Hydrangea heaven!

Hydrangeas are one of my very favorite flowers.  I'm drawn to them wherever I go and am always trying to figure out where I can squeeze another one in.  Unfortunately for now I'm pretty much out of space for new ones.  I noticed that almost all the Hydrangeas in my yard are blooming right now.  Last year several of them didn't bloom after we had so much snow and cold weather.  You can look out from just about any window in the house and see a Hydrangea blooming.  Best of all those flowers will last for a long time.

 Hydrangea macrophylla 'Pia' is growing in a large container on the deck.  This shrub stays on the small side and apparently is one of the few that stays pink no matter what the soil is like.

 Another Hydrangea macrophylla, this one was here when we bought the house.  It has good years and not so good years.  This is a good year for it!  The color is a dark purplish-blue.  It grows right under a large Cedar tree.

 Someone left an anonymous comment recently that this could be Hydrangea macrophylla 'Ayesha'.  I can't read the tag anymore, but the name does sound very familiar.  I'm pretty sure that's what it is.

 This is a huge Lacecap Hydrangea that was here when we bought our house.  It gets to be a good 7 feet plus tall.  I didn't prune it very well this year so it didn't bloom as nicely as usual.  It was definitely planted in an area far too small for the size.

 Hyrangea 'Preziosa' is considered a hybrid between H. macrophylla and H. serrata.  This is probably my favorite of all.  It didn't like the heat we had recently, so some of the flowers were burned a bit.

 Hydrangea macrophylla 'Endless Summer' is doing okay here.  I'm not sure I'd recommend it for at least this area.  I have a friend that is quite the gardener and she's lost two already, my sister says her's isn't doing well either.  The tag says it can take full sun, mine can hardly take part sun without wilting terribly.  I think for around here I'll just stick with the much tougher 'Nikko Blue'.

 Hydrangea macrophylla 'Nikko Blue' is so full of flowers it just flops down.  It grows in mostly shade and gets no special treatment.

 I've shown this one before - a florist's Hydrangea.  These are the kind that are given as a gift in a  fancy pot and then most people throw them away when they finish blooming.  My husband gave me this years ago and of course I couldn't throw it away.  It took a few years to get going, but now it's doing great.

  Oakleaf Hydrangea (quercifolia) 'Snow Queen' is another favorite.  It's probably about 6 feet tall right now.  I also have 'Pee Wee' which gets to be about 4 feet tall.

I'm still waiting for my newest 'Pinky Winky' to finish blooming.  It has done great so far and I'm anxiously watching the buds grow.

I don't do anything special for my Hydrangeas, every so often I may remember to give them a little acid fertilizer, but that's it.  I only ever have to water 'Preziosa' and 'Endless Summer' the rest do fine with whatever rain we get.

Sunny weekend.

What a great weekend we ended up having. The weather really improved, although I don't know if we actually reached 75 degrees. Just having two days of sun and having a chance to enjoy it was just perfect. In fact it was just the right temperature for digging, weeding and even gutter cleaning ☺. The girls had a sprinkler out and had a lot of fun. Around here lately if it's above 65 degrees it feels like Summer.
We also made a trip to the Antique Rose Farm, which I mentioned in an earlier post, and chose a new David Austin rose 'Lady Emma Hamilton'. It's full of buds now, but when it blooms I'll post some pictures.

I was so happy to find that the Oriental Poppy 'Princess Victoria Louise' is blooming. Last year in the heat of the Summer I decided to chance moving it to a sunnier place where it could get bigger. Later in the year I found that I had left roots behind and new leaves were coming up. I happily dug that plant up and moved it to another place. Now the original roots have sent up leaves and flowers as well as the two I moved. So, not only did the plant survive the move, but I ended up with three total.

Salvias are blooming and covered in bees.

Spireas are full of flowers. This one's tag has been lost, but I really love the bright pink flowers on it.

The 'Endless Summer' Hydrangea I planted last Summer is doing well, still small, but lots of blooms.

Rose 'Kimberlina' has lightly scented flowers.

Campanula 'Summertime Blues'. I've read these flowers are sterile so should not spread as much as some Campanulas do.

One of the hanging Fuchsias. The hummingbirds have been at the Fuchsias off and on all during the day.

I've been trying some new things out on my blog. I wrote this post in Blogger in draft where you can load pictures much quicker and choose extra large for the size. While these pictures aren't quite as large as before, loading them this way saves me time and is easier to put them in the post. I'm also changing the blog layout some. Please let me know if anything seems out of place or is difficult to read. I've noticed some Blogger blogs loading very slowly lately too, not sure if it's just my computer or if others have noticed that as well.