They were pretty much fully covered by snow all winter also. I do t understand why the dried up and died so easily. On the pricy side also

Matt, these hydrangeas bloom well even when being cut right down to the ground. If your plant wakes up, it'll likely prove to be more hardy when it has become established. When planting, always set them with a few inches of the stems placed below ground level.

Thanks for the advice. I planted them out of the ground.

What about soil types do they care much ? My front yard is black loam type material

My hydrangeas are always later to leaf out. I do get some dead canes here, but the crown always survives. I plant at, or slightly below, ground level.

They don’t like to dry out. I’ve had established plants wilt from lack of water. We give everything a good water in the fall if it’s dry, and just before freeze up. Some of my beds by the house foundation require watering in early spring if they thaw before everything else.

I hope they come back from the ground for you. I was about to dig up and toss a rose plant the other day because all the canes were dead, but upon closer inspection it had a green shoot coming from the ground.

I have three limelight and three quick fire. They are almost fully leafed out. Took -39c this year with no cover on the top half. These bad boys are super hardy.

Purchased this year at Costco from the proven winners assortment. Was supposed to be incrediball. It has tiny tiny red flowers starting to lighten up.

Any ideas what this is ? Is it even a hydrangea ?

Could it’s flowers be so small because there are so many blooms and a newly planted bush ?

Any ideas i kinda think I got burned on this variety or is it totally normal as this is my first experience with them.

Matt, that is looking like 'Invincibelle Spirit II', it's a very good selection and much improved over the original introduction by the same name. Flower head will become larger as the plant settles in and establishes. You had earlier asked about soil, I think these are pretty forgiving as long as it's friable, moist and well drained and always a good idea to plant with a few inches of stem below ground.

Is it a hardy variety. It was labeled as incrediball from proven winner? Wonder if they carry both types and could have possibly done this. Anyhow it’s looking good my initial thoughts were it stayed smaller and pink because it’s not settled in and still weeping when it gets to much sun

https://www.provenwinners.com/plants/hydrangea/invincibelle-spirit-ii-smooth-hydrangea-hydrangea-arborescens

Your incredible thanks

These hydrangeas are generally quite hardy on the prairies. My 'Invincibelle Spirit II' had gone in the ground last summer and later wintered with about 6 inches of live wood and having seen no snow for protection during the very coldest weather. I suspect it'll have even more live wood survive as the plant matures. 'Incrediball' often has 18" to 3 ft of live wood. These plants will wilt when conditions are hot and dry, so do keep them watered.

Hello Hydrangea friends!

I am new here and was wondering if your hydrangeas are already leafing out - in particular Annabelle.

I feel like mine is looking rather sad and dead (not a single bud) even though I covered it this winter and last years growths was looking strong and promising.

How are your Annabelles doing?

Hi Ohheyvivienne ... I don't have 'Annabelle', though the very similar 'Incrediball' that wintered very well with about 3 ft of live stems that are now substantially leafed and also pushing vigorous new stems from the base of the plant. The specimen is situated on the SE corner of my house where it receives some afternoon shade.

Mine's in the shade and just starting to sprout leaves here in Zone 4B. Everything is super slow this spring.

Crummy picture, I just ran out and took this with my phone. Been real slow around here too. Had near frost last night. More wind tomorrow and rain again in the evening. We've only had one day in the 70's over a week ago now. Hydrangea arborescens 'Annabelle'. Full year in the ground last year, planted fall before.

So everything is slow in Ottawa as well? My god it’s brutal out here in the west as well. We are about 2 weeks behind last year and 3 or 4 weeks behind a couple years ago.

I was hoping that the warmer weather right now would finally work some wonders, but both of my Annabelle hydrangeas seem very dead. I suspect I might have overwatered one earlier in the spring or it caught some disease or something. I cut it to the ground about a week ago and there is still no new sign of life - I am so sad! :(

This is a south facing raised bed, I even covered them in burlap over the winter, so technically ideal conditions ... not sure what I am doing wrong - any advise?

I am thinking about replacing them with Incrediballs - seems like people have more success with those.

Is there anyone in Calgary or zone 3 actually successfully growing Annabelles?

I have two Annabelles, I have them on the north side of the yard, they survived the winter and are just started to leaf out. I find the trick is to plant the crown of the plant a couple inches below the ground and to continue watering in the fall. I also do a very deep watering just before it gets really cold. I find hydrangeas do not like to dry out at all - mine wilt when too dry.

perhaps there is some benefit in my clay soil then...:)

I’ve read clay based soils can have lots of nutrients/minerals, but just not readily accessible to roots because of the density. I’ve heard hydrangeas also like peat. Now I think of it, my hydrangeas that are doing better have better amended soil. Ideal soil usually results in healthy, stronger plants going into winter.

