Yeah, good buy. Very nice! And the blooms are in excellent shape (not brown or brownish)!!! The leaves are also in good condition, which means they have received good TLC at Swanson's. Beni's sepals have started turning pink and Romance's have switched from a lacecap-ish look (when the blooms are new) to a full mophead look, which gives the blooms a look like they recently opened... I like that!!! Wow, that is so nice! Romance has a Bloomstruck effect with those multicolored blue & pink blooms too. I have not seen that hybrid for sale locally and hear so little about Youme's here!!!! They have others called Forever, Eternity, Passion, Romance (this one is the one you bought)... Did they have any of those others? I wonder... why they are not more for sale in the US?

Congrats, Shirley!!! And enjoy the Swanson's Fall Festival next weekend.

PS - Can you tell from the Youme Labels if they re-bloom? I have not seen an answer to that question in other posts.

You did not know? She has space. In her area of the Pacific Northwest, you can hang them from the tree branches above 4' high!!! That is why she can keep adding more! Hee hee hee! Just kidding, Shirley. ;o) In my area, I have to buy the neighbor's back yards! LOL!!!

Luis - I know Shirley very well - we are former neighbors (lived only blocks away) and when I moved away from that area, a good portion my garden went to live at hers :-)) In return, many of my current collection of hydrangeas came from her started cuttings.

And she does have room to add more - but unless one is mountain goat, accessing and tending them would be tough. Much of her backyard is a deep wooded ravine that makes caring for or even seeing cultivated plantings difficult.

I believe you. Some of mine have also originated from Shirley's "backyard" (or "your" backyard indirectly) as well. Maybe she also has a secret, hydrangea-only garden stuck away somewhere in the vicinity too! Maybe in one of those rocks that I remember seeing in the Pacific but close to the beaches of Olympic Natl Park? That would be a few yards away from Oregon. Ha! They always had lots of trees growing at the top of those rocks. Maybe Shirley found a way to climb them and grow hydrangeas there too. I too wanted more shady space but it is so hard to grow slow but good trees....

And I am now thinking of cutting down a live oak tree that has never quite been good in front of the house. At least, I do not have any shady plants underneath or near.

Gotta go now and give a bath to a shedding dog now. Oh, joy! Enjoy your new buys, Shirley! Have a good day, gardengal48.

BUSTED! Going to make room by taking out some of the duplicates! lol Others will be potted up for the Plant Sale in May. I found it is easier to find new homes for mature plants than the new cuttings.

Luis, the photographs are from the internet. There were no blossoms left on the new plants - but I might post pictures of them anyway to show how healthy they are. I do purchase mail order plants - mostly from Joy Creek - any other sources like big box and grocery stores, but these two show the real value of plants purchased from a first rate nursery.