Hi Lucy, I'm sorry if I gave the impression of crushing this forum. Therefore I would like to introduce myself just a bit. I'm a bonsai enthusiast for a 13 years now living in Holland, Europe. I'm a member of the Dutch Bonsai forum (http://bonsaiforum.nl/) and a few others for a number of years. I actually was a member of this forum a few years ago, but I lost my account switching from a number of e-mail addresses over the past years. I'm also a member of the Noord-Holland bonsai club. On the dutch bonsai forum a topic raised that many good bonsai forums have become anxiously silent these days, mainly because of the winter, but also in an overall way. I don't know about this forum, but I found it's a pity that these forums are dying out. As a response I decided to become a member of this forum again because there a view nice topics going on here. I will try and hold me in a bit. Back on-topic, I found that many people buying their first bonsai(s) are anxiously sitting next to it with a bottle of water to water it the moment they see a slight variation in soil color appearing. "almost dry out" in their perspective mostly means a fairly moist soil in ours. I also stated that one should NEVER, EVER let the soil dry out completely as this would most definitely cause the tree to DIE! You're absolutely right about that!

bernieeck: I've grown FS many years and your experience is the norm. Mine blooms very well but the flowers are not attractive to bees. I have had it set well but only by closely interweaving varieties. If you could intergraft the two varieties such that the spurs were closely interwoven, the set would improve. Unfortunately FS was one of the earliest pluot and it's quality plus the familiarity sellers have with the variety have it still being widely sold with no warning labels about fruit setting problems. This is my biggest pet peeve with nurseries, they only mention the good characteristics and none of the bad. There are better all around pluot that set much better. Geo Pride, Flavor Grenade, Flavor King, and Flavor Finale to name a few. In fact if you get Flavor Grenade be prepared to thin off at least 90% or your tree will be crushed under fruit. Perhaps you have noticed that FS is very vigorous. Any ungrafted branches will grow like crazy. Even if the grafts take you will need to prune regularly to balance out the limbs.

soultan~ Thanks for posting the picture of SG and the one from Brazil. I agree SG looks like a hybrid or selection from puniceum. 'San Antonio Rose' *appears* to be from puniceum also, but bears that wonderful purple striping on the leaf backs to set it apart from others. However, according to PDN, puniceum wasn't involved! Here's what they say about it: "From our friend Steve Lowe of Texas comes this newly released, dwarf hardy amaryllis from the late William Bell of Florida. H. 'San Antonio Rose' is an F1 hybrid between the winter-hardy H. aulicum var. stenopetalum and the now-extinct Brazilian H. traubii f. doraniae. The result is a charming, fast-multiplying dwarf, narrow-leaved amaryllis with dark red midveins on the leaf backs. In July and August, the (reportedly virus-resistant) clumps are topped with mid-sized rosy pink flowers...simply superb!" I wonder if the stripe is a fluke and just happened or did one of the parents have it? Could H. traubii f. doraniae be a punicium variant but is/was listed as the name it now bears? Tony also speculates on the origin of his 'Voodoo' as being the same cross that produced 'Ackermanii' and AFAIK that it is, but I see striatum, myself. Robert.

July 14, 2016, z4: I live in West Central MN, z4, have had an Endless Summer, Twist & Shout, planted on East corner of house since summer of 2011 (5 yrs at time of this writing). It gets full sun in morning, a little dappled sun in afternoon for a very short time, rich soil, moist conditions, landscape fabric covered with wood mulch, no turf or other nearby vegetation to compete with. This should be perfect Hydrangea conditions, and while this plant has been robust and healthy from the very beginning, it does NOT get anywhere near its advertised size. (Label that came on my plant says 4 to 5 ft tall and wide.) It dies back completely to the ground every winter so growth starts all over, from ground level, every spring, rather late in the spring, and reaches its maximum size of 2 ft tall X 3 ft wide in mid July. This also means it blooms only on new growth. Though it's advertised as blooming on both new and old growth, there is no old growth that survives the winter for blooms to grow on. I do not cut it back in the fall....don't touch it at all.....and leave the old growth until the following season. In the spring, I clean up the dead and fallen leaves from the year before but leave the old stems standing. (I started leaving the previous year's dead stems through the following spring beginning from the time I planted it, always hoping that, if given enough time, they'd come to life and be that "old growth" that would give the plant that bigger size and more flowers. I've given up that idea, but it's just a habit now. It's become one of those, "This is how I manage this plant because I know it does no harm" , kind of things.) Once the new growth is nearing the height of the previous year's stems, I simply break the old ones off as close to ground level as I can without disturbing new growth, usually ending up to be 3-4 inches above ground level, completely hidden by the new growth. Because they're "dead", the old stems just snap off by hand, very easily, and those few inches that may be left behind have fallen into the soil by the time late fall arrives and the plant once again goes into dormancy, has shed its summer foliage, and everything that was living that summer dies back completely over the coming winter. Over the summer and early fall, it usually has up to 12 blooms at any given time, depending on how much TLC it gets. Blooms range in size from 3" to 7" across (older blooms). Each flower lasts a long time. As far as the color of the flowers, some years they are more on the purple side, some years they are a bit more pinkish. Most years, there's an interesting mix of both colors on each individual flower, often times starting out more on the pink side but changing to purple with a smattering of pink as the blooms mature to full size. I don't know how the plant determines, but it does so on its own since I do NOT amend the soil with anything to change the PH level or influence the bloom color. All I do as far as feeding is give it a drink of water soluble "Bloom Booster" fertilizer (10-52-10) three or four times during the summer, beginning around July 1 (when the plant is nearing its full size and focusing most of its energy into putting on new blooms), and ending the end of August, at the latest. I tried giving it a balanced fertilizer beginning earlier in the season and found that it there was lots of green but sparse on flowers and could get rather leggy. This feeding routine seems to give the best results, in my situation, anyway. I'm very fortunate to live in an area of glacier-rich black soil (black gold!) where pretty much EVERYTHING I've ever planted in my 40 yrs of gardening/landscaping grows much larger and faster than what's stated on the labels. I was expecting the same with this Hydrangea, that its mature size would be greater than its label indicated, so I gave it plenty of room, which is doesn't come close to filling. I've decided to transplant it either this fall or next spring (depending on what I find on the internet for info on how it will stand up to fall transplanting in my zone, which I've not yet found). I think I'll put a Black Lace Elderberry bush in the vacated spot and move the Twist&Shout Hydrangea further down the east side of the house, next to a large bunch of established White Phlox just about to break into beautiful full bloom this time of year. That's my only disappointment with this Hydrangea, its ultimate size. According to my experience, it will never reach the size stated on the label in zone 4, where it dies back to the ground every winter and comes back from ground level every spring. An attractive and, so far, hardy zone 4 plant, to be sure, but not nearly as large as some other varieties in the Hydrangea family, and the larger size is what I was wanting when I bought the Twist and Shout.