Many times, the disease resistance claim refers to powdery mildew not to leaf spots but it would be helpful if those who have RMs chimed in.

Mini Penny is somewhat new so there may be few comments.

There is someone posting about difficulty getting VS bloom to turn pink-magenta. We speculate that it could be a weather or issue or that she may have a mislabeled plant. Have your VSs turned pink-magenta yet?

So far this season i have pruned three times and all of my blooms have turned dark pink. low temps in the mid sixties seems to be the trigger for the color change here.Some of the bicolor affect is present from the promo photos. I found a somewhat handy website for for hydrangea comparison to see if they are true. Here is the website http://www.inspection.gc.ca/english/plaveg/pbrpov/cropreport/hydre.shtml

They have some very detailed images to compare hydrangea.

That is a website of patents issued in Canada.

RM's lacecap looks nice and robust, I'd expect good things from it, as HD was selling nice sized ones. This would be simliar to F&E Summer Lace which also grows to about 4' and
less like Twist N Shout.

For panicle hydrangea, I would give yours a full winter in native soil and then observe growth and blooming habit. If all goes right you should get a bloom at the end of every new stem no matter what you planted, providing 8+ hours sun and that the deer don't eat the buds.

I'm extremely happy with David Ramsey. Mine have produced light-blue head-sized blooms which fade to a light grey unlike my ES which have turned burgundy. For all you bargain hunters, Home Depot should have healthy 7-gals of this on sale for $20 during the last week of June. I have 2 of them planted around a Pink N Pretty, which is not remontant but the pink head-sized bloom holds color and does not wilt for at least 2 months.