The trick to not buying what you don't want/need is to get to the auction well in advance and really look over the plants being offered, making a list of what you would like to have and how much you are willing to pay for it. Younger growers can remember the details; I have to write it down nowadays. Then I sit down, grab a plate of food -- we usually have a pot luck -- and watch the fun until the plants I want come up for bid. I usually go home with two or three plants which may not be cheap, but that I really wanted. Having been a victim of orchid auction fever years ago, this seems to work for me. Having no room in the GH for more plants to begin with also acts as a brake on my bidding. But these auctions are always fun and a chance to pick up stuff I would like to have. At our annual auction, all plants are donated by the members and all proceeds go to the society.

You know the old saying Charlie, mother is the necessity of invention. I first did it with a bunch of hosta seedlings I wanted in the ground and out of their pots. Since we use the pvc for the daylily seedling patch we had a bunch of pvc around so I swiped that, cut it off, and made the temporary labels. From there, it was the marker of choice for a seedling in the display area. To show how lazy and cheap I am, you can use the pipe twice. When I eliminate something, I turn the pipe and write with the Painters Pen in the area previously written with pencil and vice versa. Brooke

Hello, midwaycat. In your location, you probably can use just about any of the macrophyllas (aka, mophead or lacecap with white, blue, purple or pink blooms), arborescens (mophead or lacecap blooms too), quercifolia (aka, oakleaf; has panicle shaped white blooms too... usually) and paniculata varieties (white or green panicle shaped blooms). To obtain best results meaning reliable bloomage, consider use of arborescens and paniculata shrubs as these produce flower buds in Spring and are normally not impacted by winter weather issues. Also, in my opinion, their leaves handle “too much sunlight” issues better than macrophyllas so they have less wilting or drooping. Examples of arborescens hydrangeas are Annabelle (white blooms but sometimes suffers from flopping due to the weight of wet blooms), Incrediball (white larger blooms; less bloom flopping after 3+ years), Invencibelle Spirit (pink blooms; two versions: I or II), Bella Anna (pink blooms; have not seen it for some reason lately at my local nurseries though); White Dome (a lacecap version of Annabelle). The species versions of H. arborescens is also sold out there; has white blooms in lacecap form but White Dome's blooms look better to me. Because arborescens cannot be seen with bloomage some times of the year (nurseries cut them for unknown reasons ???), and since wrong plant labels are a problem that happens, it may be useful to see these arborescens plants in bloom before buying so you can match the bloom against the bloom in the plant label. Thus, if the plant has lacecap-type blooms and the plant label says Annabelle, woops, beware. You can use any of the macrophyllas or oakleaf varieties too but they can be affected by winter weather because their invisible flower buds develop in the July-August time frame and open in Spring. They have bigger leaves too so they can be a pain with leaf wilting/drooping in the hottest part of the year and especially in their first summer(s). If winter gets way too cold for the plant hardiness or if the temperatures fluctuate enough to make the plants break dormancy, that can kill the invisible flower buds. Just recently, these last two winters, I have had issues with both of those 2 types. Last winter, I had some –not all- macs and oakleafs not bloom. Two years ago, I had almost zero bloomage from all those (but the arborescens and paniculatas came thru with no problems). White macs that only bloom once in Spring but which impressed me with their reliable bloomage are Mme. Emile Moulliere and Sister Theresa (or Sister Therese). Those two macrophyllas (mopheads) are non-rebloomers, produce invisible flower buds in July-August and tend to flower when similar ones do not. Macrophyllas that advertise reblooming will have blooms as usual in Spring and then again in the July-ish time frame and perhaps still again in mild winters. These can be good for you because you do not loose bloomage for the whole year when there is a bad winter. You may loose the Spring bloomage for example but there should be another set of blooms later on. The Endless Summer Series, the Together & Ever Series, the Let’s Dance Series and so forth include examples of these mopheads and lacecaps that re-bloom. Most of them are great as they include colored blooms: white blooms or either blue-ish/purple-ish blooms in acidic soil or pink-ish in alkaline soil. But for really reliable bloomage, you may have to winter protect them even if they are hardy. Winter issues are not usually a problem