Natsu, Thank you so much for your post on diamont rouge! Although I'm in zone 5,(5b) per the new zone map, I love hydrangeas and am not adverse to taking risks putting something in that won't come back. So I will be on a HUNT for this new hydrangea in the US. If it shows up in MO I can probably get one as my son is in school there. L. Ann, I bought 1 vs from my nursery and loved the pink paniculata bloooms so much, I moved things around in my yard to accommodate a 2nd. I'm not sure anything will ever get large in my yard as I keep moving things around til I find a good spot that it likes or so I can accommodate something else I just have to have. (It's easier bringing home plants than dogs - lol). Anyway, my vs seemed to bloom midsummer when I found them til mid fall. Only 1 or 2 blooms turned somewhat magenta, but the light pink colors were really worth it. Good luck! And Luis, thank you, thank you, thank you for all your knowledge and advise you give all us rookies!

Rebloomers like the Endless Summer, Forever & Ever Series are advertised as being hardy to Zone 5, which means they would survive a winter in that zone with nothing more than 3-4" of mulch. The catch is that those hydrangeas develop their first set of flower buds in the July-August time frame and these will not produce blooms consistently because the buds, the stems or both freeze/die out during the winter. That does not harm the plant per se, as new growth will then develop from the crown/base and you will get more flower buds... just later in the year. What you can do if you want blooms earlier is to: * stop fertilizing by July * if you have to prune live stems for some reason, prune them no later than by the end of June * maintain 3-4" of mulch thru the drip line * apply winter protection if you want to produce blooms from those July flower buds. An example of winter protection is to put chicken wire/burlap around 4-5 stakes that surround the hydrangea. The chicken wire should be taller and wider than the hydrangea stems. That helps protect the flower buds which develop usually near the end of the stems. When the plant begins to go dormant in the Fall, fill the area with dried out leaves, straw, etc. Pack the leaves really good, leave little empty space and save whatever is left in a plastic garbage bag so you can apply more in mid winter as the leaves settle. Make sure the side and top have around 3-6 inches between the ends of the stems to the chicken wire (the more distance, the more protection the leaves give). The top can be topped with cardboard; use rocks or bricks hold in place. Remove the winter protection about 2 weeks after your average date of last freeze. Luis

Hello, Kristin. Looks like Cercospora leaf spot and, ugh, a bad & early infestation at that. It normally starts later in the summer and at the bottom of the shrub & spreads up. Damaged areas are brownish with sometimes a purple halo. Anthracnose is a darker shade of brown; see the links below. If you have not already tried doing these things, try some "clean sanitation" / "good housekeeping" practices: no overhead watering (water only the soil and do so early in the mornings); discard the leaves in the trash when the plant goes dormant; replace the mulch with heavy infestations; discard any plant debris at the bottom of the plant; improve wind flow by not planting other shrubs very close to the infected plant; prune early those leaves that are about to fall, that are very infected (biggest leaf pic #1), that have areas that appear to be disintegrating (leaf to the left of the biggest leaf in pic #1). The infestation will make some leaves turn yellowish after a while... at which point I sometimes prune those too. Frequent summer rains can increase the rate of the spread of this disease, the leaf spotting and the defoliation (which is why you should prune off early the worst leaves). Watering the soil only, not over-watering and drought conditions help reduce/slow the spread. The down spout may be helping the infestation in this case too so see if you can deflect the water away from the plant. If all this is too difficult to control the disease and you can afford replacing the shrub it, consider replacing the shrub. For control with a fungicide, begin applications when spotting of the leaves is first seen and continue applying per label directions. Fungicides registered for the control of Cercospora leaf spot: azoxystrobin (aka Heritage; has the smallest application rate and largest repeat interval); chlorothalonil (Daconil); mancozeb (Dithane; Protect; etc); myclobutanil (Immunox); thiophanate-methyl (Cleary's 3336). Note that these fungicides try to control the spread but do not cure and cannot prevent the symptoms from re-infestation in future years. They work best when you apply fungicides with different active ingredients. For example: start with active ingredient #1; if it is good for 7 days then on the 7th day, spray with active ingredient #2; if that one is good for 14 days then on the 14th day, go back to spraying active ingredient #1; and so forth. Some of my shrubs have this problem but the leaf spots show up later, like in late August or September (we have hardly any rain in July-August so that helps me). More info: http://www.aces.edu/pubs/docs/A/ANR-1212/ANR-1212.pdf or https://clemson.edu/extension/hgic/plants/landscape/shrubs/hgic1067.html

Ok. First things first, you need a mower. A plain old rotary push mower will do just fine for that size lawn. You have to stop shredding up the grass with that string mower, it's bad for the grass and an invitation for disease. A lawn that size will probably take 2 minutes to mow yourself. The frequent watering is causing disease in the grass. Discontinue the daily watering and wait until the grass begins to show signs of drought stress to water again. At that point, water until a 6" screwdriver easily penetrates the soil all the way to the handle. It may take 2 hours or 15 minutes depending on your sprinkler output. Then wait to water again until you signs of drought stress. And so on. This will encourage the roots to "seek" water deeper and prevent your grass from being constantly wet.