Hydrangea 'Charm'

15 years ago

Has anyone heard of it or have any experience with "Charm"? It is a macrophylla, and label states blooms on old and new wood.

...The past year I have been in the process of re-landscaping the front & side beds. Tne front/right side of the house is gorgeous and finally complete with endless summer, climbing rose on trellis with clematis, hostas, petunias, and a double knock out rose. The area was open and a "clean slate" for me to play with. The left side of the entrance door had been previously been very "green" and filled with Holly and non flowering shrubs and an ornamental tree (and hostas), with very small areas for some annuals to get some color. Well, the house is now lopsided with a ton of color on one side and the other being green.

SO, I decided to pull a few of the hollys and fill it in with hydrangea. I went to the local nursery and they had a "hydrangea" festival with many cultivars. I decided that because while facing the house you see the double knockout on one side (sun) I wanted to get something similar in color for the other side where the hydrangeas were going. Due to being zone 5 I was concerned with old wood bloomers and liked the quality of old and new wood of endless summer, but wanted to something else to change it up a but (and again a better color match). After hours of looking at all of them, I continually went back to the "Charm". It was just the right color but it wasn't until the last time I looked did I noticed they were labeled old & new wood. I bought it.

Just got it planted and looks amazing. Did some amending to keep the PH a little higher in hopes of keeping the bright pinkish red.

Curious if anyone else has any experience with it.

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Comments (4)

October_Gardens
15 years ago
It's published here and there to be "not very hardy", but is any mac really so? The one I have (first year 3-gallon) doesn't seem to have sent many shoots up from the around the base, as it tends to grow from a central trunk. It seems to have bloomed on old wood this year but will observe as it comes out of dormancy.

From what I've seen, this behaves very much like Merritt's Supreme with sturdy woody old stems and short stems of new growth off of them. The leaves are very rigid and will tolerate a LOT of sun. The blooms don't seem to last as long as other pinkish macs such as "Pink 'N Pretty", wilting off by mid-summer, and the plant will not rebloom.

I plan on throwing burlap around this and mounding some snow on it come January, but my parents' Merritt's is a 3' tall plant and got 20+ blooms on it, with pruning and no protection! This may tend toward red blooms, which is to die for!
ibanez540r
Original Author
15 years ago
I recall merritts supreme when I was there. I liked the color but, if I recall correctly, the size was fairly small?

Thanks for the info and keep me updated on your progress!

(I'm thinking about either burlapping all of my hydrangea this year, or chicken wire and filling with leaves)
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ibanez540r
Original Author
15 years ago
^ and it only blooms on old wood - which worries me if they do have a bad winter I will be without flowers :-( (Merritt's)
October_Gardens
14 years ago
OK I've found this post again. The buds made it through the winter just fine but were all killed during the infamous Spring freezes. There are now shoots coming from the base at soil level around the main "knot" at the crown.

The old wood bark and stems are extremely gnarled in appearance - I don't expect any new growth from these. I fully intend to lop of this gnarled mess down to the crown if this holds true.

Another surprise is that I knocked off an old wood stem while watering one day back in March before the freezes. It had one good bud at the base so I stuck it in the ground. Now there is a shoot coming out of that bud! It's funny how quirky hydrangeas are - successfully rooting an old wood stem in full sunlight??

I will report back again on if any of the base growth decides to produce any buds! I wouldn't expect anything until late June one way or another.