It has a late blooming habit. Although winter hardy for you, not recommended for a cold place with a short growing season.

From its description it seems to be very much like a BOBO?

My take on those two in MN: Bobo starts blooming about 2 weeks earlier and gets a little bigger. LH has better flowers, flower aging and overall tidy habit.

This Connecticut-based company advertises it to bloom in July or later: https://www.whiteflowerfarm.com/hydrangea-paniculata-little-hottie It is competition for Bobo from another source. Not sure if the price is better or not though.

Bobo starts blooming about 2 weeks earlier

So @pennlake, you do have a LH in your garden? Nice!

But later blooming for LH isnt so good as 2 extra weeks would take me well into August :(.

LH has better.....flower aging

I read also that it does well in high heat conditions which is a good thing. I have a spot, between two existing Bobos that I think I will fill with a "Hottie" and we shall see how it progresses; how it compares and contrasts with Bobo as it matures.

When looking for early blooming paniculatas, research if you might be interested in the Quickfire variants, Praecox, Magical Flame and Dharuma. I do not grow those last three though so, I am unsure how they compare to Quickfire. You may have to "test the waters".

Here in Twin Cities, MN, the earliest paniculatas I've seen start blooming very late June. The latest one I've seen is Tardiva which starts about mid-August. I appreciate the wide span in bloom times to be able to provide pops of bright white flowers dispersed through the garden. So as the earliest ones such as Quickfire are starting to age by late July, other varieties begin blooming.

I've also noticed hard pruning of them delays the bloom a bit which is another reason I'm mostly hands off with paniculatas except to remove the brown flowers in the spring winter did not remove.

Paniculatas seem to attract a lot of pollinators. Bloom of the fertile flowers seems to begin at the same time the sterile flowers start to show white color and lasts for about 30 days. After that it's seed maturation though the flowers on most will be attractive through frost. So again using the wide span of bloom times you could use the various paniclulatas as pollinator plants from late June through early to mid September.

And so I am really interested to see how soon our 3 Early Evolutions will bloom this season as it is sometimes advertised as The World's Earliest Flowering Panicle. :)

Earliest? hmmmmm. I think they were working on that phraseology on the same day when they said plant/tree will only get 5 feet high. Hee, hee, hee. Hope it is true though although not likely earlier than Praecox.

My take on those two in MN: Bobo starts blooming about 2 weeks earlier

You got me thinking@pennlake....so I looked back at pictures from 2021...a good season for moisture and our Bobos were in reasonably good bloom by the end of the first week of July and in 'perfect' (full) bloom by end of the third week

Here in Twin Cities, MN, the earliest paniculatas I've seen start blooming very late June.

I have my fingers crossed that in my location, "Early Evolution" will look 'interesting' i.e. show good blooms by......mid June at the latest. In the name of science, I will report back :).

So nice to see some hydrangea actions here in the middle of winter! LOL!

I cannot remember if I had told you guys that in the end, I moved my Bobo and planted them in a less conspicuous bed, next to which I have a group of Little Hotties! The Little Hotties were in the bed for the first season last year, and they were rather thirsty. I had to water them quite a bit last year to stop the leaves from drooping. The Bobo's impressed me that after I moved them, they adopted to the new location in no time and them bloomed their head off, though it was a bit late.

So this year, I will get to see how they two compare side by side when our growing season starts again (which is not until May or June!!! Sigh...).

BTW, my Little Quick Fire grew like crazy even though they were in the bed for the first season last year. I hope they do stay compact!!! LOL! We shall see :-)

From the descriptions that I have seen for LH, it seems to be a larger plant than Bobo at full size i.e. up to 5 feet all around.

“my Little Quick Fire grew like crazy even though they were in the bed for the first season last year. I hope they do stay compact!”

Oh,-oh. There goes another plant size estimate…

Bobo exceeds it's specs here in MN. Last big one I measured a few years ago was 54" Tall and 72" wide. I would say they are likely comparable in mature size.

6 feet wide!? Id sure love to see that "overgrown" Bobo in bloom as I am sure that it would be impressive.

