I just purchased two of these this spring and your pic is making me excited to see what they do!

Believe me, I understand your excitement. :) I like it so well that I'm thinking about getting 2 more in the fall to plant in the front yard. By the way, they are getting all day sun. Good luck with yours! Keep me posted on how they do!

Nice! I planted one last year from a 3 Gallon pot. It bloomed nicely. This year, it is already about 4 ft tall and covered with buds. It gets ~ 5 hrs of mid day sun so hopefully the stems will be as sturdy as yours.

Thanks! Would love to see a picture of yours when it blooms!

I believe all arborescens should be treated similarly. And incrediball deserves patience, as the largest blooms may not come for 2-5 years after planting. Sometimes they'll need a cage or lasso, sometimes not. Depends on the size of he blooms and how many blooms are attached to an old wood stem. 4-5 hours of sun does seem to be the magic number, as minimal heat stress means bigger darker leaves and bigger blooms, I've found.

Here is my arborescens set, a day after 5 inches of rain in 2 days. The white ones look the same but the foreground plant needed lassoed with nylon twine around the middle, near the top of the 24" old wood stems I'd left, because it had splayed onto neighboring plants (mostly macs LOL). The rear one did not need a lasso because the booms aren't quite as large. Slightly weaker Bella Anna in the middle.

Angle #2, no lasso and lasso.

springwood_gardens What a lovely display you have. Absolutely gorgeous.

Thanks for sharing.

Jackie

Springwood, we need you here to do our planting! GORGEOUS!!! Post more pics any time, enjoy looking at them!

Sally

Wow....please share more photos. Thanks for sharing!

Thanks all! That's honestly the best part of my yard. The other parts don't have quite as much color right now and aren't as curvy.

Hey, it belongs in Better Homes & Gardens! Great job!

So Nice and love the combinations you created! Your garden is at least 2-3 weeks earlier that ours here in northern IL. What is the short purple Mac (so pretty) at the bottom of the 2nd picture?

Also at the bottom of the first picture, what is that pretty pink/purple Mac next to the Zegreb Coreosis?

Thank you!

I honestly do wanna do contests, at least locally eventually, but the house needs some work and I'm not quite there with the gardens. The back grass is only half grass. :P This year is funny because it was a pretty hard winter temp-wise but the stuff that's blooming is doing so at the same time as nursery stock. So I guess it's good stock!

The purple next to the Zagreb is the (Double Delights) Expression I got recently. It was straight lavender and then the new blooms got darker once I put it in the ground. :) The little guys at the front are mostly new Kurt Weiss Greenhouse florist gallons from Lowe's. I have about 10 total in the ground and in pots and am trying to see how some do after winters, and just trying to ID some others. Worst case can bag them up and replant like some annuals.

Amazing border. Thanks for sharing!

And Sally, great looking patio and another great thread!

Thank you. I am going to try to find (Double Delights) Expression. Great idea of using the florist hydrangeas.

I think I may have those too. I thought they were Anabelle

Which are these?

Look like Annabelles to me. And they look happy. Nice sitting are you've got there. :)

Thank you Springwood. They make me happy :) The ones in the front are holding up well. The ones on the side are flopping down quite a bit. We've had some powerful rain and a lot of it making them "fall down" but they usually are just huge. Should I prop them somehow? I can't even walk my path now.

BTW Springwood I'm in Pittsburgh too!

Cool. :) To keep them out of your path, I'd put up a green wire fence 3' tall along the path held up with some large tomato stakes or something, allowing the plants to grow through a little but not fall down. Or make some homemade cages out of the fence roll. Using wire cutters, cut the lateral pieces of fence off a the bottom and use the remaining pieces as stakes and push them into the soil, securing the ends together with twist-ties.

Or at least use this pruning method on a thread that was just started today: http://forums.gardenweb.com/discussions/3224993/weak-stems-on-my-anna-bell-hydrangeas?n=3

I lassoed mine up a bit to keep the stems from falling completely, but if they were *right* next to a path (which mine aren't) I'm sure I'd still be brushing up against them.

Thank you!!!