How fun to come to HD tonight and there is my name! I love your Annabelles and can see how your annabelles will look like the inspiration photos! I bet by next summer they will be stunning! I looked in one garden center 2 weeks ago and they hadn't even gotten any Annabelles in. I dug my endless summers up and transplanted them on Sunday- grow or die!
Thanks for showing me your wonderful garden in front of your cottage!

Beautiful! It will be fun to be able to cut fresh blooms for inside your home. Very romantic! ;)

Cooperbailey .. I'm in total agreement with the grow or die thing. *LOL* I hope your Endless Summers like their new home. I'll give stuff a few years to get established, but after that they better produce. ;) I'm hoping this year my Annabelles are busy putting in roots and getting adjusted and that next year they'll do better.

I looked and looked, but never could find Annebelles local to me, so I finally ended up ordering mine on line from Wilkerson Mill Gardens. I chose them because they're in Ga and I'm in NC, I was looking for the fastest turn around time. I was very pleased the plants and shipping time, although I just looked at their prices and they're gone up considerably since last year.

Texashottie, I can't wait until they bloom out enough to cut them. I'd love to try to dry an arraignment too. I love the old fashion feeling of hydrangeas and figured the big white blooms on the Annabelles would help brighten up a very shady area.

Hi zipdee, I love hydrangeas. Your pics and the inspiration pics are wonderful. I had an Annabelle years ago and it didn't make it. I have had better luck with Pink Diamonds. I put Endless Summers in pots last year to give my deck some punch. (Easier than dealing with annuals.)

I also have a thing for mulch. What kind to you have zipdee?

Kelly .. I'd love to see pics of your potted hydrangeas if you get a chance. I think that's a very clever way to bring color to your deck and forgo the annuals!

Okay .. The Mulch Story :

All wood instead of going to the landfill in our county, goes to a wood recycler. That's were we buy our mulch, we can buy it by the cubic yard there and it's so much less expensive. We go through 12 - 14 cubic yards to refresh the beds each year, but boy does it help keep the moisture in since NC normally stays in drough conditions.

I wanted to get mulch and my DH was 'busy' and trying to put me off to the next weekend. So I said, fine I can do it all by myself, I don't need or want your help .. figuring at this point in the 'dance' .. he'd cave, famous last words. ;) So this last past time *I* drove the dumptruck to pick up the mulch and what a trip that was .. he decided to actually come a long and watch .. the stinker. A while ago DH was sick of paying for dumpsters to be dropped as we've been redoing the house. He had a chance to pick up an old 1962 dumptruck that we use to haul waste when we are working on the house and for hauling things like mulch. By the time I got to the wood recyclers I was purely running on instinct .. they asked me what kind, I quickly pointed at the sign, while trying not to roll backwards down the steep incline I was on. No power steering and the clutch is something from the darkages .. although my DH was getting a big kick out of it.

So .. Even though I'm the one that picked out the mulch and it's the one I've used for years, for the life of me I can't remember the name. Must be a mental block! ;) Let me ask my DH when he calls this afternoon, I bet he'll remember and I will post it for you.:)

By the way, the 'up side' of the story is I got to play on the skidsteer to put out the mulch, which is a blast! That made up for the dumptruck trama. *LOL*

I want a skidsteer! Oh, what a funny story. I can just see your DH chuckling at you.

Mulch does get expensive but I just love how it looks when it goes down. I especially like the darker colors (excluding the red. Red should be banned in my opinion.) I get a small truck load every year. I think six yards is the most I get.

Here is a pic from last year. The one on the left got more sun so I started moving them back and forth. I think I got each plant for $25 which was a good deal because they were huge! We have a short growing season in MN so I can't wait for tiny annuals to grow up.

Cooperbailey,

I hope the Endless Summers are happy in their new space. I have one and it is sensational. I live in a cold enough zone that I was limited to the paniculatas when I decided to try Endless Summer. It has come through true blue for me for several years now- I cut it down, as well as my Annabelles, and I have gotten gorgeous blooms on them every summer. They are on the north side of the house, so they get morning sun and afternoon shade which they seem to like.

I originally was hoping that it would be good for cut flowers, but the stems are a bit short, so I just enjoy the blooms in the garden. The Annabelles work well for me for cuts.

I LOVE hydrangea but don't have enough shade here to grow them. I have lusted after some beautiful pink ones at Lowes the last several weeks! They told me they thought they'd work in sun, but I'm afraid to try. I really don't have much anyplace to do a bed of them, but I like the potted idea. Do any of you know if any variety will work in sun?

tina

Tina, I have an Endless Summer on my patio that I have had for a couple of years now. It gets morning sun but it has patio shade from noon onward. I think I read someplace they are supposed to get about 4 hours of sun daily.

