We’ve have four Hydrangea Endless Summer in our landscape at home and they truly are bloom making machines. They are resilient and they respond well to pruning. Since they are in front of the porch railing we can’t let them get too large so we trim as needed and it doesn’t slow down the blooming at all.
Hydrangea Endless Summer bloom.
How can a plant like this bloom all summer long?
Hydrangea Endless Summer is in the Macrophylla family of hydrangeas. Macrophyllas typically bloom on old wood, meaning that the flower shoots emerge from deeper in the plant, flower buds forming on the growth from the previous growing season. But Endless Summer is different. It is said to bloom on both old wood and new wood, meaning that it will form flower buds on growth from the current growing season. That’s why it has the ability to bloom over and over all summer long. I just keeps making new flowers!
Hydrangea Endless Summer planted in front of a porch.
Changing the color of Hydrangeas from pink to blue.
The color of the flowers on Endless Summer will range from pink like you see in these photos to a dark blue if the soil is on the acid side. You can change the PH of the soil by adding Aluminum Sulfate to the soil on the plant. If you buy a product like this that is designed exactly for that purpose you can just follow the directions on the bag. I found this on Amazon.
Click this image for more information on this product. (affiliate link)
A patented plant? What does that mean?
Hydrangea Endless Summer is a patented plant, which means that unless you have purchased a license from the patent holder you cannot propagate the plant. And of course getting a license is expensive and in most cases they want you to promise that you will root and grow many thousands of them each season because you have to pay a royalty for each plant that you grow.
Hydrangea Endless Summer next to Blue Boy Holly.
What if I just want to root a few for myself? Can I do that?
No you can’t. Patented plants are protected from all forms of asexual propagation, even if it’s just for you and your grandmother. Asexual means from cuttings, leafs or stems. Seeds would be okay but from seed you won’t get a true clone of the parent plant.
It is legal to buy small plants from a licensed grower, grow them on and resell them. When you buy the rooted cuttings from the licensed grower you pay the royalty that is due at that time. But as is often the case with patented plants you are also required to buy branded pots as well. They don’t want their patented plants growing in a generic nursery pot, they want the plants in a branded pot so they can be easily spotted in the garden center. That’s why when you visit a garden center these days you see so many branded (colored) pots in the display area.
As a small grower like I am, this makes adding a plant like this to my inventory prohibitive. At least as far as I’m concerned. Since I am not allowed to propagate the plant I’d have to buy at least 300 of them at time to put them into inventory, then as they started to sell down I’d have to order several hundred more. Each time I place an order I’d also have to order 300 of these fancy branded nursery containers. For me that’s just way too much money to tie up in a single plant in my inventory.
I get why the patent holders love to patent plants like this, (they collect royalties on every plant grown and sold) but I like to grow and sell small plants for $4.97 each. I’d like to think that by doing so I am doing my customers a great service by offering plants at that price point. But it’s cost prohibitive to add a plant like this to my inventory.
Hydrangea Endless Summer is a patented plant.
So what’s the solution to this whole patented plant thing?
The solution is easy. I just don’t grow them and in almost all cases you can find a plant that looks just like, acts just like and performs as well as the patented plant. In the case of Hydrangea Endless Summer there’s another macrophylla hydrangea that is very much like Endless Summer and it’s a great plant to grow and sell.
Introducing All Summer Beauty Hydrangea!
From what I can see All summer Beauty Hydrangea is just as nice as Endless Summer and I really can’t see any difference at all. All Summer Beauty blooms on both new and old wood, it blooms all summer, it’s not patented so we are free to propagate and sell this plant. I like this option because I can grow and sell them at my favorite price of just $4.97 each! As soon as I find them I will be buying hundreds of Hydrangea All Summer Beauty.
Think about that. If you had several hundred All Summer Beauty Hydrangeas rooted and ready to go in your backyard right now. They would be sold! Just like that! Get Paid for Growing Small Plants at Home! Take a Peek.
At this time I don’t have any photos of All Summer Beauty that I can share with you, but that’s on my too do list. I hope to buy several hundred this spring, pot them up and start taking cuttings from them. I will get you some photos of All Summer Beauty!
How do you or should you prune Hydrangeas?
Last summer I wrote a really good article about Hydrangea pruning. I know it was a really good article because I wrote it! Just kidding. Take a peek, you can find my Hydrangea Pruning Article here. My goal with that article was to simplify the confusing subject of how to prune Hydrangeas and I think I accomplished that.
Questions or comments about Hydrangea Endless Summer? Post them below, I’m happy to answer them for you.