(Mountain Hydrangea)  If you are looking for a Hydrangea that is as strong as its name, take a look at Tuff Stuff™ Lacy! Tuff Stuff™ Lacy is a Mountain Hydrangea, with improved hardiness in the stems and buds. Lacy blooms on both new and old wood giving it twice the flower power. Tuff Stuff™ Lacy  has reddish -pink lace cap flowers that begin to start blooming in the early summer and continue to give you more blooms up until frost. The flower florets are a semi double deep pink bloom with a cream centers that fill in as the flower matures. Flower color may vary to a blue shade depending on the pH of your soil. Standing 2-3' tall, Tuff Stuff™ Lacy grows best in full sun to part shade, hardy down to zone 5. If your Hydrangea macrophyllas have not been giving you the blooms you had hoped for, give Tuff Stuff™ a try, it is sure to not disappoint. As a young plant it is best to prune or pinch your plant in order to build a full-bodied, well-branched plant. If the plant is leggy when you purchased it, shear the plant back hard by 1/3 to 1/2 its original size. Once it puts on an inch or two of growth, pinch the branch tips to remove just the growing tips, these tips control branching. Once growing tips are removed the buds below it will turn into stems. Once these new branches grow an inch or two, pinch the tips out again. You can repeat this throughout the first growing season as you are tending your garden. Although you will sacrifice blooms, this technique results in a well-branched, full-bodied plant that will have more flowers in subsequent years. Introduction Year: 2012 Patent Strings: Tuff Stuff™ Hydrangea serrata 'MAK20' PPAF