Wpw! What an oops! I cannot think of a way to tell them apart except to see how large they get. Noamlly the dwarves just look same as their regular sized counterparts because that is where they originated from.

It would be easier to tell if one was a lacecap and the other one a mophead but Ooops!

:o)

I'd have them ask the farm that grew the plant originally. Otherwise I'd go with the white tags for the ID! I'm very happy with my regular Tuff Stuff. It also was $42 but had about 30 canes on it, with buds!

Oh, ouch! $$ but yes, lots of canes is a good thing.

Is 42$ expensive for hydrangeas? That seems to be a typical price around here in Fairfield County CT.

It looks like Tuff Stuff to me. Tiny Tuff Stuff has smaller flowers.

Thank you. Do you have Tiny Tuff Stuff? According to the photos I see online I think it's regular TS also.
I went back to Twombly again and this time they were VERY helpful. They called the grower. They said to go by the sticker on the pot since that doesn't get switched as easily but there is still no guarantee. They manager I spoke to at Twombly was so nice. But as nice as he was it doesn't give me an exact answer.
The more I look at it the more I think it's the regular TS.
Thanks again for all the help.

Nursery prices are outrageous in general. They'll charge simply by pot size even if all of the plant's canes have been hacked down to the soil. Even big box stores aren't great - Home Depot started getting in the Plants Nouveau Everlasting Garnet shrubs in 2-gallon Vigoro pots but they look more like rooted cuttings! I only paid $42 because mine looks and behaves like a much more mature shrub. I'll post back with a pic of my TS.

Growers and co-ops are often helpful in ID'ing your plants.

This post was edited by Springwood_Gardens on Thu, Jun 20, 13 at 22:10

Speaking of rooted cuttings...last year I bought 2 Pinky Winkies that were basically rooted cuttings. They were small sticks w/a few roots. I bought them from Lowes bc they were only 15$ each. This year they are already up to my chest-full beautiful shrubs. I planted them last June! The problem is my Pinky Winkies are actually Quickfires! They look great though.
I bought 2 other PWies that I think are turning out to be Little Lambs (they have pink stems but are staying shorter and the bloom last year looked more like LL). And 1 of my larger Quickfires I bought from a good nursery doesn't have any buds yet despite all my other QFers budding up already so I'm waiting to see what that one actually is.
Mislabeled plants are so annoying yet seems to happen often!