Hydrangeas

I love these so much.  I loved them before it was cool to love them.  I loved them so much I bought my mother one to plant because I didn't own any land.  The macrophyllas haven't bloomed, except for a few blooms, in five years so this year I am thrilled to see them.  Although, they seem very pale this year, and the Endless Summer is going lilac.  Here are babies from other hydrangeas.  They've never bloomed.  They're very pale in color.

This is Endless Summer, my first ever hydrangea, planted in 2016. It's trending lilac.

This is Blue Bird. Or Blaumeister. There were two tags with it, I think from Home Depot.

Blue Billow out back:

Blue Billow in the front yard:

I'm thinking the Rozanne geranium is distracting.  Hmm.

I've already decided that the Strawberry Sundae hydrangea was a very dumb choice for the side garden.  It is huge this year.  It is the sister of that monster, Vanilla Strawberry.

Here it is looking ginormous even at the beginning of its' panicles forming.

I'll put it in the back.  It can go next to the stone wall garden or next the newly transplanted Hansa rose.

Best Garden Ever

I miss when my garden was young and looked terrific.  I think it also had something to do with the mild winters as well.  Here's the back garden.  I believe these are all 2014.

I miss those days, even with my neighbor's ugly backside of house, ladders and two-toned backside of my own house.

Best Garden Ever - Heritage Version

My Heritage Garden was the first "designed" garden where I had really thought about where things should go.  The problem with the garden was everything grew supersized, so it got out of control and I had to remove a lot.  Then I think I removed too much, but now I think it's okay.  Here are its glory days.  I particularly loved the fall plantings I put in that first year.  And that first spring was lovely as well.

This is how it started out - a strip of grass with iris and ladybells on the right, next to the stone wall.

Before And After: Stone Wall Garden

When I moved in in 2005 there was a ginormous barberry that reached almost to the top of the deck, which is off the second floor.  I never liked it but I was a new gardener and thought you should keep what came with the house.  I cut that thing to the ground in anticipation of someone building stairs off the deck but that never came to fruition.  I decided in 2016 to rip it down.  I really like the garden I made in its place.  It'll be evolving, though, since the Montauk daisy is too big for the space and it'll become pretty shady when the Japanese maple reaches its full height.

Here's May 5, 2012:

And Spring 2020:

Before, you couldn't see the lovely stone wall, on which I planted four Green Mountain boxwood.  I talk more about it here:  http://hilltopgothic.blogspot.com/2017/02/2016-gardening-season.html

Growth

Early Summer

Technology has been frustrating the heck out of me.  That and the fact that I never remember to take pictures at the right time and day.  I can't access my old photos to show the growth I wanted to show of some of the plants.  So here's my first video.  My brother (who's 15 years younger than I) "OK, Boomer"'d me when he saw this because I held the phone the wrong way.  I'd forgotten many names of things.  Too much pressure!  And of course, Boomer can't figure out how to edit or insert captions.