We planted our first Bobos in 2012 (and we have 7 or 8 as a 'hedge'). I have no doubt imagining any one of ours to be 4 by 4 but the beauty of paniculatas is that they are so 'forgiving' when pruned.

I planted 3 LH back in May. They are now established and will bloom sometime this month.

Hi everyone,

Just an update on my Little Hottie! All 3 of them survived their first Edmonton winter LOL! But they are certainly slow growers and not that vigorous (which I had expected given their supposedly compact size). No sign of flower buds yet. Let me see if I like them when they are established.

Now, they still leafed out earlier than my Bobo's! Those guys are definitely NOT a winner in Edmonton, I hate to say! They may get shovel pruned in future... LOL!

Now, on the other hand, the Strawberry Sundae that I planted last year are coming back nicely and vigorously, and there are many flower buds already... I LIKE THEM so far!!!

and not that vigorous (which I had expected given their supposedly compact size)

And yet LH is advertised with a potential size larger than BOBO i.e. up to 5 feet in height and width.

From what I’ve seen of LH here (MN) it will take a while to get to 5 feet unlike some others that claim similar size. It will start blooming here the end of July so a bit on the late side

pennlake, going by how slow they are growing, and that there is no flower bud showing at all, LH may not be a winner here for me! LOL! Oh well, I should let them grow and prove themselves this season at least.... how could someone so impatient like me enjoy gardening so much!? LOL!!!

I planted three LH back in May. They were heatlhy specimens and with the consistent mositure we have had this season they did well in June and July and into August. I checked on them a couple of weeks ago and I am reasonably sure that they are dead! :(

It does bug me when 'this' happens ie an unexplained demise of a plant...especially a hydrangea. I will leave them as is and hope I see life next spring.

I think Strawberry Sundae died here in Texas too but am planning to wait until spring 2024 for signs of life too.

I will leave them as is and hope I see life next spring.

UPDATE: June 2024

So the 2 did make it through the winter. Regrowth has been slow but they are ok. BUT there is absolutely no sign of any developing flowers. This might be in part related to their lack of vigor last Fall.

How are your LH doing in 2024?

(@luis_pr, just curious did your SS revive this past spring?)

No, it did not revive. I kept watering this year when dry but finally extracted it and tossed into the compost pile in early to mid May.

And replaced it with.....?

Nothing yet. It is too hot in Texas to be planting at that time, especially water intensive hydrangeas.

Ya. I just wondered if you had planted a replacement earlier this season.

No, I hoped it would come back but had to wait until May, which is the latest they leaf out/grow new stems here. I try to plant in April so they csn handle the harsh summers better.

So no new additions to your hydrangea collection until.....?

Hi guys! My Little Hottie's (all 3 of them) survived and are now just starting for form buds. But they remained very small shrubs.... Isn't it so painful to be growing things so slowly here in Zone 4a!? LOL!

The Strawberry Sundae's, on the other hand, are much more vigorous! They are also full of buds.

The biggest surprise to me this year though, are my Bobo's - all 3 survived and remained small, but are covered with buds! I cannot wait to see them bloom! OK, how many years have ai kept these guys for?! Does it really take 3 years for them to be established enough to even reward me with many blooms!? Good grief! I don't have that patience!!! LOL!

My Little Hottie's (all 3 of them) survived and are now just starting for form buds. But they remained very small shrubs.... Isn't it so painful to be growing things so slowly here in Zone 4a!?

As @luis_pr had written, LH blooms late and so it probably isn't the best choice for a short growing season like yours @ostrich ie a 4a (heck, I am in 6a and one of our LH has zero blooms and the other they are barely forming).

I am zone 5. All my little hotties did extremely well survived the winter and broke dormancy early. Full of flowers all this summer. Love them

When did you plant them and how many?

I am in CDN z6 and if this second year is any indication my two flower quite late.

(If you are able to "Elaine" could you post some pictures?)

The youtube Garden Crossings main house summer tours will show their Bobos ALL exceeding their tag size. They are in Michigan z6?

I have 2 bobos, of which I moved both at least once. I am hestitant to grow more bobos even though it is supposed to be a dwarf. I am also hesitant to grow Little Hottie.

