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First, 'BTI' *IS* 'Black Together'. Also the 'Midnight Magic' project by Forever & Ever that never got off the ground. And I just bought one. HA!

Secondly, LA Dreamin' now has a website ladreaminhydrangea.com. Doing a location search, the plants are supposedly going to be sold at Home Depots. As for when, I have no idea.

Last 'Double Dare' I actually got at Walmart(!) and is a trademarked plant of cultivar name 'Smhmdd1' - another by Tim Wood of Spring Meadow Nurseries, who has done the bulk of hydrangea breeding for Proven Winners. The plant was developed just in 2014.

This along with two new paniculatas were available at the location I went to. There is also supposed to be another H mac but I don't know what it looks like. All four are under BHG branding. I will add all four to the "new for 2015" thread.

DD sounds interesting and the shade of color that I see in my monitor looks quite "bright".

Are they hardy to zone 5 or lower? Nurseries around here don't carry any of them! I'm so jealous but happy that we get to hear all the good and bad....in order to decide if it will be suitable for our own gardens! So thanks Springwood! :)

Luis, DD is an interesting pink for sure. It is exactly as bright as the picture indicates. I'd compare it to a hot magenta Crayola marker.

And yes, not so much bragging, just saying that patience and persistence can pay off. Also, things sell out quickly this time of year - with places only ordering a handful of each plant, new ones like these can't really be deferred, especially when I visit each place twice or less per year. All of these would be fine in zone 5 with moderate winter protection, or at least a pile of insulation at the base.

Our Home Depots had LA Dreamin' a couple of weeks ago for $15, I think. I didn't get any, but I was surprised at all of the varieties HD had.

I bet those are 1-gallon sized. Last week my local HDs had zero hydrangeas period. They definitely goofed something up with shipments.

I really want LA Dreamin' but noone in our area carries it. :(

Recently got a 2-gallon of Enchantress to try from Lowe's because the "slender #5" Monrovia pot wasn't worth $49 to me. And don't they even know that hydrangeas have shallow root systems? Anywho, mine does not have any forming flowers on it which leads me to believe it was grown in a crowded area with shade. Or else it's dud. We'll find out!

They were all loaded with buds here.

Bud & bloom on the Blue Enchantress in Monrovia pots at my local Lowe's. Unfamiliar with it, tracked in online later to find it's a dark-stemmed sport of 'Bailmer', The Original from the Endless Summer line. http://tinyurl.com/pur6xfn

Springfield, your Fuchsia Glow looks fetching & I'm in the market for a pink/red that won't blue out in acidic soil. Garden Debut/Greenleaf doesn't mention pH sensitivity affecting color on this one. http://tinyurl.com/ol2wymo Searching further, found your photo posted here http://tinyurl.com/ptu65uy. You do get around, don't you? And contribute so much to hydrangea lore. Your haul is spectacular - you really know how to pick 'em. Well done! Posed a question & a request for you over on the New 2015 cultivars thread. http://tinyurl.com/q3zul2q

Heads up! For those near Tulsa, OK: Saturday - June 6 - free giveaway gallons of Fuchsia Glow to the first 500 visitors to Linnaeus Teaching Garden in Woodland Park. http://tinyurl.com/o6c3l9j

Heh, yep I try to get around! DG Plant Files need so much updating, and I try to chip away at it every now and then.

Hydrangeas have so many frustrating but appealing aspects. I just kind of feel the need to help clear the air whenever I can, mainly by testing the trendiest product first-hand. This is because there is so little genuinely valuable information out there on newer plants. Just because an advertisement makes a claim, doesn't mean it's possible. There are often surprises when it comes to learning what plants can/can't do under various conditions.

(I am not compensated, sponsored, or receive anything free. )

[I bought my house in 2008 and probably have upwards of 100 hydrangeas at this point. Since my home is kind of a starter size, I plan to sell it within the next 5 years, where I will bag and take my favorites / collector's items with me and replant them, leaving the rest to the new owner.]

Alright, now I've exhausted my budget for the next year and a half. After a 12-hour night shift at work, this morning I decided to visit a bunch more nurseries within 20 minutes of each other. Little did I know they would have nearly everything I've been looking for! These were all 2.5-3.0 gallon sizes and only ranged from $35-42 (and yes, some of them are HUGE)!

Ready to identify these? Go!

Just kidding. The back left two are Invincibelle Spirit II and Everlasting Coral (Hokomac), which I won't go into detail about. Although not yet fully blooming, according to Coral's bench card it is already at full size!! Now for the others (four not photoed in the group).

Peppermint Swirl ('Dancing Angel') - HGTV Home Plants. Not yet blooming. Tight foliage.

