it has been suggested that my driveway.. and 250 of my west lot line is grey owl ... if you visit.. lets try to remember to look at them ... given 30 years.. they will be huge ... the others.. planting them.. in mother earth.. and sorta bare rooting them.. MIGHT BE ENOUGH to bring back color .. by fall ... if you have decent soil ... i would be very careful about a hard transplant ... and in addition.. a heavy fert dose ... with your sellers problems with color ... i will guess.. the plants might be severely pot bound ... tip one out and find out.. and ask how the folks here would deal with it ... and shove it back in the pot awaiting our guidance .... extreme root pruning.. this late in the spring.. might not be the best timing ... here in MI.. where it was near 90 for 3 days last week .... [when i should NOT have been!!!] it might .. and i am asking.. be best to go easy ... on such.. and come back in fall at leaf color time.. re-dig .. and go to town on the root massacre .... if that makes any sense ... ken This post was edited by ken_adrian on Sun, May 26, 13 at 9:58

Shooting Star is not the same plant as Fuji Waterfall. Shooting Star is a Hydrangea macrophylla (Big-leaf) and is most likely a renaming of H. mac 'Hanabi' (Fireworks) and is sometimes listed as 'Sumida no Hanabi' (Fireworks of Sumida), developed as an indoor, potted plant for the Florist market. 'Fuji Waterfall' is a H. serrata (Mountain Hydrangea, small leaf) and is said to be the same as the Japanese cultivar, 'Fuji no taki', which means "Waterfall of Fuji" The confusion developed when a nursery began distributing 'Hanabi' with the 'Fuji Waterfall' label, whether knowingly or unknowingly and since the florets of the two are similar, no one questioned the name. A group of visiting Japanese Horticulturists, visiting a nursery in NJ, pointed out the error, but it appears no one cares and I suppose they are still being sold with the incorrect name attached. Since the fertile flower colors of both, H.macrophylla and H.serrata, are pH sensitive, you will need to maintain the current acidity level of your potted plants, to retain the blue color. A small amount of Aluminum sulphate, applied 2 or 3 times each year should suffice. but be careful not to apply too much. Fertilizers containing a small amount of Sulphur can also maintain the correct pH. One of our daughters gardens in Zone 9 and she has had very good success with Hydrangeas. But living only a few hundred yards from the Atlantic Ocean, she rarely has temperatures that exceed the 100°F mark, but 90°+ temperatures are quite common. All of her Hydrangeas are grown in full shade. Good gardening! Rb

My Family has severe drop-itis, but I have it too. Also, I have more hobbies than they do and like many women, more of the stuff in the home is seen as "mine." Also, I am more likely to make a mess but EVENTUALLY pick it up ( I get organizing and cleaning spurts) , rather than create the archeological piles my other family members accumulate. Very frequently I want to rant at DH or DD about their mess. But, if I look around, I see, my laundry is not put away, I have a pile of mag's here, some gardening stuff there... I have made up my mind to work through all of my own clutter, habits, zones--whatever--meanwhile picking up others' stuff as much as I wish, or not, and just not say ANYTHING until I think I am in control of my own habits and stuff. I mean, I want to be able to look at a room and honestly see nothing there that I caused, did, bought, dropped, causing a problem. Because I know that that is what is bothering me the most--my own habits that I would like to change. In my family, there's not a big fuzzy feeling of "let's get organized together." And I don't feel comfortable spilling the blame out of frustration with my own problems. I also am taking a hard look at all my "homemaker" jobs and streamlining them ruthlessly--simpler groceries, meals, hobbies--so I don't blame someone else for my "complicated" life. I am lucky that my family also, to their credit, does not sit around expecting Betty Crocker or Martha Stewart. Instead, I'm the one who likes to cut and arrange flowers, or change the throw pillows, or cook, and then I find, maybe I took on too much for all of what else we've got going on, and no one to blame but me. This doesn't mean that DD or DH would not have their own chores or responsibilities or that I can't say to DD, please pick up your stuff from the den, we're trying to tidy up today. It just means I've decided not to aim any "we're such a mess!" at them at this point, because I don't feel I'm a good example myself, yet. For me, I need that feeling of personal control to have credibility to ask someone else to try to do more to help.

Well I just called my local PO and they gave me a number for Consumer Affairs for this region. They said I'd have to leave a message, but that 'someone' would call me back. On a hunch I just tried calling the 1-800-ASK-USPS number and after answering 7 questions with the voice response recorder, (what a waste of time) was told that I needed to speak to an agent and that the office was closed. They then gave me the hours that agents are available. Ok, so I just call called the # I was given for the Regional Consumer Affairs office and got a fast busy signal on it. I called my local PO back, and this time they looked the number up and found that the number they gave me was wrong, and now they no longer have a toll free number...sigh. I just called and left a message with Consumer Affairs asking that someone call me back. And so the saga continues. Nothing should be this frustrating. After 5 phone calls I am now waiting for someone to return my call. Anyone want to place bets on whether or not they call me? Any bets on how long it will be before someone calls? I'm betting it will be tomorrow or Friday. Any bets on whether or not they can actually walk me through the pick-up scheduling process and see just why their system won't let me 'zero out' the quantity box for the number of boxes to be picked up? ie why I can't schedule it for 1 box as opposed to 10 boxes, or for 4 boxes as opposed to 40 boxes. grrrr.......