Gardengal: I should have mentioned, that area is where Ive unsucessfully planted alstromeria, gladioulus, coreopsis, butterfly weed and coneflowers- none thrived or even bloomed. I just transplanted the coneflowers to a FULL full sun spot in front yard. Theres a wiegelia red prince

in the part sun location (where Im thinking of putting hydrangeas) that IS thriving, is about 6 yrs old and blooms like crazy every year so thats why I kept trying full sun plants there, since its5-6 hrs of evening sun w/ bright shade in the morning. I will give those hydrangeas a try there- I got them on clearance but not sure why- they look great! Worst case scenario is that Id have to transplant them to an even sunnier spot or lose a couple bucks if they dont make it. Heres a pic of the potential planting spot: As always, thank you for your help.

They bloom best with more hours of sun, so full sun, mulch, supplemental watering in summer. In your case, I would go with the site that provides the most sun exposure unless you are in the southwest and then give them late afternoon summer shade there there. QF is usually blooming by now here in TX. Enjoy!

Gardengal, My apologies- I just ran outside and re-read the port tag. They are ”Summer Crush”, not ”Quickfire”. The tag says ”morning sun, afternoon shade” so I guess I make a raised bed under the very eastern edge of that maple canopy afterall & will plant the hydrangeas there. I cant just dig into that flower bed- the maple’s roots have colonized every square inch of that soil and I can barely dig out enough dirt to get a bulb planted in there. In fact, I just planted crocus bulbs at the edge of that bed last fall and had trouble getting down far enough. I had to prune several smaller tree roots to make space. So thats why that location would need to be a raised bed, on top of a very large existing bed.

Here is the spot under the silver maple, all of the bigger plants already in the ground there were done about 8 yrs ago, when the bed was newer and you could still dig in it. the ring around the maple w/ rocks was put in 5 yrs ago, and I planted Japanese forest grass there all the way around but all except 2 of the grass plants died and those 2 are struggling, despite me deep watering every 2 or 3 days, which is when the soil is dry again. I dont like those greedy maples that much. But here we are…

Okay - Summer Crush is a different kind of hydrangea, H. macrophylla - and it is not a very sun tolerant species. It prefers morning sun and afternoon shade. And no hydrangea will compete well with maple roots!!

btw, no paniculata is likely to bloom in more northerly climates until July at the earliest.

Here are my 2 smaller “Hydrangea Endless Summer”

A ground cover for that circular bed around the maple--Geranium macrorrhizum or one of the spreading Epimediums. Liriope spicata would also work.