I'm surprised that your hydrangeas in zone 5a have been blooming for 2 months already!! I'm in 6b and most of mine are just coming into bloom. Of course the newly purchased plants that come from a nursery have been blooming for some time as they are all hopped up on fertilizer.

My hydrangea flowers usually last until frost! Some keep there color for several months, some gradually change to some gorgeous fall colors and some just turn ugly, those I snip off. Last year I bought a City Line Venice probably sometime in late June, early July and it bloomed all summer long......the flowers eventually turn some gorgeous colors and I picked them late in the fall and enjoyed them all winter.

This plant was re-potted in a terra cotta pot and spend the whole summer sitting in a whisky barrel, put it in the ground in October and am waiting to see what color it will be this year, I think it was supposed to be pink, but purple is just fine with me.

Here are the fall colors which I eventually picked and brought inside for a winter bouquet.

Thanks for looking,

Donna

Donna:

Yes these hydrangeas were all bought and planted this spring. Out of the three that i bought (All Endless Summers) two of them were blooming but the third wasnt. We had some frost back in April and it cost me quite a few of the blossoms on the Twist n Shout but it is starting to put on some new blooms. My blue original ES was showing some of the fall colors like in your pictures but my pink original ES has absolutely exploded this spring. It only had one or two "buds" when i bought it but i bet there are atleast 18-20 different flower heads on it now!

If i understand what you said, some of the flowers can last all season but some will blossom go to fall colors and eventally brown out in 2-3 months? I will have to go to my notes and see exactly when i planted these hydrangeas but i want to say it was around the mid to end of April as i know they were in the ground a little while before we had that late frost the first full weekend of May.