I have to report that my Little Hottie's are exceeding my expectations and they are growing so well here! They flowered a bit later but the form and colours are great. Much more impressive than those awful Bobo's that I have!!!

The Bobo's that I have are barely like over a foot tall after several years - the size is OK but then the flowering power is just not great. On the other hand, my one year old Little Hottie are stealing the show next to these Bobo's!!!

I wonder how big these Little Hottie's will get in my zone (Zone 4a)? My Little Quick Fire barely get to be like over 2 feet tall. And my Quick Fire's are like 3 feet tall only.... I really think that these paniculata's grow so much smaller in zone 4a here!!! I wonder if anyone else has the same experience?

Here are my Little Hottie hydrangeas - you see there are 3 of them (the greenish ones) next to the Strawberry Sundae hydrangeas which have the pink-ish blooms now....

It looks like the Little Hottie may remain compact here in Zone 4a..... I certainly hope so! I love this dwarf size right now but it may just be not mature yet as this is just one year old in the ground! I love the leaves and the floriferous nature of the shrubs.

ostrich: Do you use landscape fabric under the mulch? That can hinder growth. I also fertilize a good amount with milorganite in spring, and usually 1-2x feed with a soluble hose end (as I am feeding my annual flowers)

I just got 2 more bobos for a curva-linear trio hedge. While bobos flowers are more round, and not as impressive as conicals like Little Hottie (and limelight etc), both of my older bobos have flower panicles from top to the ground and all around - barely see green (one was in part shade and was straggly until I moved it to mostly sun). I decided the later blooming LH might annoy my patience, and better to keep things consistent.

Ostrich, my 'Quick Fire' had years ago quickly shot up to 7 ft, but now shorter after some hard winters, though still full and vigorous. 'Little Quick Fire' did fantastic growing to about 3.5 ft until also being hit hard, will need to get another, they do best for me out of the winter winds. I removed 'Little Lamb' in favor of 'Quick Fire Fab' the 'LL' had been a strong vigorous grower! As previously mentioned, I got rid of all three 'Bobo' for their poor performance in this climate. 'Little Hottie', I have yet to set in the ground, might spend the winter in the garage.

'Little Quick Fire' did fantastic growing to about 3.5 ft until also being hit hard, will need to get another,

I planted 2 of Tiny Quick Fire earlier this summer. I am hoping they will stay under 3 feet in size.

Nia, thanks! I don't use landscape fabric - somehow these guys just stay very compact here for me. I blame it on our zone 4a climate!!! LOL!

FrozeBudd, good to see you again!!! My Quick FIre in Calgary stayed at around 4 feet after several years, and my QF here in Edmonton is also now at about 4 feet tall only, and they have been in the ground for several years now!! Weird!!! But I like that they are more compact in size though :-)

How is your QF Fab looking? Any photo to share please? FB, you must have seen me raving about Little Hottie here as it seems to be doing better than my BoBo here! But I guess that is not hard.... LOL!

Now how about your Moonrock and others? How are they doing? I would love to see their photos please...

Thanks everyone!

Ostrich, sorry for not getting back to this. My 'QF Fab' needs a year or two more to settle in and kick into gear, flowers this summer were yet very small, though numerous. My 'Little Hottie' remains in a pot, I just might sink it into the ground and decide next spring on where to plant it out. 'Moonrock' got moved from place to place and has been resenting me ever since. I think I mentioned before that a few years ago, at Home Depot, I met a woman who was purchasing a 'Moonrock', she said she has an entire hedge of them that literally stops traffic and has people coming to her door asking "WHAT is THAT?"

My rising sun redbud tree tore another major limb in my protected backgarden, thinking no more soft wood trees if our mediocre wind gusts 30mph Ramsey County MN z5a will tear them apart. This leaves me open to maybe a hydrangea hedge along my east side... but if anyone has a windless spot, and love having all three colors (orange to yellow to lime green) leaves at the same time from spring to end of summer, rising sun redbud is stunning. But because it keeps producing new leaves, it has these long spindly branches that I have to keep blunt or it becomes tip heavy. Dreaming of a hedge of hydrangeas plus maybe a dwarf conifer in the east backgarden over the winter...