Finding Hydrangeas That Bloom Reliably - First Results From Our Remontancy Trials

Do you have any trouble getting your large leafed hydrangeas, botanically known as Hydrangea microphylla, to flower reliably in your garden? Well if you do, you're not alone, because it's probably one of the most frequently asked questions we get, and in this video I'm going to be exploring some of the reasons why that happens and also telling you about some important discoveries that we've made here in our trials, that might help you get them to flower and produce lots of gorgeous color like these plants are going to do here. Hello I'm David Wilson and I'm here in the production area at Overdyvest Nurseries in the middle of a beautiful batch of Hydrangea rock and roll as you see they are absolutely covered with lots of flower buds and flowers that are just now opening and in a couple weeks time this area is going to be spectacular, well actually probably not because these plants are destined to go out to our partnering garden centers that are located right throughout our region, that's the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern states. Now as you've probably already worked out when I'm talking about these large leafed hydrangeas these are the ones that as you see have large serrated leaves, they have those dome shaped flowers that can be either shades of pink or blue or lilac, white or sometimes red and even deep purple shades as well. There's lots of different varieties and what we've been doing here in the nursery is doing some trials and experimentations in our test and display area to see which are the best performing varieties which are the ones that do best in this region. And that leads me on to mention how here at Over the Vest we're dedicated to finding the best performing varieties of garden plants for this region, and that's one of the things that we've been working on with this type of hydrangea, finding the ones that are going to perform well here in all sorts of outdoor garden conditions. And we've been working for three years now on what we call our Remontancy Trial, that's where we've taken over 35 different varieties, we've planted them out in our display garden and we are comparing them side by side to see how well they put up with the winter time, how well they replenish and grow and flower here under normal outdoor garden situations. And in this video, I'm going to give you a little introduction as to what we're seeing now in the third year of what and how the plants are performing. But first, I want to draw your attention to a video that we have here on this channel where I ask the question, why isn't my hydrangea flowering? In that video, if you haven't caught it yet, I'd encourage you to take a few minutes and look at it because there I explain why these hydrangeas sometimes don't flower, what you can do to try and get them to flower and also then I talk near the end of the video, so watch it right through to the end about ones that have what we call Remontancy. So what's Remontancy I hear you ask? Well technically it means a garden plant's ability to flower more than once in a season. Very important, it happens to a lot of different types of garden plants, a whole variety of shrubs, vines, even perennials, and especially important in things like roses and these large leafed hydrangeas. Now as you watch that video I was talking about where I say why isn't my hydrangea flowering, you'll see me explain why the traditional varieties and the original species, and also those little compact growing pot plants that are often sold for Mother's Day, they tend to grow out during the summertime and then set a little embryonic bud right in the tips of the shoots, which then goes through the autumn, goes through the wintertime, in springtime it starts to grow out and then of course it flowers in the summertime. That's fine and dandy when you have nice, cool, mild growing conditions, and over the years I've been lucky enough to have visited lots of gardens in the UK, in places like France and Spain and Portugal, in the Channel Islands, and also in my native island all down the west coast that's warm by the Gulf Stream, there in that mild climate, and also rainier conditions they grow like weeds and flower beautifully. But here in this region, where we have colder winters and hotter summers, then obviously it's more demanding and that's where these Ramontan varieties win out because then, if the tips of the shoots are killed and there's nothing alive except the crown of the plant, then they have the ability to grow out and flower in the same year, granted it will be later, but they will flower and obviously put on a much more reliable show than the old-fashioned varieties that I was talking about a minute or two ago. And so, having varieties that display Ramontancy is very important in this region, and it's not a constant thing either, there's degrees of Ramontancy, some that are just a little bit Ramontant, and if they're killed back will produce a flower or two, there are some that are more so, and they will produce more flowers obviously, and then there are some that are very Ramontant and those of course are the ones that will put on a reliable display year after year. And there's another factor too that comes into it and that's bud and stem hardiness, the ability of those stems to be able to tolerate colder conditions and not get killed back. And the neat thing as you'll discover in another of the videos that we have here on this channel where I profile the many merits of the variety I was showing you just a few minutes ago Hydrangea Rock and Roll, is that as well as showing very good Ramontancy, it also displays very good stem and bud hardiness. So there's a variety that combines the best of those desirable traits and that's why we think that it's a variety that has a lot of potential here in this region as well. And here it is in our trial and test area here at the nursery. A few weeks ago when we looked at this plant it had some dead tips right at the top, I trimmed those off and now as