Invincibelle Spirit

This hydrangea was given to me by a dear friend.  I never really liked the muted candy cane pink color but kept it because Tina said it "sounded like me."  Who wouldn't love hearing that?

 My front side garden got way too crowded and I didn't like the attention this tall plant got, so I transplanted the huge thing to the shrub border.  Apparently the roots came out of the hole before I noticed, and it died.  I wasn't too unhappy about that, but the following spring I saw another chunk growing in the front, so I transplanted that.  It's grown a lot; it's very robust.  Since it's now in full sun the color is less offensive.  It's more like a pale pink and it fades to green, instead of a flesh-colored nylon stocking.

Here it is in front of Anthony Waterer spirea.

It still flops like crazy, however.  I don't prune it.  It doesn't make sense to me to prune it to the ground  because I don't think the thinner branches would hold up to wind and rain, either.

Here's what the color looked like in the front garden:

Here's it looking kinda pinky beige (to the right of the lovely bright coral pink Lady Elsie May rose).  Maria Killam would definitely not approve.  It just doesn't fit in here.  It looks like it should be with the muted tones of autumn blooms.  

So I've been reading Carolyn's Shade Gardens blog and she talks about combining these pink hydrangeas with the white Annabelle variety.  I've wanted to do this for a while, both because I love white and for its old-fashioned appeal.  Joan at For the Love of a House has Annabelles in her garden as well. Even Maria has them.  If it's in famous blogs, it's gotta be good, right?  I'm such a copycat.

Now if only my friend Sharon would give me a piece of hers.  My bright idea to trade on Craigslist a while ago was a total failure.