HerabalBetty, Thanks for chiming in. Wow, that is amazing growth in a few years time, even with the deer browsing it. Is it as full at the bottom as it is at the top? Does it spread by runners like a lilac does? What I read says it blooms only on new wood, does that mean that the majority of the blooms are on the top of the shrb and the lower portion is fairly free of blooms? I don't want the base of a shrub that large to look like a vase of flowers if you know what I mean. I appreciate your input. Thanks Thyme2dig, I believe at full size the Pink Diamond is supposed to be about 6x10, a 4-5' x 8-10' shrub would be perfect. The continuous perimeter length (circumference?) of the garden is some thing like 200 ft., this is for sure a case where size matters! It will take a lot of them to form a hedge that long and the cost, depending, could be phenomenal! Pink Diamond is a bit taller than I'd like But I thought that I could probably trim it in late winter while it's dormant since it buds on new growth only. I think that should work. Someone tell me if I'm thiking this all out wrong, please! I have grown Spirea "Gold Mound" when I lived in zone 5 and it was a fabulous shrub. I had around 25 of them encircling my pergola/patio. They looked so smashing with the deep red climbing roses that grew on the pergola. "At this house I have Spirea Jap. "Magic Carpet". They are hardy enough to hang on every year but they have not grown more than 6" in over four years now. If I knew I was getting on that had some growing power and would be zone 3 hardy I buy it in a heart beat. I'll go search the Spireas some more. I'm sure that many more have come out since I last took a look at them! Oh, BTW, the Blue Muffin was long coveted by me. I got one little panicale of Blue seeds before it to croaked. The seeds on that are a LOT darker than they've colorized them in the catalogs. MeMo

I'm not aware of how hardy this particular variety is ... though, to be on the safe side, I'd wait until the ground is pretty much about to freeze and then hill it up well with dry peat moss or even just garden soil. Shovel snow upon it as soon as it arrives and hopefully before bitter cold has set in. Leave the trimming to spring when you can see just how much live wood has made it through. I've seen varieties such as 'Limelight' with varying amounts of winter dieback and it still blooms well on new wood.

Here's what I do with mine - I trim each stem back to the point where you have only 2 or 3 sets of buds on each stem. also remove all the smaller thin stems that make exist. Once you get growth coming from the buds, keep the strongest and most upright growing stems - prune off the others. And remember the blooms normally appear on the end of the stems. Paniculata don't like dry conditions so if you experience that, water once a week - I like using one of those Ross root feeders and water deep. Fertilizer - if your soil is decent, none. If your soil is poor I'd suggest a balanced formula like 10-10-10 or any good garden fertilizer. And top dress with compost every year.

No, a color change suggests that the bloom is mature and spent. After several weeks, a white paniculata hydrangea bloom begins a progression of color changes that ends in a brown bloom, similar to the color changes observed in roses. If you lived in a southern location, you could try deadheading the bloom after it begins to change and see if you get new bloomage. Some paniculatas do that in the South but I have not seen anyone confirming that VS "reblooms" for them. Reblooming white mopheads (H. macrophylla) will produce new blooms if you deadhead the spent blooms but, I am not sure if they can grow in your zone/location because you do not have this information displayed. Normally, they have winter hardiness issues when planted in very cold zones. An experiment that just occurred to me: you might be able to lengthen the amount of time that it stays white if the shrub is relocated to a spot in brights full shade with no direct sunlight. Maybe. Just maybe that may lengthen the whites. The reason I say this is because of my Little Lime. Paniculatas Limelight and Little Lime have blooms that start green then turn white, a shade of pink and eventually end brown. My LL is located in bright, full shade so it never gets direct sun. As a result, I have noticed that the blooms stay green for a very, very long time. If Limelight is exposed to full sun conditions, the blooms turn white faster. But my LL did not get a-n-y whites the last two years (or maybe they appeared near the end of the Fall and I did not notice). My LL blooms went from green directly to a shade of pink. This year it seems to be going in the "same trajectory". The blooms opened in late June and, as of today, they remain green. So, I wonder if -maybe- VS blooms may stay white longer if not exposed to direct sunlight. You could try that and see what happens. Or maybe someone who already has VS in bright but full shade can chime in with their observations of how long it stays white under those conditions..