Sweetheart Halos a.k.a. Next Gen Wedding Ring ('Fanfare') - HGTV Home Plants. Not yet blooming. Lankier foliage.

Next Gen Wedding Gown ('Dancing Snow') - Ball. In full bloom and starting to spread laterally, following the bench card info.

Expression - Blew Label Shrubs. Not quite so new, but a goody. Blooming and filling out the pot!

Let's Dance Diva ('SMHMLDD') - Proven Winners. According to the card, this is already at full size(!). They also sold this with blueshifted blooms. Check it out!

Everlasting Noblesse ('Hokomano') - Plants Nouveau. It had a Coral tag which is incorrect, so I had to match the blooms to Internet pictures. Note the blushing/yellowing effect of the petals combined with the green streaks:

I will need some time to figure out what to do with these. LOL! There were also more I wanted to get and could not because I had zero additional room in my SUV! These included Ayesha, which was only $29 and the black-stemmed Abracadabra Orb for $39. Both were huge and were bursting out of their pots.

Omg, that's so many ! Btw, isn't Noblese supposed to have more green streaks in full blooms like this?

That's an amazing haul! I just bought myself a beautiful mophead hydrangea plant from Walmart for Mother's Day. Part of me is afraid of becoming a hydrangea addict! I want to see what other hydrangeas my local greenhouses offer. Thanks for sharing!

Wow. Those will keep you busy for a while. You spent as much on one pot as I did on the last 3 I bought in total. Although mine were tiny mail order ones.

Gorgeous selections! I always really enjoy seeing your purchases and collection of hydrangeas-- you are a wealth of knowledge. Thank you!

Thanks everybody! Heh, I only do mail order if I'm dying for something. I'm still about to with H arborescens Haas' Halo. Saving two spots for it. I know the regional hydrangea mecca Wayside Garden Center in Macedon NY has it, but I won't be out that way until September. Mail order things just take so darn long to grow, and I'm not that patient. :P I still can't believe some of those I bought were crammed into 3.0 gallon liners. Growing practices must've improved in recent years or something, as the size of the plants is so large you can't even see the pot!

My (what I believe to be) Everlasting Noblesse (Hokomano) does have the green streaks, although many more in the younger blooms. Plants Nouveau's Page has the correct picture sequence for bloom aging. The mature ones there only have intermittent streaks. It is extremely similar to Jade (Hortmaja), and there's still a small percent chance it could be, but I'm leaning towards "no". Consulted Esveld.nl as well as the "Polish Plantswoman's" Page. Just about everything you could want to look up about hydrangeas would be on those sites, I've found - using Google translator, of course. ;)

I really like the green on white. I'm still thinking if I should get it from Wayside because I almost run out of space on my patio. I did get a 1-gallon ruby slippers from a farmer's market today though. lol

Kudos on Ruby. That's one of three oakleafs I have. Found a decent enough 3-gallon of that last year and it's chilling at 4x4' with about 10 blooms on it. Satisfied. (And to avoid any confusion Wayside Garden Center is not the same thing as Wayside Gardens. WGC is not mail order and has hundreds of hydrangea in various sizes for direct purchase. They are also very diligent and manage to get in almost every trendy new offering yearly.)

Mine is still small, 4 canes with 2 blooms. 2 months ago I saw one in 2 gallon with 7 blooms on but I didn't pick it up. Do you have snowflake? I just saw one in the ground with so many blooms at a nursery. I think I like it better than ruby slippers but I grow plants in container so I tend to go for dwarfs. I haven't found a nursery that carries up-to-date hydrangeas. Maybe hydrangeas are just not that popular down here due to the hot weather. :(

I just had to try *every* nursery near me. It was weird, as one place would have one new thing and so on. Only one place had a whole boatload of new stuff, and it was one of the last places I went. And it was a very nice place, be it in the middle of nowhere, off a rural highway and then 2 miles down a dirt road. Can't even see how they got an 18-wheeler in there.

I have Snow Queen and a struggling Alice (my fault for incorrect siting). All were acquired in there last few years.

I'm curious what nurseries you've been to as I've hardly been to any around here outside of my end of town. I got some of my hydrangeas a few years ago at a discounted price because they didn't look great from frost damage, but it didn't really faze them.

I'll be honest, for hydrangeas Bedner's Greenhouse in Cecil has the best selection, quality, and price for the sizes offered. No one else really comes close. Unfortunately they were my second-to-last stop so I didn't have enough room to get everything I wanted! My jaw literally dropped because I'd never seen such properly-grown specimens.

