Check out Strawberry Sundae. About the same size as Bobo (slightly larger at maturity) but with coloring very similar to Vanilla Strawberry.

While it can get bigger than they say, Bobo is probably the most compact variety reasonably available on the market at the moment. My issue with it has always been how the flowers age.

If you can wait until 2021, this might be worth a shot.

https://www.firelighttidbithydrangea.com/about-fire-light-tidbit.html

Thanks 'gg'. I will take a closer look at "Sundae".

Perhaps its location is in too much shade but I found Sundae to be a flopper. It also sent out bunch of straight vertical branches at the top which I thought spoiled the shape of the plant. Some one else noted that here and was said to be it's natural habit and that one couldn't do much about it. You can prune them off but it's harder than it looks to do well and besides, who wants to more pruning?

Too much shade!! I planted 25 Strawberry Sundaes in a full sun position in a client's yard for a wedding 3 years ago. The have remained compact, non-flopping and without any long vertical shoots emerging. This is a garden that gets very little maintenance attention (residents are seasonal) and with an automatic drip irrigation system, these plants are virtually carefree.

I must confess, I ordered a Tid Bit a few weeks ago and it's in the ground with little broccoli buds forming! I'm hoping to see a few blooms before first frost, but that probably won't happen.. It's already supposed to be in the low forties at night this week; I'm sure thirties aren't too far behind.

Rouge, Bobo in fall color is beautiful! Wow, I never knew they got such deep color, so pretty!

Good info, GG. Now I have to decide what to do.

I ordered a Tid Bit a few weeks ago

Wow so it is available now ie in 2020!

Could you post a picture of your new specimen?

Yes, Tid Bit is available now to order! I wanted to give it a head start and get it in the ground this fall, though I'm not sure how much growing it'll do before it gets too cold. Here is a photo, I have it situated in front of Annabelle's droopy blooms. I previously had Mini Mauvette here, but she died. I'm hoping Tid Bit is an early blooming paniculata like Firelight! I also ordered Quick Fire Fab and she's happily in the ground as well. :-)

Time for plants to shut down up north so I wouldn't worry about more growth up top. It should root in nicely.

All my mini mauvettes croaked as well.

I'm hoping Tid Bit is an early blooming paniculata like Firelight!

'corgi', if you remember can you post later in the spring when hopefully you see signs of life in "Tidbit"?

Scroll down to the bottom of the page and you'll see a relative bloom sequence of all the Proven Winners Color Choice Hydrangea paniculata. Tidbit does not appear to be as early as regular Firelight

Firelight Tidbit

Thanks for that pennlake. I had never noticed that "chart" before.

Yes, rouge21, I'll post as soon as Tid Bit starts to show the start of blooms! I hope that chart is wrong, pennlake...I was hoping Tid Bit would bloom as early as my regular Firelights, which come quite a bit earlier than my Limelights. Right now everything is covered in a foot of snow and it's pretty darned depressing....really looking forward to the spring thaw!

FL Tidbit was likely bred and tested in Michigan so my guess would be the data in that relative bloom chart is also from Michigan.

I would love yo get cuttings of Vanilla Strawberry

In 2014 I saw this, what I think is a VS triple, outside of a Real Estate office.

I showed this to a neighbour back then and they were enthused enough to buy three for themselves. And yet since then they have never seen anywhere close to the display shown above and even these same specimens have never approached this brilliance. (I had always thought that paniculatas were very reliable in their flowering).

I would like to try them here in Florida, they are the most beautiful shrub.

I will wait to see if Lowes have them.

VS up close in my hot dry western bed...

Onell Jones, you may want to try one in a pot (so you can move the pot around easily and quickly on year one; then plant it in the ground or keep it potted when you find a good spot that works in the summer). You may need to find a spot that has evening shade or part afternoon shade. Over here in Texas, paniculatas suffer from our very intense weather in the summer months. Sandy soil is an issue in Florida. My relatives in Ocala sometimes had to water mopheads twice a day. What is worse, paniculatas like VS like to boom mid-summer, just as we hit some of our hottest temperatures of the summer. As a result, paniculatas here bloom when temps near or above 100F arrive for months and the blooms then turn from white directly to brown, many times bypassing their pink and magenta colors. You may need to water twice a day in the summer depending on temperatures, locations, potting soil/sandy soil, etc.

Yes, rouge21, I'll post as soon as Tid Bit starts to show the start of blooms!

So @lovemycorgi z5b SE michigan it is now June 2021.....any update on your Tidbits??

Tidbits are looking healthy, though no start of blooms just yet. Nothing on Firelight either, and interestingly, nothing on Quickfire Fab, even though Quickfire and LQF are already forming broccoli. Perhaps I am mistaken, but I thought Fab was supposed to bloom earlier than QF or LQF. Annabelles, of course, are ahead of everyone else!

You are correct. PW claimed QF Fab would be earlier. Not clear if earlier than regular QF but at least earlier than LQF:

https://www.provenwinners.com/plants/hydrangea/quick-fire-fab-panicle-hydrangea-hydrangea-paniculata

So much for that, hu? Perhaps try again next year to see if QF Fab is still too young.

I was wondering if that might be the case. Only in the ground since last fall, so maybe it needs to get acclimated and grow a bit before it settles into its bloom cycle. I’ll post as soon as I know more on either Tidbit or Fab!

Checked on mine today here in MN. No visible buds yet on Firelight Tidbit. QFF is well behind QF, but maybe that will change in future years as it settles in. Planted QFF in September of last year.

(Just this morning I picked up a QFT and a QFFab. I plan to permanently put the Tidbit in a container)

Did you order directly with PW or buy it locally? I have not seen the new QF here.

I bought both at the same nursery nearby.

So I bought a "Tidbit" in early June. It seemed to be an "extra" small specimen and had zero signs of flowers. It has done fine in a permanent pot and flowers are coming now like gangbusters.

Do the flowers start green or did they already start white, turn pink but are now green?Just wondering because of the green blooms in the picture.

Sorry for the delay in responding @luis_pr. There may be a very slight tinge of green to start but very slight is the key phrase as I do consider the blooms to be white. Here are the flowers today. They are very large i.e larger than say a Bobo bloom and they are now tinging pink:

VS PRUNED TO TREE FORM … 8/10’ About 15yrs

@rouge21_gw (CDN Z5b/6a) , the blooms on your Tidbit are much larger than those on mine! I have three of them, all planted last fall, and they are strangely out of sync with eachother as far as their bloom time. Here are two of them, the first with blooms that are done and already browning, the other with blooms that are just starting. The second plant was the smallest last year, so perhaps it will catch up with the others next year.