How to get the most Endless Summer blooms

Endless Summer is an introduction from Bailey Nurseries in Minnesota, which should know what it's doing as far as northern gardening is concerned.

However, gardeners -- especially in the North -- have complained that their Endless Summer hydrangeas do not produce the promised bounty of blooms.

The chorus has gotten so strong that Bailey has acknowledged the concerns on its Web site and posted some tips for gardeners.

Endless Summer is a mophead or snowball, the type of hydrangea that gardeners covet.

But macrophylla usually produce flowers from old wood. That means buds start in the fall and can be killed by a hard winter or late frost.

The breakthrough with Endless Summer is that it also creates buds on new wood that grows in the spring.

To maximize blooms, Bailey suggests planting the shrub where it gets at least six hours of sun and dappled afternoon shade, not pruning in the fall or early spring and covering it the first few winters. Also, be sure to give one application of a slow-release fertilizer and avoid overwatering.

Your shrub might not bloom much the first year, said Peggy Anne Montgomery, a horticulturist who works for Bailey. And don't think the shrub is dead if it doesn't leaf out until the weather has been warm for a while.

Barbara Pierson, nursery manager for White Flower Farm, a mail-order nursery based in Connecticut, praises Endless Summer.

"It keeps flowering all through the summer all the way to frost," said Pierson, who gardens in Zone 5 -- the same as we do.

"I was a nonbeliever. I do feed my plants. I use a blossom booster," she said.

She also said it is necessary to cut off faded flowers to get continued blooming.

"I love to cut it in the late fall and make arrangements," Pierson said. "I don't have to worry about hurting blossom potential."