Is there anything I can do to make my bigleaf hydrangea flower more reliably?
It may be possible to protect plants from weather-related flower bud damage by covering them during late spring freezes with blankets, sheets, etc. There is also evidence that some bigleaf hydrangea cultivars have the ability to flower on current years growth, which means that, even if the plant is killed back to the ground, it should still flower during the subsequent summer. One such cultivar is ‘Endless Summer’ (Bailmer©), which was released to the retail market in 2003 (see image at left). Re-flowering, or remontant, ability has also been reported in the cultivars ‘Decatur Blue’, ‘Oak Hill’, ‘David Ramsey’ and ‘Penny Mac’ (see image at right). These five cultivars, which are similar in appearance, produce blue flowers in acidic soil and pink flowers in neutral soil. While the primary reason for growing bigleaf hydrangea is for the flowers, a few cultivars have ornamental foliage that makes the plant attractive even when not in flower. Cultivars with variegated or gold foliage, such
