You can Never have Enough Hydrangeas

I might not have roses on my list of favorites, but hydrangeas definitely are on the list. I have 8 varieties in my garden now, and plan to add as many as I can possibly fit, take care of, and afford.

I love these old-fashioned, mop-headed, impossibly-huge-flowered bushes.

Most of my hydrangeas are mid summer bloomers, with just a few late summer varieties.

These are the 2 bushes that start the blossom parade for my hydrangeas. They are the earliest flowering variety I have.

This hydrangea is called 'Endless Summer'.

It is a relatively new variety. This is the 3rd summer I'll have these plants. Supposedly they can take more sun than other varieties, so I planted them where they get about 2 hours of mostly sun, and part shade the rest of the day. After growing them, I tell people at the greenhouse to put them in part sun at most.

The 'Endless Summer' need a lot of water, and if mine were in less sun I don't think they would need as much watering. During dry spells I water them every other day, or they look pretty droopy.

The blue of this 'Endless Summer' is really nice. In Delaware our soil is naturally acidic in a lot of areas. I am lucky enough to not have to do anything to get the blue. If you want to have blue hydrangeas try adding aluminum sulfate. My Dad, an old-time nurseryman, used to tell people to put rusty chain or nails at the base of the plant to make it blue.

The 'Endless Summer in the foreground has a staggering 137 blooms. I had to count because...well I just had to! They are looking amazing this year. I can't wait until the color comes on strong.

This other hydrangea only has 97 blooms on it. (Poor little thing)

This hydrangea is hiding a secret. Robins laid a nest in the base of it. There is only one baby bird left now (he's actually pretty good sized now), there were 3 earlier. The last baby Robin has very protective parents to say the least. The Mommy and Daddy fly around us, and yell at us from the top of the fence and gate when we go too near their baby.

I'm not sure if you can tell there is a garden gate in between these 2 hydrangeas. I can still open the door just enough to get thru the opening. The gate will be moved farther up the fence in a few weeks. If the gate wasn't getting moved, we would be moving the hydrangea as they have gotten bigger than I expected.

(woe is me, having to deal with huge, monstrous, crazily blooming hydrangeas)