I, too, had issues with dogs using my hydrangea as a personal urinal. Now I put rocks around them in such a way it makes it uncomfortable for them to stand close enough to do their business. They do still lift and go but I think it keeps it far enough away from the root ball, however. Not sure if you remember my post about "the comeback kid" last year about one hydrangea. Now I can't offer much advice but I tend to agree that location is important. I have an Anabelle, Bella Anna, a paniculata who's name escapes me and 2 Endless summers. Both ES were in an unsheltered spot and are barely coming back from the root ball (since moved one). My Bella Anna and paniculata are both somewhat sheltered are starting to leaf out. Unfortunately the Anabelle was defoliated by a 4 legged slug mid Sept and it isn't showing any life yet (neither are the 3 dogwoods and maple tree that were hit) The other thing I did wrong last year was I fertilized them with a product like osomocote that provides nutrition all summer. After doing that I only got 2 blooms on one plant. I heard not to fertilize them much if at all but thought I knew better :) Since I am an odd person I will also agree that things are better planted odd. SCG

Update: they found my parsley.

I'd love to hear if anyone (especially in the cooler climates) notices a significant difference in density of the flowers or height or density of the plant, etc. of bobo in a part shade vs a full sun condition. I bought one from a garden centre about a month ago and planted it in full sun. I went back and bought an identical one just yesterday and the second one is about twice the height and the florets much more widely spaced. I should add that I work at this garden centre and know they have been treated exactly the same way sitting side by side. The hydrangea gets a bit less sun at the garden centre, but is still quite strong sun exposure.

Hello, Frances. I am going to offer another suggestion that someone in MO tried and that it may work in NJ. I have little details so consider it an experiment. Use it if you continue having issues this year and the above suggestions do not help. So, to get around the tendency of VS to go from white to brown in the heat of the summer, prune the shrub late in the season (june maybe?). This will delay blooming and, hopefully, it will make VS bloom later than normal (like in the Fall, when hopefully when temps are lower). If you prune next year and it has problems this year and next year, try pruning even later, 1-2 weeks, until you find a date that seems to work most of the time. I am not sure how well this can work in locations like mine where the length of the hot season is extreme (May/June thru Sept) and where VS leafs out much earlier than in places up north. Pruning it here may make VS bloom smack in the middle of the hot July time frame; or just as temps kick into the daily 100s . I may have to prune it twice to delay bloomage and that sounds like a pain. So, I am also trying something else. The Quickfire and Little QF shrubs are some of the earliest paniculata bloomers so, after they leaf out early, they should bloom white early and then -I hope) they will turn pink before the worst of the summer arrives for me and makes the blooms turn brown. VS usually just goes from white to green-pink (or white to brown) so sometimes there is no pink-only or magenta phase.