Ahhh....lovely!!! My favorite flowers! We don't have a frost warming here, and mine is full of buds getting ready for a new show. I have been cutting some of the past prime blossoms off and using them indoors. They aren't the summery blue anymore...they are dusky purple and a soft limeish green. I actually have a bouquet mixed in with my Halloween decor on my island!

Enjoy the last bouquet of summer!

Beautiful arrangement.

Hydrangeas are a favorite of mine and I have 8 or 9 plants, 3 are Endless Summer. Unfortunately we had a horrendous winter last year in the Philadelphia area and my hydrangeas and camillas were hit hard when heavy snow and sleet froze on the plants for several days. Some of the hydrangeas offered a meager handful of blooms during the entire summer. The only one that bloomed fully was a Pee Gee - but then they bloom later in the summer than the others. I was crushed.

My camilla blooms started to open during an early warm spell and then we had a freezing rain - I lost all the flower buds and many branches and had to cut them back significantly.

I'm hoping for a milder winter. Enjoy your flowers!

This post was edited by maire_cate on Mon, Oct 6, 14 at 18:40

Lovely! I did the same with my Pink Diamond and Limelight hydrangeas a couple of weeks ago.

Hydrangeas are fast becoming my favorite flower. I'll always love peonies and those clear, bright poppies, but hydrangeas seem to be so trouble-free and last a long time as a cut or dried flower.

I have a very prolific oakleaf hydrangea with beautiful pendulous blooms. I'm getting a second batch right now. If I had more room I'd fill the entire space with them. Plus the leaves, like elephant ear-sized oak leaves.

The hard winter in pa left me not having one bloom this summer for the first time ever!

Absolutely beautiful. I had three puny blooms this year. I thought it was odd but now I see others that experienced a hard winter had the same issue. We are in South Central PA and we were blasted all winter!

Lovely!

Linelle, my Mom had some gorgeous oak-leaf hydrangeas. I loved them.

I have Little Lamb hydrangeas alongside my garage, and I've been very happy with them. My Endless Summer doesn't like where I have it (probably not enough sun), so it never blooms, and since it's kind of pitiful, I don't notice it. Unfortunately I don't have a good spot for it.

I haven't cut any blooms yet from my PeeGee hydrangea but I certainly have plenty to choose from.

Badgergal, how beautiful! Didn't you post a pic of a beautiful arrangement you had last year? I love hydrangeas and that one is a real beauty.

bonnieann925 - Those are absolutely gorgeous!

badgergal - If I could get my Hydrangeas to bloom, I would be cutting blooms all summer long to have in my house. I do have pretty Peony's, though.

Thanks all! I did nothing to these this year. OTOH, our hydrangeas's at our vacation house on Cape Cod were a complete bomb this year, due to a hard winter there. So much of this is out of our hands. Roses were prolific in both places...who can figure it out? I simply enjoy what is!

Good memory Holly-Kay. I did post a picture last year of my dried hydrangea in a tall vase that also contained curly willow branches.
Fall is definitely here, so I better get going on a new arrangement.

I do also have a group of Annabelle Hydrangea that put on quite a show each year. Here are some shots from early summer.

{{!gwi}}

I love watching the hydrangeas change colors and I am always amazed at how big the blooms are by the end of summer. I leave the blooms on all winter. They add some nice interest to the snowy landscape.

Spectacular display! How do you dry your hydrangea's? What zone are you in? Looks like you have lots of sun and really know how to tend your prolific plantings. What eye candy, which must be appreciated by your neighbors!

I'm glad for the reminder - if it's not too late, I'll cut a bouquet this weekend. Badgergirl - mine looks just like yours - just a tad bigger! Love all of them!

Ooo, I found a picture! his was from last year, after a heavy rain, so they got droopy.

Bonnieann, I am sorry I forgot to tell you how great your Endless Summer arrangement looks. My DD has a couple of those plants in her yard, I think I should make an arrangement for her.

I am in Zone 5b. The Annabelle plants do get full sun for almost the entire day. The PeeGee plant is on the north side and my garage blocks the sun from the west so that plant is in the shade most of the day. I don't do anything special as far as growing the plants. In the spring I wait until the buds start appearing on the stems then I cut off top portion and remove any dead stalks.

As far as drying the flowers, I just leave them on the plant until they are pretty much dry on their own and then cut them and put them in a vase without water. I don't save them from year to year. They are fine for the time I have them in my arrangement.

PeeGee, the blooms on both types of my hydrangea plants are smaller this year than other years. After a long colder than normal winter, we had a very cold spring and below average summer. I think that affected the size of the blooms.

As an aside, here is my favorite floral arrangement, that I photographed last weekend.

Here is a link that might be useful: Drying hydrangeas

This post was edited by badgergal on Wed, Oct 8, 14 at 1:16

About Endless Summer. It blooms prolifically on old wood growth and less prolifically on new wood (this year's growth). My Endless Summer gets significant winter dieback in my zone 5. If I take the time to cage the shrub and fill the cage with insulating leaves, I can save the old wood along with last years buds and get more blooms. Otherwise, I'm relying on this years' growth which will produce fewer buds and bloom later in the season than the buds from last season.

Endless Summer thrives in a shady spot and will suffer and wilt in too much sun with not enough moisture. Endless Summer was developed by the cut flower industry, but has become much more profitable for the nursery trade by marketing it as a landscape plant. It is finicky in the landscape.