So I've spent my extra time this year clearing out some massive skip laurels and relocating some maxi rhododendrons. The skips were cut down and discarded and/or chipped and spread on the lawn. They were massive, too big to move. The rhodi's never did that great, elegans do much better on LI.

Anyhow, this location gets morning to mid-day sun through early August, then it becomes nearly full shade until March or so. Just to the east is where my wife has (on occasion) planted a vegetable garden, so I keep it open.

This is sort of a pot-luck kind of bed. I've got some Endless Summer, the new Rio, Vanilla Strawberry and some other ones that I picked up on sale at HD or local nurseries (the smallest ones were purchased online). I'll have to get some drip irrigation around them next spring. My other hydrangea are pushing 4-6' in height and diameter, by the end of next year most of these will be double/triple in size. This is one of those locations you only see if you walk around my front path to the backyard, so its really for me as I do that every time I mow. If they get to the size that I expect I'll be able to see them from our Library/Office.

In the past all I could see was a wall of green. One of the reasons I took down the skips was that I never expected the Manhattan Euonymus to grow as big as they did creating a wonderful privacy barrier.

Facing east:


Facing west:


Facing north: