Last weekend I heard a most remarkable suggestion from a University of Illinois Extension educator. If your climbing hydrangea (H. anomala petiolaris) is being uncooperative and refuses to bloom after a few years, it is possible to literally scare it half to death to induce flowering. Specifically, he recommended hacking away at the roots with a shovel, essentially threatening its life, to jump-start its evolutionary duty to flower and reproduce itself! My first question is, can anyone verify having success with this method? My second question is, should one grow a plant so fussy that the gardener may resort to giving it a near-death experience? I must say, however, the dark humor is not lost on me. I can almost hear the vine pleading, "OK! OK! I'll bloom, just put down the shovel!"

—Rose Rankin