for me so. I do not winter protect. But I pay the price (no or limited bloomage) on 'bad' winters. The oakleaf hydrangeas have oak shaped leaves, are hardy to zone 5 and have plain gorgeous Fall Leaf colors! I have a compact Pee Wee that does not disappoint and it develops reddish leaves in November. There are other compact ones and even much larger ones (10’) so check the plant labels to see if the size will be good in your planned location(s). Little Honey has yellowish leaves and is compact. Other compact ones are Sikes Dwarf, Vaughn’s Lillie, Ruby Slippers, Munchkin, and some of the Gatsby Series. Oakleafs are more drought resistant than the other hydrangeas but, they catch root rot if allowed to sit in water for long periods of time. Paniculatas are extremely hardy to Zone 3, have smaller leaves and develop invisible flower buds in Spring-early Summer. They include many interesting new compact versions whose name has the word “little” in the name: Little QF or Little Quickfire (very early blooming for a paniculata), Little Lamb, Silver Dollar, Sweet Summer, Little Lime (a compact version of Limelight with green blooms that stay green longer with the less sun that they get), Strawberry Sundae (a compact version of Strawberry Vanilla), Wedding Gown, etc. Fall is a good time to plant but during the Fall Season, many nurseries usually have zero or low inventories. If you find any now, the good news might be that the plant has spent the growing season developing a large root system so you get a larger plant than if you had bought it in the Spring or early Summer. Do prune any roots circling in the pots. Size is usually not much an issue as most times, they tend to grow a lot quickly. But I have had some that hardly grow on year 1 and leave growth for years 2 or 3. Go figure. As long as their soil acidity, sunlight exposure and soil moisture requirements are met, you should be fine. Too much sun can make the leaves turn all yellow including the leaf veins. But I suspect your area does not have summers with a strong summer sun like I do. Do not let them have wet-dry-wet-dry soil conditions but evenly moist soil with lots of mulch. Use 3-4” of mulch up to the drip line to protect the roots from the cold temps and lengthen the soil moisture; fertilize in Spring with ½ to 1 cup of organic mulch, composted manure or cottonseed meal; use liquid seaweed, liquid fish or coffee grounds thru the rest of the growing season (but stop fertilzing by thend of June so they will go dormant at the appropriate time); and again, maintain the soil evenly moist as best as you can. Stop watering when the soil freezes but, while dormant during mild dry winter months, you can water during dry months once every week or once every 2 weeks. If your soil is alkaline, plant nurseries will offer for sale amendments that can be used to acidify the soil. I amend in Spring and sometimes again by late summer or early Fall. In alkaline soils, the leaves can turn light green or even yellow-ish colors while the leaf veins remain dark green giving the leaf a skeletal look. Be aware that hydrangea blooms start life with a certain color and, as time passes, the blooms mature and change color until, at the end, the blooms are brown. You can keep these brown blooms for winter interest or deadhead them. Consider too that if you go shopping now, whatever hydrangea bloomage you see now in the local nurseries may not be (color wise) what you will see in Spring. Originally white blooms may now be green-ish or pink-ish. Due to the reduced supply of plants now, consider buying the in Spring instead. But also consider that it may be cheaper to buy now (one of my local nurseries have azaleas and hydrangeas on sale 30% off). Oh, decisions, decisions, right? A book like Hydrangeas by Glyn Church contains good info if you want to learn about these shrubs. For online reading, I recommend going to this website: http://hydrangeashydrangeas.com/ I hope that helps. By the way, if you post pictures of the planting location(s) and its dimensions, I am sure a lot of folks will chime in with specific suggestions. Luis

Glenn - :) Pea - strange story about my h. acetosella. I bought seeds because I couldn't seem to find anyone who had any. I planted all ten and only two came up. I planted one in a container, and it grew so well, I ended up taking multiple cuttings from it and planting them everywhere. I planted one in the south-facing garden and it didn't do much, but it did give me a very few seeds, which I spilled in the courtyard when I was gathering a pot to plant them in. This spring, when I was doing spring cleaning in my courtyard, I noticed seedlings coming up where I had spilled them into the leaves. I plucked them out and potted them up, and now I have so many, I don't know what to do with them. The H. radiatus is the same. I get so many seedlings every year, I never have to even save seeds, which is good, because those pods are so prickly!