I wanna dumptruck! too fun! I went back and oohed and awed over your photos zipdee.
Also yours KK! Love that deck! I moved my endless summers from a shady spot into the front of the house where they will get afternoon sun. I need to make sure they are well watered this summer, since they were rudely awakened and moved. The nursery guy said hydrangeas can take sun if they are well established and watered. In the shady spot they would grow to about 12 inches tall and then die back to almost the ground each winter!heck with that. My neighbor accross the street has a lovely annabelle that I helped her buy a couple of years ago and I am sorely tempted to dig it up!!! naw. I saw a magazine article in Country living perhaps that showcased the womans garden and she had HUGE hydrangeas blooming in her yard- in upper state NYork. I also want a weeping hydrangea and I already have a well established climbing one.
I will hunt for my annabelles this weekend if I cant find them locally perhaps I will find them at the site you posted. thanks again!
Oh btw we used black mulch last year and I really liked it.( DH not so much) peeps with dogs -remember the dangers of cocoa mulch.

Thanks Hottie. I think that may be what they have at Lowes.

Re mulch, like many southerners, we use pine straw for mulch. It's great for our azaleas and rhodedendren. Remember also that wood mulch can bring termites with it. They are a problem in our climate and the company we have our termite protection with has cautioned against wood mulch.

tina

Oh cooperbailey Sue, I was thinking about getting the black mulch. I think it is a lovely backdrop for plants. You got me thinking. (You also have me thinking that if you got a dump truck that you would paint it a pastel color and add pretty seat cushions.)

My potted hydrangeas got alot of sun in the afternoon so I watered them daily last year. (Plus they were getting root bound.)

Kitchenkelly--Do you recall where you bought your loveseat, and is it the type of wicker that you can leave outdoors? I've been looking for something similar in black (to match other black outdoor wicker furniture) with no sucess, but I'm concerned that spray painting won't last.

Kelly .. Your deck looks so inviting, I love the colors you've chosen to accessorize with. Your potted hydrangeas are beautiful, they look wonderful as a container plant! Okay .. the mulch is just aged pine bark. I was pretty sure it was pine, but wanted to make sure it was just the bark, not the wood too.

CB .. I bet black mulch is a fantastic background to show your plants off with. Do you have any pictures, I'd love to see them!

Tinam61 .. I agree that wood mulch is not great to use in the south. I really should go to pine needles, but I can't seem to make the switch over. I think it's partly because I'm a northern transplant, so mulch is what I grew up with and like Kelly I have a love for it. *LOL* It's one of my favorite things to do in the spring, it makes everything look so fresh and crisp to me. We keep both the house and the cottage outback treated and they are inspected yearly, but pine needles would be the smarter course!

robin dc, I bought it last year from Amazon.com and I store it in winter. I checked and it doesn't look like it is there this year.

zipdee, thanks for the info, I will have to look for that. I keep thinking about your story above. I bet your DH was also thinking that he has a one of a kind wife that would even drive that kind of equipment.

KitchenKelly...what type of rug is that & where did you get it (amazon again?) I've been looking for something to put on our front porch as I don't like the concrete floor. The rug looks so inviting!

Rats; thanks for answering!

Hey buehl, the rug is from Target. It is an outdoor rug that I got on sale last year. I do like having a rug there. It dries pretty fast. If I want it to dry really fast I put it in the hot sun for about an hour.

Thanks!

Kelly .. If you ask my husband, he'll tell you I'm a nut. ;) I seem to keep him thoroughly amused though, so there you go. *LOL*

I'll admit, I have almost a 'boy' like fascination with 'toys'. If the dump truck wasn't so hard to drive because of the lack of power steering, it's propensity to wander and difficult clutch .. it would have been more fun. The skidsteer is a ton of fun to drive though! My DH will bring it home for me when I need to use it, but it mostly spends it's time going between job sites, so I don't get to play with it all that much. It's very handy to have around when you have to haul dirt, mulch or dig something .. like when we put in the brick paver walk out front or grated the back yard.

Before Mother's Day we went into Tractor Supply to grab bedding for the chicks. Lo and behold .. there sat a fantastic yellow gator ( farm utility vehicle ) with a dump box on it no less! Be still my heart .. So I proclaimed the gator, a funky yellow chicken shirt that caught my eye, yellow lady bug garden clog and a this big floppy straw hat would be the *perfect* mother's day gifts. Stylishly color coordinating with one's house, while gardening being what it is you know. :D

Sadly he out right refused to see the practicality in buying a gator for my 'micro farm'. :P I tried to explain that it would make a wheel barrow obsolete, hauling bedding to put in the chicken house, hauling it out to the compost bin, hauling pavers, mulch, etc ... and of course the Bassets would love to take rides in the back of it. :)

It was a no go though .. stubborn darn man. ;)

OMG. That is too funny, zipdee. I can just picture you and the hounds dirving around the yard. The chickens (and your DH) would be looking at you like you are loony.

