 8 inches deep over almost pure fine sand (too lazy to dig it in at my age) - the ideal of well drained & moist soil. On both it has lead to interesting colors, a mix of pink & blue, since the sand is acid and the manure close to neutral.

I've had Endless Summer Hydrangia now for 3 years. It is about 3 feet tall and wide and blooms every year. It is on the North side of my house so it gets sun from about 1Pm on. I live near Philly in Zone 6b. I like mine very much and it never has given me a problem so far. I'm not really sure how big it will get! Joann