Adventures in Gardening: Part 6

I have shared my hydrangea woes in the past.  A couple of years ago, I decided to tear out an ugly bottle brush bush (say that 5 times fast) and replace it with pink hydrangeas.

This is what they looked like when I first planted them.

It died after about a week, but then several months later, new leaves grew back, but no flowers.

Over the next two years, new leaves would come in - fuller and fuller each time, but never any new flowers.  I really thought that it was never going to bloom again.  I've read that depending on the hydrangea, new blooms can grow on "old wood" or "new wood" and this is dependent on how you prune them.  So, I figured that maybe I just pruned it at the wrong time.

I still check for blooms whenever leaves come in and each time, I expect nothing.  This is how it looked the other day.

As I took a closer look, I found these...

Oh YES!  New blooms are coming in.  And there are about 8 or 9 of them!  I'm so excited and surprised that they made a comeback.  Stay tuned for pictures from when they fully bloom...

P.S.  I mentioned in my Spring Has Sprung! post, I mentioned that my Dutch Iris was making it's first appearance since I first put them in.  Here is the first bloom that came in.

I'm hoping the others will come in soon.

My Gerbera Daisies came in nicely, except they are kind of pinched and squishy-faced.  Not sure if it's because of the way they are facing the sun, but this is the first time they've bloomed in a couple of years, so I'll take what I can get.  I love their coral coloring too.

Originally posted by Adventures in DIY