Endless Summer Hydrangea

The Endless Summer hydrangea has endless possibilities for your garden. It can be used as specimen plant in perhaps a perennial bed, or it can be an addition to a shady spot under a tree.

You can find 'Decatur Blue', 'David Ramsey', 'Oak Hill','Penny Mac', and the newest variety 'Blushing Bride'. All are wonderful for the Mid South Garden.

Produced by Bailey Nurseries, Inc., in St Paul, Minnesota, the Endless Summer hydrangea is somewhat of a miracle plant to us plant nerds.

You see, the fact that it is cold hardy to zone 4 makes it perfect for us southern gardeners.

Also, it blooms on both old and new growth. That's a good thing because so often if we get a late season frost, many varieties of hydrangeas that only grow on new growth, will not bloom that year. That's why we love the Endless Summer hydrangea so much.

This plant has been intensely researched at the University of Georgia.

Their greenhouse, nursery, and field data all showed that it did indeed flower on new growth, has foliage flat medium green; moderate mildew susceptibility; estimating 3 to 5 feet hight and as wide; have suffered cold damage in the trials but the new shoots develop flower buds and fully expressed inflorescences (blooms).

It will bloom May and June with a second full flush in October and November. Studies have shown that when flowers are removed, it takes 10 - 12 weeks before new shoots develop full sized inflorescences.

For continuous color, the gardener might remove one half the inflorescences (blooms), allowing the remainder to dry on the plant while the new shoots are producing flower buds for later in the fall.

Most of the research for this page was received from a great book on all types of hydrangeas that I highly recommend called Hydrangeas: A Gardeners' Guide, by Tone Lawson-Hall and Brian Rothera. For this book and more great books on growing hydrangeas vist our store for more books on hydrangeas