If you can keep the potting soil as moist and full of nutrients as in the ground and if you can provide a few hrs of morning sun and indirect sun afterwards, the potted one should be happy.

You did not say what kind of hydrangea it is or how do you "measure" sturdiness. Normally, as they age, stems get bigger (think paniculatas) and can handle more weight, provided the cane's upper branches + blooms do not weigh too much.

Bloomstruck.. I'll have to snap a pic. The stems are not even like 1G ~regulars Hydras~ IMO. They are thin. Losta sideshoots and all. Very full. Just thin.

Maybe I'm overthinking it, but the only challenge right now is that the plug is very rootbound. When I repotted it last year, I had to cut the pot open. It's a very dense root/peat plug. Probably still is rootbound, with just potting medium and losta coarse perlite surround the base and bottom of the 30G pot. I just need the stems strong enough to support the snow.... LOL, you should see the beds where I have the 3G Citylines. I've got a 5 gallon bucket on each one right now, due to 'nuther wet heavy Noreaster.

That 4th noreaster is all I hear in tv and radio today! Have you had enough yet? I would walk outside and yell at the weather people to cut it out. Ha.

Heh. Every year, I look forward to it for a bit. It's a guy thing.....gives me a chance to get the snowblower out and blow some snow. Then it get's tired real quick ;-/ Especially the bern of the driveway where we just constantly get walled in

I'm just happy that my potted Bloomstruck survived!!..I'm prepared that it will never be as large as one in the ground but I'm fine with that..mine looks nice (I think) but I would guess that planted outside in an appropriate zone it would be bigger and better..

I have a cousin in Chicago with a snowblower that gets little use because her neighbor almost always uses his snowblower to 'clean' his property and his 2 neighbors'. He feels like his blower is too big to just do his own home only. Oh well!!

a1an,LOL looking at another 6/10” tomorrow...maybe home&garden could do series on your 30 gallon Pot ...just having some fun .. I wish the hydrangea Gods look down on your 30gal Pot

For clarity, NW, the ground spot to be planted by generator area is temporary - aka, it will be transplanted to it's permanent spot someday . Whether it be this year, next year, it remains to be decided.

Hyed, I thought my 30G was toast as I did not overwinter it inside - I just overwinter outside all winter.. I posted about it. It was ROCK hard. When it was warm about 2 weeks back, I tried to lift it, and the pot was pulling the mulch underneath if not the ground + 15 inches past the diameter of the overall pot diameter- the entire ground was being lifted as it was attached to the bottom of the pot. Surely I thought the shrub was frozen to death....Anyhow, it survived. Lotsa of small red buds came out during the warm spell.

Anybody else in the GW that lives in the snowbelt that does crazy garden snow MitTgAtion. I am guilty of coddling them.... I have lost some large shrubs due to snow splaying. Just this morning before heading out, woke up a hour earlier, put on my gaiters, and walked around and cleaned out some of the shrubs. The boxwoods for sure needed it ....it was splayed right down the middle on some. The last thing I want is a cup shaped boxwood.

Hence....I still can't wrap my head around Hyed's flattenting technique.

Ugh. Wake up an hour earlier... sounds illegal? ;o)

You can do this flattening while the stems are pliable in the Fall. And of course, you slowly apply pressure to bend them; I personally would hesitate applying much pressure (translation: I would panic) as i would be afraid of breaking them. After they harden and change color, they may be more brittle than usual. I have not done that either because I just put mulch around instead but I can tell when the stems change color in the Fall that, from that point forward, it would not be good to try and bend them.

I'm going to need to identify a hyd. I can lose if I want to test this flattening technique. Remember my snow mulch test - when I got powder snow and had to see for myself. Lost buds, lost canes = all due to my curiousity. Should have left well proven methods alone.

When the stems are supple, yes they will go down. But when they harden off and when it get's warm again, what's going to tell these stems to go back vertical and not stay at this konky angle they are in.

Well, I had one stem in one winter protected hydrangea that I found flat down when I removed winter protection... The mulch weighed it down in the Fall, I left it alone when I removed the mulch but I found it sticking up today when I went to ck it after reading your comment. "Resumption of Spring" did it somehow. More sugary liquids moving inside the stems, more liquid pressure thru the veins, etc.

OK. I've know of 2 canes that are not snapped but are facing the 3 or 4 oclock position. If they magically start reaching for the sun , then I'll try the flattening technique

Decided it's staying in the pot. Either way, when I transplant it to it's ~real~ location, it would be healthier coming from the pot with more roots than if I had done a double transplant.