Good choice. I have not seen it locally but would love to give it a try. Depending on your location, they may bloom from mid-July to mid-August. Or thereabouts. See this link:

http://forums.gardenweb.com/discussions/1994085/strawberry-sundae-blooms-as-of-today?n=26

Strawberry Sundae is a beautiful plant. I like it more than my LittleLime. Great choice!

My Strawberry Sundae started forming blooms about 2 weeks ago. It may bloom soon. I will post a photo for you to see then.

If you want a smaller size hydrangea that blooms earlier then Bobo would be a better paniculata to choose. Bobo started blooming in my zone last week....a week or so behind the blooming date for 2016.

How big does SS get? I have been curious about this one, I love my big VS but need something more compact.

It is in its 3rd year now and it is just about 2.5 wide by 3 feet tall. I haven't done any shaping other than dead heading in early spring.

Thanks Starlight! Looks like it stays a nice size for you!

I'm looking forward to saying that I love my SS but so far I'm not sure that it is that much more compact than my Vanilla Strawberry. I just planted SS last year in a spot that has dappled sun (my VS in zone 7 is in sunlight most of the day--a lot in zone 7). It took my VS about two summers to take off so I'm being patient with SS--so far it's only formed a couple of flowers but this is how my VS behaved the first year. The width is about 2.5 but the height is about 3.5-4. That seems tall to me for something that was marketed as "compact" but when I look at the tag it actually does say up to 5 ft. So it pays to read the tag :):)

Are you getting the magenta pink yet? And I hear you. I look at the sky and say pleeeease when they use the word "dwarf" to describe similarly sized hydrangeas. Hee hee hee.

No magenta pink yet--just a couple of white panicles--VERY unremarkable (which is how VS looked to me the first year). I'm glad I stuck it out though--my VS is crazy full this year--I'm hopeful SS will flush out next year.

Wow! My is nothing as pretty as yours. I'm too shy to show my SS now! :)

:) it took a couple of years--I'm learning the value of patience with this gardening thing:)

"I'm learning the value of patience with this gardening thing:)" Yup I figure my love of gardening is my life lesson in patience (not a strength of mine.)

I have read that some of the H. paniculatas take a few years to start to develop good pink color to follow the white.

I hear you Babs! :) I hadn't read about time and the color change but I would believe it based on my limited experience. The change is definitely stronger each year. I love the shared knowledge available on gardenweb!

My experience is that the first year or two in a garden does not represent what a well established hydrangea will look like. Flower color and fall leaf color may be slightly different, as well as the shape of the plant.

However, by year three also I know whether a hydrangea is in the right or wrong place. That afternoon sun really does a number on many of them in my zone 6. I know much colder and hotter zones make a significant difference in siting.

So my hydrangea may look good by year 3, but if its wilting from 2-6 pm it's good looks are very compromised

Marie Tulin, have you had issues with H. paniculatas wilting? Or just the more shade-loving types? You aren't that far from me (60 miles south?) and even last summer in drought conditions and without watering my H. paniculatas didn't wilt at all. I always figured that they would be fairly resilient in all of New England.

Does Strawberry Sundae have dark stems, similar to Strawberry Vanilla? Thanks.

Deborah--yes--SS and VS are very similar except for size. And NHBabs--I live waaaay far south of you and rarely see a wilting paniculata so I can't imagine that any place north of here would have that problem.....

Oops - didn't realize that there were two Maries in this thread. I know that Marie T has had issues with some of the larger-leafed Hydrangeas drooping in too much sun, but I wasn't sure which type she was referring to.

T & S is a macro, isn't it? I had to get that out of the sun. I've lost track of all the names due to the hour and confusion.

Mine is still small but for a year 3 it has a lot of flowers. People have commented on it's arching habit and it's been suggested a raised 'bed' would give it the height it needs so the branches don't drag on the ground.

I planted mine on top of a retaining wall that is 4 feet off the ground with that in mind. It's branches are already arching down significantly

Twist and Shout is H. macrophylla/big leaf, but Strawberry Sundae is H. paniculata.

Lovely variety of hydrangeas, Hyed!

Thank you, Babs

I just planted one today that my in-laws bought for my wife last week. Very pretty, compact flowers. The leaves are smaller than some other paniculatas, which I like.

I made a mistake: I have Vanilla Strawberry and it is doing fine in afternoon western sun.

My macs. Twist and Shout looked terrible in the afternoon sun. Now they are in the shade and not blooming at all. Damned if you do damned if you don't !