This being said I did find some goodies elsewhere:

Expression at Rooted in Thyme, LD Diva at Reilly's Summer Seat Farm, Fuchsia Glow at Bachman's in Natrona, HGTV plants at either Hahn's or a Chapon's. LA Dreamin was at Chelse's in Murrysville but Bedner has 3 and 5-gallon.

Distant competitors for selection would be Plumline Nursery and LMS (Allison Park), but for the sizes offered the prices are not great (some 3-gallons pushing $60). I've visited them numerous times and spent zip.

I didn't even need to visit Trax Farms this year because they sent me a stock PDF and I wasn't thrilled. In the rural Greensburg area I believe Wolfe Nursery is also worth a visit, as they have a lot of new entries, albeit nothing I needed. I got my hanging baskets at 380 Discount Warehouse in Murrysville - cheap annuals there.

Where I have not yet been is up further north (like Soergel). Need to plan a short trip.

L.A. Dreamin has finally arrived at the home depot! $20 for a 2 gallon, not so bad but only a couple plants have one or two aged blooms and zero bud.

Cool, looks like multiple colors on each bloom. Mine are opening straight magenta around the edges so far.

Yes, a little blue, pink, and purple mix. But on the plants I saw that have multiple blooms, the color shadeof the blooms is the same on the same plant. I wonder if it will really bloom different colors on one plant like shown on the tag. By the way, has anyone seen this bug? Is it a good or bad bug?

I got my damaged hydrangeas at 380 Auction and my others at Beall's in Plum. I get a lot of stuff at 380 since it is so cheap and the same thing as Lowes or HD has a lot of the time. I need to make a trip to Hahn's (never been) for some nematodes to try to treat my bearded irises for iris borers and rot organically. Of the places suggested to me by other nurseries Hahn's is the only place that had the nematodes. I've been to Bealls several times but never have bought much from them. Plumline and Holiday Park are so expensive to me. I haven't been to Chelse's for a few years. I went in once off season and forget it is there. I've debated getting more hydrangea or peonies to hide the metal deer fence we put up to contain the toddler and keep his toys from being thrown over the hill repeatedly.

There can never be too many hydrangea, unless you're out of room of course. ;)

Bloom updates...

LA Dreamin

Fuchsia Glow

Expression

Coral

Double Dare

Noblesse (or Jade?)

Emerald

How are all of them doing? Winners and losers?

Well, I had recently posted a thread asking everyone how their new stuff was doing, but thanks for reviving this one. :P So... Almost everything was killed to the ground by 19-degree temps on April 12 after practically a ZONE 8 Winter (everything had greening buds!). But aside from that fiasco, these 2015 hauls are showing buds from crown growth (important!):

- Lets Dance Diva!

- Everlasting Coral and Noblesse

- Double Dare (!)

- couple on Fuchsia Glow and Grateful Red

Overall, getting tired of the bloom "misses" due to the winters and freezes... About to cut my losses and dig up the plants yearly (gasp!) and make a winter "burial mound" and cover with a tarp come early spring / replant in May!! Guaranteed to work! LOL

We were lucky this year woodith the freeze as some damage but looking good-even Ayesha has a few buds!

sorry with the freeze

Oh, man. You were so close to having a fantastic Spring had they all survived those lows! Sigh... worse time over here was several years ago when we got super cold weather and were in the single digits for several days. It sure killed the mosquitos that year!

Sorry for your losses. My Annabelles are greening up but I haven't looked for buds yet. I covered my peony when we had that freeze a week or two ago.

Yep, so close but so far away....

I'll add that Enchantress is showing flowers too but that's black stemmed ES so not really worth mentioning.

Two plants just went into "pot rehab" as well due to slow growth / damage: Blue Wave and Trophee. I have two F&E Fantasia that have also not done much in the ground ever, and will be repotted. Will plant replacements! Not limited to:

Currently trialing 2016-17 so far: Lime Lovebird, Firefly, Fuji Waterfall, Let's Dance Rave.

In 2015 I got a Blarney Stone as a cutting and it will need another couple years before planting. Aborescens Lime Rickey and Haas Halo are all good and ready to bloom!

Peonies should actually handle freezes pretty well. I've seen them growing in the Laurel Highlands area and you know how it gets out there!

I've heard and seen a bit about the Laurel Highlands with my husband growing up there. I've been up here from TX for 13 years now. My peony already had a couple dozen buds I didn't want damaged by the frost.

omg...makes me want to run out to the stores/nurseries and hunt for hydrangeas.

Princeton, Springwood's posts always have that effect on me, too...lol.

I'm my own worst enemy. Picked up 5 the other day and I technically have nowhere to put them. That's why we have planters. :)

Lol

I'm waiting on my Annabelles to start blooming if the slugs don't eat the buds first. Some of my irises bloomed already half eaten.