I don't think it is either too much sun or not enuf water - I think what you are looking at is cold damage. Open flowers on any type of bigleaf hydrangea now in the PNW is an indication that the plants are either greenhouse grown or from out of state. And the OP indicates these are NOT greenhouse grown plants. At my nursery, we get a lot of plants from California that are well ahead of our local bloom season - hydrangeas here do not start blooming until the end of June or early July. If they came from out of state, they may have not had sufficient time to become acclimated to our colder climate. And our PNW spring weather has been colder and wetter than normal - a relatively mild frost about a week and half ago nipped all the CA hydrangeas we had on the nursery floor and they ALL have an appearance very similar to the OP's - purplish foliage and crispy flowers and leaves. And while it may be warmer daytime in the WW-Milton-Freewater than it is here in western WA, I'd be willing to bet nighttime temps are still pretty chilly. If it is cold damage, they will come back from that rather easily, although you may need to trim off the damaged portions.

I know what you mean, a few miles down the street from us some folks have a very long hydrangea hedge lining their walkway and it looks just like you described with the three colors! Just out of this world!! Each plant is exactly the same. I think (not sure) that they are Endless Summers, but not possitive. We have a neutral soil in our yard but still have all different colors of hydrangeas, I'm guessing their soil is neutral also. Maybe that's the effect you get in neutral soil with certain varieties, anyone have an idea on the neutral soil theory?? Donna

By its own nature Olga Mezit have an open habit (vs more tight/dense habit of PJM) which IMO is a nice feature in naturalistic plantings where shrubs ment to grow into each other without featuring them as individual focal points. However, if this is not what you want in this particular situation, I'd suggest to prune off about 1/2 of the new growth every year in a first 3-4 years after planting in order to create more dense branch structure. Pruning should be done within 1 month after the flowering in order not to interfere with next year flowering buds formation.

I thought I commented on this yesterday but don't see my post. (Sometimes I 'preview' then forget to confirm to actually post the message.) My suggestion was to make a mini and see if you like it. If you do, keep adding to it until it either gets to the size you want or you get tired of doing it. Add a border to any size and you're done. But... then I saw the quilt Dawn posted the link to and now I think I'm hooked too. It's gorgeous and I love the way the colors move and flow. I'm going to start that bin of little scraps and whenever I get a bunch in similar colors I'm going to sew them together. Someday I'll have that quilt! Please, everyone, stop posting good ideas. I can't finish what I've got and every time I see something new or pretty or clever, I get distracted and add another project to the list! (Donna's "Squirrel Effect")