As before I enjoy the photos you post that shows a plant as it matures over a four year period. And it's good to see something green. Been an old fashion zone 4 winter in South Dakota, luckily we have a 8-10 inch blanket of snow cover. Might be a year were those pushing the zone will get caught. I know I have a few I'm worried about.

Isn't that a great winter present! I had some fall germination of my ET Hellebore seeds which had been sown last January. I am hanging on to some of the pots, never know what they will do come spring and another round of winter dormancy. I also has received some other seeds last summer which I was starting to give up on but low and behold germination is beginning!

I would expect that you would be very irritated with the company and that you would expect some form of compensation for the damage. Obviously the helper bees do not know what to do around hydrangeas (may not even know what one looks like) and the person in charge of the helper bees did not review the garden with you ahead of the clean up crew. Next time, make that a pre-requisite before they start work, specially with a new landscaping service. You can do this when signing up for the service. It can also be done they day they plan to work or it can be done on a prior day just with the person who will be in charge (if your schedule prevents you from being there when they are pruning the plants). What to do? It depends on the variety, diyhome. Some macrophyllas bloom on new wood so this type of pruning will not prevent them from having blooms next year. Paniculatas grow on new wood so they too will not be affected. Macrophylla varieties that bloom old wood and all oakleaf varieties will probably skip bloomage in 2009. New stems of old wood varieties (stems that grow from the crown) -in theory- shold not bloom in their first year for similar reasons but, some persons have reported on this forum that they get blooms on and off; so, blooms on new stems of old wood varieties are thus unpredictable and could produce a bloom.

Well the plant has arrived. And in a pleasant surprise it is rather large sized. Greats: 1. The lucerene mulch I got this time is great. Very good quality !!! Bads: 1. Well the other pack of the garden soil I had kept was 2 years old, seemingly had got wet and became mush. I thought that it should not matter since the pot is open bottomed. I put it in and after watering the water just stayed on top. So took the plant out and removed the mushy soil. Opened another pack. It was moist as expected. After planting the water drained better. 2. The roots of this plant are just hairs. Puts Daphne to shame. I have serious concerns on how long the plant will last. I will keep on updating the thread as things happen.