It can be. Here are a few thoughts. 1. To get and maintain purples, your soil has to be in a narrow layer of soil pH that is difficult ��"but not impossible- to achieve when planted on the ground. Add garden lime per label directions if your soil is already acidic. If your soil pH is already alkaline, add garden Sulphur, green sand, iron sulfate or aluminum sulfate per label directions. Your own soil will govern how well and which shades of purple you can get when you amend. 2. It is easier to control soil pH when you grow them in containers. In the ground, you could end up with purple sections in the bush⦠with other areas with a slightly different color (blue/pink) or shade of purple if some of the roots do not absorb the necessary minerals in the same amounts as other roots. 3. Named varieties with the word "purple" will produce good and deep purples. Glowing Embers, Enziandom, Purple Tiers, Purple Passion, Royal Purple, Nightingale, Mathilda Gutges, Marechal Foch and Merritt Supreme can give you nice purples. Enziandom leaves turn nice colors at the end of the growing season. Nightingale produces a lot of bloomage per stem. The named varieties given above produce blooms only in the Spring. 4. Colored re-blooming hydrangeas can also be useful but, they will not necessarily give the deep purples of the above named varieties. Example: the Endless Summer Series or the Forever and Ever Series. The good thing about rebloomers is that you get blooms at multiple times throughout the growing season and, as each set of blooms opens, you can see the result of changes to the soil pH, compared to the previous set of blooms. If new blooms in May were pink and if new blooms in June-July were blue, that means you have amended too much and need to tweak the soil pH in the opposite direction. So, it may take less time to get the purple shade that you/she want if you have colored rebloomers. 5. You can choose from many hydrangea macrophyllas or serratas but you will need to keep and eye on their winter hardiness (you are in Z5). Most if not all will need winter protection if planted outside in the ground. If planted in a container, you will need to bring the container into the garage or similar place during the winter months and water it once every week or once every two weeks. 6. Full sun exposure⦠it may cause the color not to be as deep as it could be because the sun may bleach the blooms a bit. Hydrangeas must have afternoon shade (or the leaves will suffer from too much sun) here but, your not-as-strong summer sun in NY may allow you to grow them in full sun. If no one in your zone & location comments, I would drive around looking for similar colored (blue/pink/purple) hydrangeas and see where they were planted (sun-wise) and if they had winter protection. Luis

I also have the same problem with FE Series "Double Pink" I didnt bring it up because I didnt want to confuse anyone. I bought the Double pink with a few blooms on it and didnt have an excuse why it wasnt blooming. I went to FE website and noticed the Double Pink is no longer offered and neither is Red Sensation. Their Red Hydrangea is simply called "Red" now. Seems both Red Sensation & Double Pink have been discontinued. I feel like a test dummy...lol...leaves a bad taste in my mouth to ever buy a FE Hydrangea again. I dont want to spend years again waiting for a hydrangea to bloom, just to find out it was a dud. They have months left at best in my yard if they dont produce here soon and my money is on they wont. I have 5 Hydrangeas in pots I winterize already and dont want more in pots. I bought them to be planted in my yard...lol... Thank you for bringing it to my attention that it was a new cultivar and prompted me to check their website. I would never buy a FE Hydrangea unless it was in bloom to prove what it is. Along with checking on the web that others in colder climates have had success with that particular one. I have multiple years success with FE Series: FE Original, Blue Heaven, Peppermint & Together. Summer lace I bought last year and seems to have proven to be worthy also. Rebloomed last year and has put buds on new growth this year also. I see FE has many new exciting Hydrangeas I didnt know they offered now, but I wont be their test dummy again. It's a shame they apparently rushed hydrangeas to market that werent proven and I wont take that chance again.

LD - only overwintered Big Easy - it has some buds. Will report on Rhapsody Blue next year. Somewhat unrelated, Tuff Stuff has many stems and a few buds so far. F&E - In bud volume, Pistachio leads the way (~20). Behind that, there's Peace, and a tie between Peppermint and Together. On two Originals, there isn't yet a bud between them. Red/Maltisse has zero buds. In-ground White Out has zero buds, but will bud later because it can bloom from everywhere. Summer Lace got hit hard by winter (even though it's stems are hardiest in the series) and has a couple buds on the several new stems it put up. Blue Heaven has grown the largest of the outdoor bunch so far (pushing 2' already) but hasn't put out any flower buds yet - hoping it will once it reaches its max height. ES - Original, TnS, BB all tied in size and bud volume so far. This post was edited by Springwood_Gardens on Fri, Jun 6, 14 at 8:36

It's published here and there to be "not very hardy", but is any mac really so? The one I have (first year 3-gallon) doesn't seem to have sent many shoots up from the around the base, as it tends to grow from a central trunk. It seems to have bloomed on old wood this year but will observe as it comes out of dormancy. From what I've seen, this behaves very much like Merritt's Supreme with sturdy woody old stems and short stems of new growth off of them. The leaves are very rigid and will tolerate a LOT of sun. The blooms don't seem to last as long as other pinkish macs such as "Pink 'N Pretty", wilting off by mid-summer, and the plant will not rebloom. I plan on throwing burlap around this and mounding some snow on it come January, but my parents' Merritt's is a 3' tall plant and got 20+ blooms on it, with pruning and no protection! This may tend toward red blooms, which is to die for!