you see it's covered with lots and lots of flower buds all over, it's fairly open, rounded habit. It's a plant that's going to get to about five to six foot high and in a few weeks time when all of these buds come out it's going to be like the ones I was showing you a few minutes ago in the nursery covered with lots of these beautiful big dome-shaped flowers. Now if you look carefully over the plant you'll see two types of growth on here. First there's the bud stem hardiness that I was talking about and look how these gray stems here have come through the winter they have successfully survived and now the plant is producing these little side growths that each of them have a flower bud on the tip. But then take a look down near the base of the plant down here and you'll see that it's producing these young juicy shoots that are sprouting from near ground level and they also have flower buds on their tips. So that's the remontancy kicking in, so we've got good bud and stem hardiness and we've also got remontancy coming in and that then of course carries through also during the growing season in that you're going to get re-bloom re-flowering as well which is what I was showing in that video I was talking about when I was profiling this variety because that video was filmed in September and you'll see how it was producing new flower bud at that time of year too. That's why we really like this variety and we think that it's one that you might want to try and grow in your garden too. Contrast that with this variety next to it here and you'll see that there's really quite a lot of die back on the plant here, it is showing some remontancy, look at the flower buds that are on here but when you look at overall all of the soft young growth that's on here and not much flower bud compared to the amount of flower bud that's on this one I think you can see where the reliability differs a good deal. Now none of this is really a surprise when you start to dig into its background you see it's a selection that turned up as a sport on this variety here which is Hydrangea Endless Summer Twist and Shout and that's when eagle-eyed Mr. Hydrangea himself Dr. Michael Durer happened to spot a couple of shoots that instead of having the usual lace cap type flower of Twist and Shout, had instead these desirable rounded mound shaped flowers that we call a Mophead Hydrangea. Now it wasn't totally unexpected because of course Dr. Durer and his associates were involved with the development of this variety they made the cross in 2002 and then it was selected in 2004 and of course now has been introduced under the Endless Summer brand. Now this cross is important because like all good hybrids it combines the best merits of both parents. One of them was Hydrangea Penny Mac, a very good remontant large leafed Hydrangea that was named after the late Penny McHenry, a strong driving force in Hydrangea circles in the Atlanta Georgia area and the other is a variety that was raised by Dr. Durer as well one called Lady in Red and it's believed to be one of the hardiest lace cap type Hydrangeas ever introduced. What's neat about that is that it has both this large leafed Hydrangea Microphylla genetics in it but also a species that comes from higher elevations in the mountains of South Korea and Japan and that's where the stem hardiness comes from so when they made the cross it was not unusual to expect that maybe one day it might throw this mop head type flower and in fact I understand that in subsequent years similar sports have occurred on Twist and Shout as well for instance I've seen pictures of one that occurred in the garden of coach Vince Dooley it was also on Twist and Shout. Now another thing I want to mention is that if you have any of these Hydrangeas growing in your garden and they look a bit like this one is looking now as you see it's got some of the old flower heads from last year this material is dead if you scratch the stem you'll see that it's dry and brown colored and at this time of year when the young growth has started out it's really just a matter of taking a pair of pruners and going in and just removing these old dead shoots go back start at the top and go back to where you see a bud arising or fresh growth and that's the place where you'll cut that off and then as you see you'll freshen up the plant and get it off to a good start. That's really the only form of pruning that you need to do with them now in springtime because obviously if you go in too early and trim off the tips of the shoots you're likely to be cutting off some flower buds and you don't want to do that. And what's important to mention is that those same genetics show up in other very important remontant selections too ones like Summer Crush that beautiful red one and Bloomstruck and the new one Popstar all of those come from a similar breeding line and all of them in our trials here have proved to be reliably remontant and therefore very valuable for including in your planting plans as well. And as the wind picks up on this flat rather open windy site let me also add that it's just not the endless summer line that you should be looking at you should also take a look at some of the proven winners varieties too for instance the breeding team at Spring Meadow led by Tim Wood and Megan Matti have been doing some excellent work also using some of that Mountain Hydrangea genetics that I was talking about and in their Tough Stuff line you'll see in some of the varieties where it's very clearly heavily serrated blood in it for instance this is tiny Tough Stuff here that's covered with masses of flower bud that in another couple of weeks is going to be popping with lots of color. And this is a very good example of the bud and stem hardiness that comes from the Mountain Hydrangea species that I was talking about. If you look over it here you'll see that it is absolutely covered with lots of little flower buds that when they open, open to dainty little lace cap flowers that are carried on a plant that only gets about 18 inches to two foot high by maybe about three