They are almost lilac - well a pinky lilac anyway. No, I think they are quite pretty.

Agree with Stera, they're looking good to me, lovely tight mopheads as well...

I don't know which variety of Hydrangea that is in the picture, you haven't said, but even looking at the photo, I can see shade differences in the flower colours - if you look top left, you can see a darker pink one with two paler pink ones behind it. So I imagine the comment or complaint is accurate, if this is the particular variety they were talking about.

I put that down to the fact that some heads look more open than others in this photo Bamboo because that is what happens on my common pink one, but then perhaps I'm easily pleased, lol..

Not sure I like the darker pink colour much either - I'd rather have Valerian for that sort of colour!

sorry for the confusion bamboo the picture above is "invincible spirit" basically "annebelle" in pink but im not sure how long the colour stays i know the colour does fade in the sun

I think you can assume they'll change over time - most flowers do have subtle or obvious tone changes as they age.

is it me or do those flower heads look considerably smaller then Annabelle?

if you type in hydrangea annabelle pink or invincibelle spirit you will see others pics with very large flower heads

Right. Its interesting though - my Annabelle's flowers seem to be too heavy for the stems and bend them over, but these are all standing up straight.

the picture you see is just a library picture it depends on the soil your growing it in the ones at wisley also had small heads as they were grown in containers and had run out of food . my 2 annebelle have very small heads because they are grown in bone dry clay and are unloved

I have an unusually small head - you've got me worried Alistair...