IMO, they look nothing alike. 'Dharuma's flowers are very open and unpanicle-like - almost lace-cap in appearance - and the pinky-rose color is slow to develop and not very intense. 'Quickfire' (and 'Little Quickfire') change color rapidly and quite intensely and the flowerheads are tightly conical.

Don't get me wrong - they are all nice plants. Just different :-))

Thank you. That's exactly the advice I was looking for. I'll plant Dharuma elsewhere and hold this spot for Little Quickfire.

Though perhaps not as lacy as 'Dharuma', I wouldn't consider 'Quickfire' to have tightly conical flowers; mine are much more rounded and loosely structured and have more sterile flowers than most of the other H. paniculata with which I am familiar such as 'Vanilla Strawberry', 'Pinky Winky', etc.

'Quickfire'

Dharuma is also supposed to be he earliest flowering panicle hydrangea, earlier than QFs.

I will have to keep an eye out for Dharuma since I like the lacier flower type and the early blooms.

I like Dharuma's glossy and leatherish looking leaves. Its compact size makes it like a Little QF.

What is purple blooming in the above picture?

Luis, the purple is Clematis 'Little Bas'. I love growing clematis into stiff-branched shrubs, and this is my favorite combination. Unfortunately the voles ate it winter before last, so I have a new 'Little Bas' this year to replace it along with some hardware cloth to protect it.