Acting fairly normal in southern MN.

My hydrangea 'Quick Fire' is in its third year. It just won't "fire up." Still mostly white with a little pinky green--not terribly attractive. It fired up just fine its first and second years. No idea what's going on.

Looking good Ostrich, am eager to see how these develop for you in the coming years.

'Incrediball Blush' in its third season, I have another against the rather shaded south side of the house and it lacks vigor, blooms are a nice color though, also have two cuttings that last year were stuck in the ground and rooted in place, they're both budded up. I like how sturdy the variety is.

'Quick Fire Fab' was left potted for two summers and had refused to bloom, planted out this spring and as you say the paniculatas have been slow to come into bloom, but sure was an unpleasant cool, cloudy, WINDY spring, then the heat kicked in for a bit! Am hoping for much better and bigger flowers for 'Fab' in 2025.

@

diggerdee zone 6 CT That is definitely unusual diggerdee. Just so I can record that visually, would you mind posting a picture? Sounds like one side got hit by patchy frost, killed the flower buds but not the stems and then the back up flower buds may have bloomed. Regardless, awesome.

Could not resist, came across plenty of hydrangeas today and 'Little Hottie' looking among the best.

luis sorry, I'm just seeing this now. Darn just got back from my daughter's. I will try to get a picture tomorrow. I haven't checked on this shrub in a week and we've had some heavy downpours so I don't know what shape the blooms are in now, but you will still probably see the difference.

On my drive home, I pass a house that has two hydrangeas planted at the end of the driveway and they are the most unusual (to me at least) magenta-ish color. Extremely eye-catching. Today when I drove by I noticed that those blooms too, sadly, are fried. Too bad as I would have liked to see how they matured. I don't recall them being that color in previous years. (Obviously they likely didn't change color per se, but this year the color was more saturated/ deeper etc).

:)

Dee

luis here is the hydrangea. Sorry it's such a poor photo - it was rainy and EXTREMELY windy last night. We've had some severe storms in the area the last few days (which is why even the newer blooms are looking somewhat ratty, sadly)

But you can see how there is the lower row of older blooms and then the newer blooms above them. I say above and below because that's how it looks in the photo, but in actuality those older blooms are kind of on one equal half of the shrub, the front side, which has flopped down from the heat and rains. The blooms "above" are on the back section of the shrub. Indeed, even if the older blooms had not flopped, the newer blooms would be a bit taller, but they would still be on the back part of the shrub compared to the older blooms on the front part. LOL that sounds clear as mud but I hope you are understanding what I am trying to say. I can (try to) clarify if need be.

It's such a shame for hydrangeas this summer that the heat and storms have affected what was otherwise a spectacular spring and early summer for them this year. I can't emphasize enough how driving around town my eye was constantly caught by gorgeous hydrangeas - many of them the same hydrangeas I've been driving by for years, but this year they were just so fabulous. Then the heat came. Oh well, all in the life of a garden, I guess!

:)

Dee

H. serrata seen today ... seems happy.

ETA this is H aspera NOT H serrata. Sorry.

Wow, that serrata is huge!

I have a panicle that has not bloomed. That has never happened to me before. I don't know what variety it is because it was mislabeled. I hope it is a Little Hottie or another late blooming hydrangea.

I've just realized I inadvertently misnamed this one. It's aspera, not serrata.

These 3 Little Quickfires aren't so little and I am suspecting maybe some parent Quickfire is showing up. The top of the plants are very upright and no blooms. This was July 11. Notice all the green with no blooms! These got more sun this year because we lost a mature plum tree that used to provide some shade. That may have something to do with this weird growth pattern.

This was last week -- a month later -- right after planting a new Jap Maple to take the place of the plum.

The tops did eventually bloom. Was pink on the bottom, white on the top! I had to cut off 2-3' off to reduce the height a bit to keep the maple from looking even more ridiculously out of scale. Next spring I am going to have to cut these shrubs down quite low to not overpower the Japanese Maple. Notice buckets of blooms I got to bring in and share with friends. Hope that Maple grows fast.