If you ever talk him into it, we will need pics!

*LOL* Kelly .. If I ever get my gator, I *promise* to post a picture of me and the Bassets ( with color coordinating doggles on for safety of course ) touring the yard on it. :D

Tinam61 - my Annabelles are in full sun for most of the day, so I think they would work for you. Annabelles can take a lot more sun than other hydrangeas. They are also mulched with pebbles, they're at my pool, so that makes it even warmer for them but they do great. I've had them for about seven years now and they get covered with enormous blooms and then usually will produce a second smaller bloom later in the summer. So I think you'd be fine with them in the sun. A landscaper friend of mine gave me a tip when I planted them. She told me that for the first summer I should leave the hose on them all the time, just dripping or a very light flow. Just rotate it around (I have 8 in a row) all summer long. Well, not ALL the time, but whenever you can. This will make the roots grow very deep. That is what I did and I swear I have never had to water them since which is quite remarkable considering the sunlight and heat they get. You should give them a try! I think the pink ones might need more shade, but not sure. I do have some pink/purple ones on the side of my house and they are in full shade and do very well.

Cooperbailey Sue, zipdee and I need some pics of the black mulch, please. (I assume that if I ever need anything from you I will just bump up this thread.)

Here is my brown mulch:

I prefer to see your black mulch in the garden beds versus a big pile in the driveway.

Kelly .. bringing this to the top for you. Hopefully CB will see your request. :)

Hey KK just saw this thread.It would look like yours, but black. heh heh. I did have a left over bag from last year and spread it under my potting table and a bed along side. I will try to remember to take a pic. I don't have mulch yet and no photos from last year. It really looks great against the green and the colors just pop. sorry. I buy the bags of the black mulch.I dont know if it is available in bulk here.
BTW went to a good nursery which usually has everything and not one Annabelle! will have to try a couple of others. It seems that endless summer varieties are popular now.what was the mail order place you used to buy your annabelles zipdee?

Heh, heh cb Sue. I was just giving you a hard time. I would like to change over to black mulch because it looks so nice and rich. Kinda like my dark brown after it rains. Does the black fade much? I'm thinking it might go to grey?

I bought some more hydrangeas this weekend. Bought two Limelights. They are supposed to have a funky lime green flower.

CB, I ordered through Wilkerson Mills, I'm putting the link below for you. They suspend shipping through the hottest months .. June, July and August, then start back up in September it looks like. The plants that I got from them were healthy and in good shape, they also shipped very quickly.

Kelly .. I think the limelights are beautiful! I have a 'thing' for lime colored flowers! :)

Here is a link that might be useful: Wilkerson Mills

In areas where it gets extremely hot and sunny, wouldn't black mulch hurt the plants?

What gorgeous pics! That inspiration photo is positively drool-worthy! I think we've settled on hydrangeas for the "new" bed we're doing in the front of the house (actually, it's the old bed that we're expanding and completely reworking). I hope yours take off and "bloom their heads off", Zipdee! But even if they don't, I still think the foliage is quite nice.

We made the mistake of using black mulch in our Houston garden and around the house. What a gray mess it turned into within a few months. Most of us use a local brown/red color that lasts and after hurricane season we topdress it usually twice a year.

Aunt Jen .. we did the same thing, reworked the beds and enlarged them out front. The old beds were very under sized and the plants were way too close to the porch, plus they lacked any style at all.

It's hard to tell in the pics, but these beds are about 8 1/2' foot deep .. I think when everything finally grows up ( crossing fingers ) the beds will be very full with out crowding the porch too much.

I'd love to see pics when you rework your beds! Do you know what type(s) of hydrangeas you'd like out there?

Here's the old beds out front, they were way undersized for the porch, the yard and what they had in them, they were roughly only 3 1/2' deep and we were constantly trimming things away from the porch.

Oh, yeah - that's a huge difference! Not that the old beds looked bad, but your re-do is absolutely wonderful. (Your house is adorable, by the way! I'm pretty sure I've said that before, but I just wanted to say it again! ;-))

I'm not sure yet which hydrangea variety we'll use. My inlaws and several of their neighbors recently redid their beds, and hydrangeas were used with abandon. There's a house right around the corner from my inlaws with hydrangeas filling the front beds, and they're mature plants that are jaw-droppingly gorgeous, much like those in your inspiration pic. I'll definitely take pics of the bed transformation. I believe DH is out there in the humidity as I type, working on ripping out the last of the old, icky Indian hawthornes. (Lucky me. I'm at work. ;-))