My Annabelle is finally taking off. I always cut mine down early to a couple of inches. Seems to do better when it comes from the bottom. If no shoots are appearing, ohheyvivienne , yours may be dead.

My soil is pretty sandy and I noticed some wilting last summer when it got all day sun but it still bloomed beautifully.

I have three limelight and three quick fire and they don’t ever die back no matter how cold It gets or lack of snow. Mine leafed out a week ago. The quick fire are very slow but the limelight are pretty quick. Going to get a good fertilizer schedule going.

My limelight is also doing well and a Pinky Winky tree and 2 Moonrocks are also leafing out and growing. Just the Annabelles seem to be dead - which is too bad because those are my favourites with their big white blooms. My newest addition this year is a "phantom" hydrangea - does anyone have experience with those?

Now I am on the hunt for white Incrediballs - I have been looking all over the city but no luck. If anyone in YYC sees them for sale, let me know!

That's odd about your Annabelle. I'm a bit gun shy on anything that is related to Annabelle, such as the Incrediballs since my Annabelle spreads out shoots so aggressively that I can't keep it under control. I just gave away about 25 good sized plants.

Wow! That’s amazing about your Annabelles - are you in Calgary as well? Next time you give some plants away please keep me mind mind :)

Sorry, I slipped into this thread because I'm zone 4B, but Ottawa area, not prairie. I find so many threads deal with zone 6 and above where they can do all the macrophyllas and make me jealous.

I planted my Annabelle last year and notice it was suckering a small amount this spring already. I'm sure they'll be more around the yard before this is over... :-)

ohheyvivienne, I grow Phantom, it has overwintered well for me. However I find it is a little bit sprawled out for me. It is not as vigorous as Limelight or Quickfire.

To answer a question above, yes I'd say everything here where I live just outside Ottawa is also 2 weeks behind. Wondering if the hydrangea leaf tier worm bothers others. Just say, 3 or 4 years ago, I noticed that my Annabelle hardly produced any flowers even though it was in place many years and had every year before. Also it was aggressively taking over with roots, terrifically large so it was obviously healthy. I found all the leaves sewn together at the tips into little perogies. It took we a bit of research to lean that this worm was eating the premature flower buds and stopping it from blooming. It takes so much effort to remove these daily that I'm not sure the plant is worth keeping.

Not hydrangeas but I do have some flowering rhododenron pictures. They withstood -42 this winter and have flowers with barely any snow cover as they are under a huge spruce. They are also growing a ton of new leaves like I’ve never seen (normally super slow growing) after our first real good rain of the year.

Hello everyone,

I have finally found out why my 2 Annabelle Hydrangeas died - or at least I think so :)

I think it was the fertilizer I used that kept burning the leaf buds and eventually the entire plant. The other day, I was pouring some fertilizer (the kind you add to the watering can) onto my limelight hydrangea and after that all the new leaves went kind of limb. It seams like when I reached the bottom of the can, the fertilizer was too concentrated or maybe just not suitable for hydrangeas (even though it said so). So I ruined 4 hydrangeas with this stuff :(

Seems like you can do a lot of harm with good intentions!

What kind do you use for fertilizer? Any recommendations?

For several years, I've had good results with just giving my hydrangeas a one time spring application of lawn fertilizer 25-10-12. This year, I did a good sprinkling of Miracle Gro Shake n' Feed 12-4-8 and will do another application because this formula is less concentrated. I like to feed them well, though without overdoing it and causing excessive growth.

Got another 'Mini Mauvette', last years new plant had just up and died, seemed to have gotten some type of mushy stem rot right at the soil level soon after purchasing the thing. 'Lavalamp Moonrock' had wintered very well, it's situated up against the south facing foundation and is coming along well, should be budding up later in July. I especially like this paniculata because the blooms have particularly good substance.

I thought that these hardy hydrangeas like paniculatas and Annabelles don't really need extra fertilizers? At most, I just added compost every year and they did fine....

My Original Endless Summers are only blooming on new wood but it's supposed to be both. Do you think this is a problem? The leaves look great but I'm scared it won't flower. I bought the plants last year.

Hi Ostrich, been a while since we have heard from you. Endless Summer hydrangeas have been a big let down, just google them and you will see what I mean.

