Hello, Jacquie. Ostrich had (or maybe still has) a Pinky Winky Hydrangea. I remember she was happy with it when she planted it but I also remember another post where she was not as happy as before (for whatever reason, not necessarily because of the plant itself mind you). I tried to locate her posts but the Search Feature does not seem to be working right and I cannot pull up the old posts. Try sending her a Gardenweb Email. She also lives in Z5 but is the only one I remember that has one so I hope others chime in.

That's right, only "she" is "he" :-))

Oh my goodness. Many apologies. I have not seen him "sign" his posts and somehow messed up. How embarrasing, George!

LOL!!! Thanks, guys! You are just giving me a good laugh for the night! Ha! Don't worry about it, Luis... I guess "ostrich" is quite gender neutral! LOL!

Yes, I still have my Pinky Winky. I planted it in the fall of 2007. Last year, without any pruning, it looked very sparse and not full at all. The flowers were wimpy, though they were surely multi-colored. BTW, they were a deer magnet!!! Sigh... I almost gave it up. This year, I decided to prune it down, and so now the thing is only about 18 inches tall. I am hoping that this will stimulate some new growth and that I will finally have a full shrub with some large panicles of flowers! Let's see what happens...

BTW, I pruned down my gigantic Limelight to about 2 feet tall, and my favorite Quick Fire (yes, I play favoritism among my hydrangeas LOL) is about 18 inches tall, and my Pink Diamond is now about 2 feet tall too.... I also pruned my Snow Mountain Tree to about 18 inches all around the top, and I am yet to prune my Annabelle but I will cut them down this spring too... let's see what will happen to them this season! :-)

Wow, someone has been busy pruning during winter all right.

I am glad that deer are not a problem where I live, ostrich. Most houses in my beighborhood have fenced backyards. These fences are either 6, 7 or 8' high. Would this not deter Bamby or can they jump that high?

Luis

Deers could take 6' fence, but will do so if they run for the life, i.e chased by the dogs or hunted. Otherwise they will just look for the way around it.
8' is not penetretable for the whitetail (most common here) deers.

Luis, it's spring here! LOL! So I am just pruning in early spring.... mind you, we will be getting a couple of inches of snow tomorrow!!! LOL! So much for having spring weather.... sigh!

I was in the yard again today (yes, it was nice and sunny this morning, believe it or not!) and noticed that the Annabelles have all these buds coming out already. I was going to prune them down hard this year to encourage bigger blooms. Since they are all budding out so early, should I still go ahead and prune them down anyway? What should I do?

Oh, talking about the bambi friends... I live by a ravine, and these gorgeous animals climb up from the ravine! Also, it really is not a done thing here to fence up your yard - one guy tried to do that on my street, and fought like crazy with his neighbors in the end! Yikes... anyway, I also like the "natural" look of the ravine too... so I guess I just have to get busy with my "Liquid Fence"!

Thanks for the replies. I'm sorry to hear that Pinky Winky is a deer magnet. I'm planning a new garden with several hydrangeas included - Annabelle and Limelight - maybe some others. Deer are a huge problem around here. Every winter they eat our cedar trees up as high as they can reach. I would like someday to put a fence along the back of the property but was just planning for it to be decorative. Are any of the other hydrangeas deer magnets? I have Endless Summer right near my house and the deer don't seem to bother them.
I thought that Pinky Winky looked gorgeous in the photos but in searching through old posts, I noticed that you weren't so thrilled with it any more. I was also considering Twist n Shout but don't know if it would perform any better here than Endless Summer which is a great bloomer some years and not so great others.
Thanks again.
Jacquie

Jacquie,

I really did not want you or anyone to think that Pinky Winky is not a good hydrangea, based only on my single person experience over just a one year period. I pruned it this year, and the roots are more established now, so I am hoping that it will do much better for me this year! I would still like to keep an open mind about it, and I would invite you to do so too :-)

In terms of hydrangeas that were not as much of a deer magnet, they did not seem to touch my Quick Fire, Limelight, Annabelle or Endless Summer. So it's just the Pinky Winky (and the Little Lamb which I have since given to a colleague). Weird, isn't it? Mind you, while the Quick Fire was NOT a deer magnet, it was a FLY/BUG MAGNET! LOL! It attracted bugs and things from all over the place!!! Oh well, you just can't win, can you? LOL

My hydrangeas include: Endless Summer, Cityline Paris, Limelight,ÂPee Wee - Oak leaf dwarf, All Summer Beauty, lemon wave, Quick Fire, Sadie Ray, and Pinkie Winkie. Pinkie Winkie is in a little more vulnerable location from heavy deer browsing, so I protected it over the winter with a tomato hoop. They just don't like to bump into things, and these are very easy to put in place for vulnerable shrubs. Sometimes I also cut a 3' square of plastic netting, and clip it with clothespins onto the hoop just above the plant.

My pinky winky is gorgeous and low maintenance. I have it in a large pot on my porch and it blooms every year. It is now about 6'. Sometimes it stays white???I guess I need to give it lime but other years it is pink. I have not done anything to the soil except a little fertilizer once a month.