@luis_pr Thank you so very much for the info! I have seen people plant ES on the ground in the spring and dig up and put in a pot and bring inside for the winter. For me, it is almost not possible. 1, the plants are very big now, 3 ft wide and tall, as I bought the 4 gallon ones in the spring. oh well. 2, too much trouble for me and too much shock for the plant. 3, i dont have indoor space and big enough window to give them the light to keep them happy insdie. Artificial light is too much set up again. SO after some search, i will be use the cardboard box method, i think. Here are tentative steps: please help me better this process if something wrong in the procedure lol. Zone 3/4, Edmonton 1) After tree leaves fall, collect leaves in plastic bags. 2) When ES hydrangea leaves are brown and dried, covered them with a cardboard box, fill in dried leaves. 3) Tape the top of the cardboard box, to seal. 4) Secure the bottom with rocks or garden staples. 5) Wrap the box with brown burlap. 6) Wrap again the box with black landscape fabric, to absorb warmth from the sun. 7) Sit for the winter to be over, hopefully lots of snow cover. 8) Remove protection around last spring frost, on May 15 ish. 9) If Frost come back after the fact. using white drop cloth for temporary cover. I also attached a pic of my blue ES (the original) in my yard this year. Isn't this blue out of this world!

Hello, jillkins. Yes, in Zones 4 and 5, ES is known in the forum for having blooming reliability issues.... not everyone though... for some people. They are described as being root hardy only in posts. They did ok for me until I killed the one by accident. The way these re-bloomers work: like all mopheads in the north, these hydrangeas develop invisible flower buds in very late Summer or early Fall; these then open in the Spring if winter does not kill the stems; you can prune the stems down if the stems do not leaf out by the end of May; keep any live stems if you winter protect the plants and the stems survive winter; the new growth that comes up in Spring is supposed to also to produce flower buds & bloom, provided the new stems get tall and old enough. That normally occurs in mid to late Summer. Soon after the flower buds develop, the buds open and go thru the broccoli phase and bloom. Now, anything that can interfere with that process can throw a monkey wrench into the "system". The weather (early winter, dry weather, etc), pruning, allowing the soil to go dry in the Summer, etc .... all those things can cause a problem or prevent the plant stems from getting tall or old enough to develop flower buds & bloom. The Let's Dance Series is another one that includes re-blooming hydrangeas but these are more compact so, I speculate, that their stems may get to the proper height and age faster and thus they may be more reliable re-bloomers in the Summer for you. If you want to try them out that is. Not sure if hydrangeas are out of stock for you locally but it is a suggestion. ;o) Other things to keep in mind in no special order: hydrangeas like uniform moisture in the Summer so try not to have dry soil (in the Summer) as this may trigger the shrub to kill flower buds and flowers; maintain 2-4" of mulch to reduce the need for lots of water and protect the roots from temperature extremes in winter and summer; fertilize only once in Spring, unless you live in the extreme South (too much fertilizing = too much nitrogen = green leaves = no or few blooms). Rule out deer, bunnies, squirrels as these all like to eat flower buds.

Blooms should typically go through a series of changes such as they start pink; colors fade; blooms turn pink; blooms add pink/burgundy splotches; blooms turn a shade of brown. Premature browning of the blooms suggests that any of these stressor events occurred by itself or in any combination: direct sun after 11am; lack of soil moisture; lack of enough soil moisture; very windy conditions; root disturbance/damage due to recent transplanting/underground pests/etc.; or excessively high temperatures with low humidity that desiccated the blooms.. If the stressor event lasts long enough, the leaves will lose moisture as well and start to brown out from the edges inwards. Maintain the soil always damp/moist during the summer months. Use 3-4" of mulch past the drip line. Ensure that the plants get morning sun only and that you use enough water to moisten the soil down to a depth of about 8" or so. Hydrangeas planted in the middle of the summer months tend to be very sensitive to heat, especially if they are not slowly acclimated to the outside conditions when brought home from the plant nursery, where they are coddled in little sun or even just bright shade.

Too much sun may not directly cause less blooms but it may cause the plant to lose foliage and thus vigor, something that you have not mentioned so apparently the shock to the system from full sun has not had a measurable effect yet. A hydrangea that gets too much sun will develop leaves that are completely yellow, including the leaf veins, only on the leaves that are in direct contact with the sun. Leaves inside the shrub will remain dark green. ES normally have two flushes of blooms: one in spring and another in late summer/fall. The spring flush only originates from stems that were alive in summer 2021. The late summer/fall flush only originates from the stems that started growing as new stems in early spring 2022. If you pruned since ES developed flower buds in summer 2021, you may have cut off the early spring 2022 blooms or caused a delay or no blooms in the second flush. The blooms from the second flush occur in late summer to early fall so those may still be somewhat on schedule; hard to say this early. In order for the second flush to occur, the new stems that started growing in early spring from the crown/base need to attain a sufficient height to trigger flower bud formation and immediately open those flower buds. Other possibilities: late frosts, very cold weather or inconsistent warm weather in winter may have made the plant break dormancy early, just as temperatures crashed and killed the summer 2021 flower buds that were supposed to open in spring 2022; too much fertilizer or use of a fertilizer with large amounts of nitrogen can produce deep green leaves at the expense of blooms; pests like deer, squirrels and bunnies can eat the flower buds.