Yes, long time no see Ostrich! Did you relocate to Edmonton as previously mentioned? If so, how has the landscaping been going, sure has been rather trying weather the last few years, September's snow was hard to take!

Yes, I should have stated that I do not fertilize all my hydrangeas, as some are situated in better soil and have not required such, though others are not so fortunate and have underperformed when not given a good amount of compost and or fertilizer.

If your Endless summer has bloomed at all in anything lower than zone 6 you are lucky.

Hi FrozeBudd and Wayne! I did relocate to Edmonton, but then I decided to build a new house, and so the gardening has not even started yet!!! Things have been so busy that I have not had time to check these forums regularly. However, once I get things going again in the yard, I am sure that I will be coming back more often! Thank you for asking.

Oh, yes, the joys and headaches of having a home built, tons to think about with the endless choices to consider, kinda fun too when you get past the stress! I'm almost to the point of wanting to build again, have a nice small home constructed with a large four season solarium (really need it in this awful climate!) and a smaller yard with way fewer planting beds !!!

Wow, what a cool and now very wet growing season thus far! Has easily rained a good six inches of late with more rain and possible severe conditions again for tomorrow and heavy showers for Friday. Crops are gardens are delayed from the lack of heat and now are totally saturated. Friend said his garden is like a rice paddy!

This weather sure is dreadful at the moment! I even turned the heating back on in the house!

Hydrangea updates with photos, anyone?

My paniculata had a deer nip the ends off, on about half the tips.

Bill, that's a nice healthy paniculata, though too bad about the nipping of buds! I live in a forest with tons of nuisance deer and protect a good deal of my garden with those Scarecrow Sprinklers. The devices are not 100% reliable in that they need to be reset quite often, the older models had worked very effectively in comparison, though I can sleep pretty well when checking them before heading to bed.

Vivienne, yes, the weather is dreadful and has been for weeks on end, just near constant overcast and rain, rain, rain and well below normal temperatures! As for hydrangeas, 'Incrediball' is doing great, it's grown huge and up to my chest and nicely budded up! 'Invincibelle Spirit II' is coming along just fine and paniculata 'Little Lamb' is pushing buds and so is 'Lavalamp Moonrock', albeit a bid later (I love this hydrangea btw!). 'Little Quickfire' was damaged and slowed by winter's wrath and is well behind where it should be for this time of the year, but what's not late due this crappy non summer like weather!

Hi everyone! Just reviving this thread as I am finally getting back into gardening in my new house! I got my landscaping "backbone" done last year, and now I am going to be planting again! For my "backbone" I did include a few paniculatas, including my favourite Quick Fire, and then also Little Lime and Bobo. The Quick Fire is now budding and so is Little Lime, but not much action yet with Bobo, though the stems are surely alive!

My bobos are slower than my Quickfires. Little Limes and Fire and Ice too.

Bobo is just hanging on for me, definitely a less robust grower. Quickfire and Limelight are still the strongest growers for me.

This is year three for my strawberry vanilla hydrangeas. They Typically do very well

I’m in from wetaskiwin AB by the way

PNR, how's 'Bobo' doing now? I planted three when it was initially released, first year they were fine, though slow, then we had a relatively very good winter with plenty of snow cover and despite such they just pined away, I believe one being outright dead. I'm inclined to believe 'Bobo' is much better suited to that of a zone 5.

Bobo is meant to stay very small so it can't by definition be a robust grower. Just like a miniature tree will not grow as fast as a regular sized one. Mine are taking off and filling out, but seem to be growing more wide than tall. This photo was taken on July 25th this year in my 4B. It certainly does grow faster in a warmer zone, but I think it's all relative to it's ultimate height anyway. I also find that my little limes refuse to grow tall and only want to branch low and grow wide instead of tall.

FrozeBudd, I had Bobo in the worse possible spot and soil, checked on today and the poor plant was dried up. It had some wilted green leaves, so was alive, but hadn’t been watered and the drought got to it.

Dug it up tonight, roots were still alive, so it’s in a bucket of water now. I’ll pot it up tomorrow and see if that might encourage leaves to come back.

My lesson learned - hydrangeas have shallow roots & really like moisture and peaty soil.

If you want a hydrangea that doesn't care and will take over real estate get an Annabelle. Here my neighbours and I can't even keep it under control it grows so much. I had to remove it because it was always spreading even in poor soil, taking over my path with more roots, etc. Now I am not on the prairies, but in the Ottawa area so perhaps clay based soil changes things a lot.