Endless Summer Hydrangea

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Permalink Reply by Carol Rothwell on September 10, 2009 at 9:44am

I've had the same experience; in fact, I have four varieties of hydrangeas and each year some bloom and some don't. This year's it's been mostly foliage; of my 8 plants, only three or four have bloomed at all.

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Permalink Reply by Mark McRoberts on September 17, 2009 at 12:50am

I have experienced the same. I even have a variety of double hydrangea and it was blooming when I bought it and it has never bloomed in the three years I have had it. There has to be some issue that I'm not addressing. I planted the things to look like the magazines! Geez!

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Permalink Reply by Sally M. Williams on September 30, 2009 at 8:03pm

A few weeks ago I heard a discussion on the Toby Tobin radio show that many people didn't get blooms from their hydrangeas this year. I had the same problem -- I only got one bloom from my Endless Summer, and about 5 blooms from my Annabelle. The guy from Soil Service Garden on Troost was on the show and he said he had few blooms in his yard and had heard the same report from many people. The suggestions they had for next year are:

1) For winter, try to protect the branches as much as possible. You can spray the stems with Wilt Pruf and/or put a chicken wire screen around the hydrangea and fill it high with mulch or leaves. You can also cover the plant with one of the shrub bags and fill it with mulch or leaves.

2) Don't cut any hydrangeas back, even the Endless Summer varieties, until the plant is leafing out in the spring. Then only cut the dead stems. Both Toby Tobin and the guy from Soil Service Garden said the Endless Summer varieties are not blooming well on new wood even though they're advertised to bloom on both old and new wood. So don't cut them back unless you're certain the stem is dead.

3) Hydrangeas love acid. Be sure to fertilize them with an acid fertilizer. I use what used to be called MirAcid -- I think it's now called Miracle Gro for Rhododendrons/Camellias/Hydrangeas. You can also use Holly Tone. They need regular applications of acid fertilizer.

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Permalink Reply by ShirleySchowe on October 14, 2009 at 10:43am

Thanks so much for the info. I was so disappointed this year. My 3 varieties leafed out beautiful, but only 2 blooms all summer and now in October, I have another bud. See my latest photo. Hard to figure that one out!

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Permalink Reply by Tim Mahony on March 10, 2010 at 10:52am

I have had the same experience with my "Endless Summer". Planted 2 years ago, and had one or two blooms per year. Getting a lot of detailed info is a bit challenging, because most of the online info is directed towards Hydrangeas in general, with mostly a "oh by the way" reference to "Endless Summer" at best.

My suspicion is that protecting the "old growth" over the winter might be the key ... at least, that I what I am planning on trying next winter (barring any great revelations).

Here is a decent article describing recommendations for winter protection:
http://www.hydrangeashydrangeas.com/winter_protect.html

Any further insights would be appreciated ... especially from anyone that has had success.

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