What is your soil pH, acid or alkaline? The acid soil tends to turn H. macrophylla cultivars blue and more alkaline is pink. So if you have alkaline soil, you should be fine. Alternatively, Hydrangea paniculatas start blooming white or light green, but then turn pink. There are big ones like I grow, but there are also some smaller ones like 'Little Quick Fire' or 'Little Lamb.' Here is my H. paniculata 'Quick Fire' in early July, shortly after it started blooming. From clematis on hydrangea July 9, 2013 In early August it turns pink and stays that way until hard freeze. Here it is in late September.

Hello, Tricia. It is definitely hard to tell as we can only guess at what you saw and experienced when living with these plant daily. So I will guess.... 1. Stems that "look" dry as sand can actually be alive. The exterior woody shell which we see is hard and protects from the elements, just like in trees. But the interior where the sap resides could be green. Dormant too. Why do you not experiment next year? Prune off a stem and see if you see green or is it dry dead inside. If dead, prune two inches below that cut and continue until you either find green or hit the bottom. Here in the south, stems that do not leaf out by mid-to-end of May can be considered dead (mid-to-end of June if located the northern parts of the country). 2. Bloomage may be "later than normal" under such conditions but not thaaat late (September?). Foe example: Leafout happens here in April and about 4-6 weeks later (varies a lot) then I start seeing the bloomage. Things should work similarly for you. How about you monitor this interesting question and post updates as you notice changes. 3. I have not seen such a list. But Hydrangea Macrophylla Maculata can be grown in Zone 6 and, if it is hardy to zone 6 then you can assume the wood can withstand temps as cold as -10 to 0F. Maybe less if they warm up the next day. Hydrangea macrophylla 'Variegata' is a Zone 6er and Hydrangea Macrophylla Light O Day is a Zone 5er. Or so the nurseries say. While the wood may withstand these cold temps, I am not sure about the flower buds. Hydrangea macrophylla suffers from early or late freezes since the flower buds have a weak dormancy. Surprise warm weather in winter or early spring causes the buds to emerge from dormancy, grow and become susceptible to freeze damage; see Hayseedman's famous post on overwintering hydrangeas for more info. 4. Late June but feel free to do the pruning I suggested in Question #1 in late spring if you are curious. Luis Here is a link that might be useful: Overwintering Hydrangeas by Hayseedman

Hello! I am new to container gardening. Bought the seeds from Select Seeds and four out of five sprouted in less than a week! I did as was advised: poked a hole in the shell, soaked them in warm water overnight, and here they are (well, except for one)! The seedlings are about 3.5-4 inches now. I live in NJ, Zone 6b. I have a lot of questions and looking for advice, please. Is it time to transplant them into a big pot and take it outdoors, or they should stay in those lovely coffee cups for a while? Should they be transplanted first into a medium sized pot? How should I tend for them further on? I intend to grow them on the patio and overwinter in house (hope to keep them alive that long). Should I plant all of them in one container, or each one should go into its own pot? Thanks a lot in advance!

In my yard I have an Annabelle (same species as Incrediball) that gets sun from about 9:30 am until 2 pm. It will wilt if we have a dry period. So my experience is that they do better with shade during the hottest part of the day, even in my area where it only occasionally reaches the 90’s and cools down at night. Bloomstruck is a macrophylla aka bigleaf hydrangea. They tend to do best in maritime climates. Tootsie’s comments are spot on for this species in many parts of the country, so unless you live on Long Island or Cape Cod or in the PNW or similar climates that have water masses to moderate temperature swings, you may not find these easy to grow and get successful flowering many years. In my area paniculata hydrangeas do well in full sun, but in KS you may want to give them some shade during the very hottest part of the day. The ones Billy listed are all quite large, 8’-12’, depending on the cultivar, but there are smaller ones ranging from Bobo at 3’-4’to midsized ones such as Little Quickfire, Little Lime, Little Lamb that are in the 5’-6’ range.