H.s. 'Komachi' (pretty girl/woman) should be an easy one to find. It's often sold as 'Pretty Maiden', a Japanese/English translation applied by Itsaul Plants (Atlanta) when they introduced it into the US market several years past. I have been growing 'Little Geisha' for several years, in a pot, located on my front steps. (Had 2, one was stolen from under my nose, when I entered the house for a refreshment one day). It is truly a dwarf for me, with height & width less than one foot and flowers about 2-2½" dia. I expect it would be larger, if grown in the garden, with room for unrestricted root expansion. H. x 'Preziosa' is the only Hydrangea that has hosted Powdery Mildew in my garden, during 25± years of growing 11 species and countless cultivars. A rooted clone of that plant, located only a few feet away, has never developed PM. The original plant was removed and destroyed.

Ego45: Thank you for responding, and sending that gorgeous picture of your Bluebird hydrangea. Lots of the soil in this area is acidic, as it grows beautiful rhodies and Christmas Trees. I also manage to get some beautiful pinks and mixed colored blooms (pink, white, and blue) on other hydrangeas. I have the aluminum powder here to use, as I wanted to see if I could turn any of them purple, so do you think some mix of the aluminum would assist the Bluebird? I love the color you have. What food do you use on your hydrangeas? I just bought some 16-16-16 - so how would you recommend its use? I have some hydrangeas that are 7 feet tall and at least 6 feet wide - some larger and smaller. Thanks you for being here for us.

Re: serratas vs macs First a disclaimer: I still grow at least 8-10 different macs. Hardiness is not a big issue for me, except after extremely cold winters, but that is not happens very often here. So, I'm not judging them by that parameter even though serratas in general are slightly bud hardier than macs. They will either bloom or not. I don't winter protect them. I don't want to sound snoby, but I'm somewhat tired of look-alike-me-too mopheads that have no distinct difference in habit or flower form. If only hydrangea specialists could tell the difference between them then I see no reason to grow another Nikko-like plant if I already have Nikko. Lacecaps are little bid different story, but again, too many look-alike cultivars on a market, though chosing carefully one could create collection of DISTINCTLY different plants. Contrary, serratas, especially late introductions from Japan could provide you with vast array of colors, shapes and forms of the flowers plus the different habits of the plants. Now I'm coming to the main point of my interest to serratas, leaves. Most of the macs have thick waxy fleshy leaves that tend to be look great in more formal, cultivated gardens, while serratas elongated toothed and in some instances red tinged leaves looks like they are belong to natural setting. Some of them even have an added feature of seasonal leaf color changes. Hey, they are mountain hydrangeas after all, right? We all know how the hydrangeas look in a winter and if bare sticks in a natural mix border look more or less OK, the same in a formal setting look outright ugly, at least to my taste. In my particular case, where I have several substantial size natural shady borders, mopheads that I originally planted there simply looking out of place and I'm slowly removing and substituting them for either serratas or more or less distinct lacecaps. I guess it's a matter of personal preferences and tastes and for sure it worth a separate thread.

I'd leave it for a good year or two, I've a number of various varieties of banksia in my natives garden and found that all of them took a few years to produce flowers. One, for example, the red swamp banksia, (b. occidentalis) took about 3 seasons before one flower came on. This season, though, a good dozen or more. If it looks healthy and has good drainage, give it time to mature a little, If you planted it only last October you may not even get any next season but certainly the season after. And if you want lovely flowers try b. ericafolia 'Little Eric', lovely shade of deep browny-red.