foot wide or so and as you see it's carrying all of its flowers all over its rounded habit and then it's producing new flower bud from inside which then of course will carry renewed flowering too. So this is a very good example of the influence of that Mountain Hydrangea species in giving bud and stem hardiness to the other varieties that have it in their makeup too. And as you see they're growing well putting out plenty of fresh growth here from the crown and loaded with plenty of flower bud too but obviously these have to still develop in the summer months and we'll be coming back and taking a closer look at those too so obviously stay tuned. And then this is Tough Stuff Red, a little bigger growing, gets to about two to three foot or so spreading out a little wider, might get out to about three and a half foot or so wide and as you see again really good winter survival with the shoots on here and plenty of buds that are a little further back than tiny Tough Stuff and of course when this flowers it will also have lace cap type flowers on it. They're really I would say a deep pink rather than red or if you're on acid conditions in your soil you're probably going to have a darker kind of purplish pink color on them too. All in all really good winter survival and it also will produce young growth from inside that will re-bloom and go on through. So if you're struggling with growing those mophead ones in your locality perhaps some of these serrata type hybrids, the mountain hydrangeas might be the ones that you would opt for. Now it's a bit too early to talk about some of the other later developing varieties but just to give you a little sneak peek at what we're probably going to be showing you later on during the summer when the rest of these flower, here are a couple of varieties from Proven Winners the Let's Dance series that are showing really good potential too. This one is Let's Dance Blue Jangles as you see putting up a lot of strong remontan growth with good flower bud on there. This is Let's Dance Can Do which I think we've already published a video here on this channel so if you want to check that out you'll be able to find out all the details about it but when you look at it here you'll see that it really has come through the winter well good winter survival on this and then it's also throwing up some remontant re-blooming shoots on there too and then this is Let's Dance Rave which as you see also is well set with plenty of flower bud. Now they're going to be developing on through the rest of the summer we'll be coming back to give you updates on how they and the other ones all fare so stay tuned because there's more coming. And I suppose it's only to be expected but the original clone from Endless Summer is doing very well too when you look at it here you'll see that it survived the winter well and it's put up a lot of strong young growth covered with flower buds and in a few weeks this is going to be showing off all of its beautiful prowess too. But you know there's other plants from other introducers too that are doing well take for example this variety here which is called Double Down from Star Roses and Plants as you see it's putting up lots of nice big strong remontant growth that's coming from the crown of the plant and when these open this plant is going to have double flowers, really nice big dome shaped flowers which of course can be either blue or pink, grows about three to four foot high and when you look at it here we have a little bit of work to do we have to remove these old flower heads but when you look here you'll see these are the old flower heads from last year showing how it did so well last year and now as it's getting established and getting going probably going to do better then too. This is Hydrangea Double Down from Star Roses and Plants and then from the hand-picked for you program this is one called Cherry Explosion, now this is a lace cap type but as you see it's already throwing up some nice young flower buds from inside the crown too it has as you see some die back here during the winter time but the remontancy quality it's coming through from the crown and showing that this is going to be putting on a good show later on too. And just to put you in the picture, the nursery here is located in southern New Jersey in what officially is designated as Zone 7B although I have to say that on our flat open site it seems colder than that at times. Also these plants are now entering their third season of growing that means they've been through two winters and they're now entering their new growing season and that's important because it often takes a couple of years for plants to settle in to become established for them to show off their true characteristics which is what they're beginning to do now. So there's a little introductory look at the trials that we're doing looking at remontancy of the large leafed hydrangea, hydrangea microphylla varieties I hope you found it interesting and helpful in choosing the ones that are right for your garden stay tuned to this channel because we're definitely going to be giving you updates as we go through the rest of the year Meanwhile if you get a chance stop in and take a look at some of the plants that are in our partnering garden centers there's hundreds of them located right throughout our mid-atlantic and northeastern states and that's where you're going to find some really beautiful top-notch plants that is going to get your garden off to a beautiful start and ones that we think are really good performers for this region and if you're in doubt have a chat with some of the experts at the centers too because they have a very good idea as to what does best in your individual neighborhood and if you haven't done it yet can I suggest that you think about subscribing to this channel because we're busy posting new videos like this one all the time and when you're subscribed you'll find that they will turn up automatically in your feed. This is David Wilson. Enjoy your gardening, it's good for us and it's good for our environment too.