Dearest Hydrangea:
Please forgive me for mistakenly identifying you as an Annabelle variety and hacking you nearly to the ground in the fall of 2010. (Incriminating photos HERE.)
Your blooms were sorely missed last year, and I have only myself to blame. (I’m learning, I’m learning!)
With the help of Lady Flora and In My Garden (Country Edition), I now realize that you are most likely a macrophylla variety, possibly ‘Niko Blue,’ and that you bloom on old wood.
Thank you for the tiny, amazing green cauliflower-like buds you have begun to produce all over, which give me hope that this summer you will bloom once again.
I promise to never come near you with the pruners again, except to remove your lovely faded blooms in early winter.
You are free to do your “hydrangea thing” uninterrupted (I hope) by any more blunders from this novice gardener.
Sincerely,
your biggest fan
Red Garden Clogs 
Glad it’s bounced back!
I have the opposite problem of misidentifying and caring for plants in my garden that I should hack off. One summer I tenderly nurtured a ragweed plant (that I thought might be a cosmos) into a stunning specimen before realizing what it was…
Hahaha! I have done the same thing – in fact I may be doing it once again right now…what I’ve thought was Feverfew might in fact be Mugwort…time will tell, I suppose!
I’ve had my share of ‘oops’ moments many times. Fortunately hydrangeas are pretty forgiving plants!
Yes – lucky for me they are forgiving! I’m sure this won’t be the last of my “oops” moments this year. There’s a real learning curve happening over here. 🙂
I once seeded an entire tray of Gourd seeds and got only one to grow. I pampered it all season, saw the enormous globe taking shape, kept waiting for it to “mature”. It looked a little bizarre for a gourd, but I still waited faithfully. I ultimately discovered it to be a sunken, rotted CANTALOPE which had apparently germinated from a stray seed from my own compost (which was in the seed starting mix) . Not even one gourd vine appeared from about 2 dozen seeds. ! I could have eaten the cantalope if only I had paid closer attention to the signs. There was a lot going on around the beds…..
Welcome to the club Aimee!
I bet you were thrilled to see that blossom developing. I hope my piece of your Hydrangea is on the same track for success.
Oh no!! Hahaha! That is a hilarious story about the “gourd.” I can’t wait for the hydrangea to blossom! Has yours started showing any signs of flowers yet?
so glad they are blooming…mine were doing great until the multiple night freezes…now they are all growing from the bottom and few will bloom much…so sad
Oh, Donna that’s terrible! I’m so sorry to hear this. The weather has been so strange this year…I wondered how many plants that got an early start would be affected later on if temperatures dropped…what a bummer your hydrangeas got nipped. I hope you’ll still get some blooms!