Hi Mehearty! Happy Spring to you too! :-) Just like you, I am also really impressed with my ES. We had a pretty nasty winter, with lots of snow and persistently low temperatures. However, my 3 ES all did very well, and they are now all budding with new leaves coming out like crazy! I did not have any winter protection at all. Now, I am just praying that there will nto be any hard frost between now and Memorial Day! Then they will be just fine... :-) Do you have photos? Do you think that your ES has grown to its mature size yet? Or do you think that eventually, it will need to be moved, it's just a matter of time? It's tough isn't it when it's doing so well in this spot...!

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?

Hello, Kate. You actually have two different questions. Where to plant and which variety to plant. I saw an ES and a NB somewhat close on a trip to Mass several years ago. The NB was planted close to a wall while the ES was planted near other trees/shrubs. Both shrubs had similar height/width but the ES was older (NB was > 3 years old). I am not sure how old the bldg was; it was one of several in a retirement community. The blooms were similar but I liked the shade of blue of the NB more. It seemed more vibrant. NB also seemed to have more blooms than the ES. Several people have written posts regarding lack of blooms with ES, mostly those in Zones 4 and 5. Winter protection is now auggested with ES in the coldest zones (4 and maybe 5). On the other hand, I read where ES has increased mildew resistance than NB. Should you decide based on that? No. I suggest you get both if you want to compare and see for yourself as there are many variables that can affect what I saw in Mass and what you will see in Kansas. Only by planting them side by side you get the necessary conditions to compare them correctly. Other good blues worth checking are Blaumaise, Blue Bird & Blue Deckle, Miranda and Nighingale (all lacecaps) or you can check Blue Prince, Enziandom, Hamburg, Gen. Vicomtesse de Vibraye and Marechal Foch (all mopheads). The location of the new plant should be treated as a separate question. If you can determine that the NB's old location can be a problem because you will not be able to water it correctly then select another location regardless of which variety you end up selecting. While you now have more shade in the old location, you need to make sure that the old moisture problem will not cause problems again. The other place near the birch tree where you already have some hydrangeas sounds ok too. Lastly, some people have had experiences that make them label NB as hardier or tougher. You could try searching for some of these posts by keying on nikko blue or something like that; probably pay special attention to posts of people with the same type (or similar) of weather as you do. Luis

Mopheads like NB develop flower buds on old wood, between July and August (around July for me and August for you). The buds can withstand winters up to Zone 6 but only if the plant goes dormant without problem in the Fall, if the winter temps are not too cold for your zone, if the plant continues to get moisture before the ground freezes, and if the plant does not break dormancy due to high temps in winter. if you want to get reliable blooms from those buds, you need to winter protect. You also need to protect in cases where the weather stays warm but temperatures suddenly come crashing down (like 25 or less). High temps can make the lants break dormancy. Then sudden and large drop below 32F can kill the buds. Down here in Zone 8, mopheads, lacecaps and oakleafs are alive, green and well as if this was September. Paniculatas went dormant a few weeks ago. So, I am concerned about damage from a sudden large drop in temps under these conditions. Two winters ago, winter started late, the plants did not go dormant in the Fall and December had a nasty temp drop from the 70s to the 20s that continued for a while. Last year, the same thing occurred but in the 1st quarter of 2015. Both scenarios killed flower buds. So this year, I am trying to winter protect the hydrangeas like NB that bloom on old wood. You might winter protect if you want to make sure you get bloomage in Spring. Since my leaves are still a nice, lush, green or red, I just put the chicken wire around the plants and will add mulch either before there is a large drop in temps or after gradual/small drop in temperatures dry out the leaves. By the way, which Ilex do you have? I was looking at one deciduous holly that produces yellow 'berries' (drupes) because I have several fruit producing shrubs around but no yellow 'berries'.