My "Bobos" are coming on-line

I have posted in the past of how much I like this compact new wood white flowering hydrangea.

(I have 'mass' planting of 7 in a border and then 2 more elsewhere.)

I have had a "Bobo" since 2012 and for this season I made a conscious effort to trim minimally as I am curious as to how large they can get.

It is interesting that in the 7 out front, there are great variations from plant to plant as to when they will be in full bloom. I have a couple that are almost there (see picture below):

But then others that are a good couple of weeks behind and yet all 7 receive a very similar of light and most are about the same vintage.

As I recall some of you have "Bobo" in your garden. How are they doing for your this season? Please post pictures.

I do not have Bobo but I wanted to let you know how nice the one in the picture looks. It appears as if ALL of its stems bloomed for you this season. It is very happy in that location!

I have two macs on either side of the front door that bloomed poorly due to this winter's weather. One did not bloom at all. The other bloomed, but had just two blooms. Another example of shrubs close to each other and behaving somewhat differently. A different type of mac, Mme. Moulliere, is about 30' away and it bloomed very well.

UPDATE:

Here are these Bobos 2 weeks later:

Looks good!

Thanks very much hcmcdole.

Looks as if some snow fell on your hydrangeas!

Well that "snow" is melting quickly with now approaching a month of no appreciable rain :(.

Double sigh then. Same here. I have a 2-Story high white Crape Myrtle that is dumping spent flowers all over, giving things a snowy look.

And oddly, I recently read that although our temps have been hovering + or - from the 100-degree mark and should through most of August, the Natl Weather Service forecasted a lot of rain due to El Nin~o from Fall thru Spring once the summer temps go down. If it was like the El Nin~o induced rains we had in the Spring... I may loose some plants by Spring 2016. Maybe the garage too (joking). Ha and sigh....

This message was edited Jul 28, 2015 1:31 AM

Luis, OUCH! Luckily we are only in the mid 90's (ha?) but the crepe myrtles love this kind of heat. Dry heat is such a strain on plants and animals (thank goodness for AC).

My Tonto allée is loving the heat. Second photo showing one heavy truss with blooms over the fence.

Red Rooster and Dynamite are smaller bushes than Tonto but the color is intense.

Incredible pics hcmcdole!

UPDATE:

This was not a good year for BOBO and I am not sure why...maybe 'luis' and others can chime in.

Many blooms went brown during the summer while having white ones on the same plant (and that never happened in the prior 2 seasons).

That is usually a form of heat stress such as soil moisture issues, high temperatures, etc. The first thing that hydrangeas get rid of are (1) flower buds and (2) blooms; then leaves after that. A VS that I am monitoring skipped the pink/magenta phase and went from white directly to green. And probably brown after that... so you are not alone!

Thanks for the reply 'luis'. That does make sense. What is good about "Bobo" (paniculata) is that it is pretty good in terms of water needs. It takes a prolonged duration of drought before I notice it in the leaves.

I guess I was spoiled the last couple of seasons as I got vibrant white flowers slowly melting into the late summer fall pinkish tinge. But now it is going from white to brown :(.