New Hydrangeas Lime Lovebird, Grateful Red, Fuchsia Glow Are Solid Replacements for Merritt's Supreme, F&E Red, etc.

A "perennial challenge" for many years now has been the seemingly never-ending quest for hydrangea breeders to come up with reliable plants that display reddish or dark pink hues, and can do this on current year's growth! Starting around 2014, solutions started being introduced, but it takes another year for these to hit the market and a whole winter to get tested. And that brings us here.

Have trouble getting your Merritt's Supreme, Red Sensation, Maltisse, etc. to bloom year after year after year? Yep, thought so! Now there are actually some reasonable solutions on the market. They are (drum roll please)... Fuchsia Glow (Garden Debut), Grateful Red (McKay Nurseries), and Lime Lovebird (Ball Horticultural).

Grateful Red produces the brightest red (akin to the red Knockout Rose), with Fuchsia glow holding down a dark pink (closest to Merritt's Supreme). Both plants have averagely-green leaves. Lime Lovebird blooms a vivid hot dark pink and has somewhat dark foliage with ruddy-colored leaf nodes. Not sure which of these are the largest, but all grow to at least 3x3' in height and do well in part sun (4-5 hours direct).

All three of these entries serve as fine specimens on the (guaranteed) pink end of the hydrangea macrophylla spectrum. Pictures are as follows!

Grateful Red (stock photo).

Lime Lovebird (infant bloom stage). Yes, this is MY plant.

Fuchsia glow (infant bloom stage). Yes, this is MY plant!