Hydrangea "Twist and Shout"

The hydrangeas are beautiful this year and I've been photographing them this week. Instead of posting one long post with a million photos, I thought I would feature one hydrangea at a time. Since we have around 40, this might take a while but I doubt that I will get all of them on here.

First up is a new hydrangea that was just planted last year. It is touted as the first lacecap hydrangea that reblooms all summer long. The first hydrangea of this type was "Endless Summer" which I almost shovel-pruned because of lackluster performance. However, in its third year, it really took off and bloomed its head off. This year is no exception. Therefore, I was surprised when its cousin, "Twist and Shout", started blooming like mad in the second year.

Developed by Michael Dirr, "T&S" has impressive parentage ("Lady in Red" & "Penny Mac") which gives it a strong hardiness factor (zone 4) as well as lots of blooms. The "Lady in Red" characteristics can also be seen in the leaves - red stems and red leaf color in the fall. Flower color depends on your soil type - alkaline soils give you pink flowers and more acid soils display periwinkle blue blooms. As you can see, our soil tends to be more acid.

Stay tuned for more hydrangeas!

Text and photos by Phillip Oliver, Dirt Therapy