Mystery solved -- and yet, I'm not happy

Three years ago, I joyfully purchased an Annabelle Hydrangea for the front garden. It was one of those things I'd wanted for years: "One day, when I have a house and a garden, I'm going to have an Annabelle Hydrangea."

So I researched it, bought one, planted it, nurtured it, did everything I could do provide it with the right environment and make it happy. I waited for it to bloom. Nothing happened.

I pruned it sharply the following spring, as one is supposed to do with Annabelle Hydrangeas. Nothing happened. Just this big, overgrown green montrosity sitting beside the front steps. I went online and found gardening forums and asked why it mightn't be blooming. One person had the answer: Maybe it was mislabelled. Try not cutting it back in the spring. So in 2008, I did not cut it back. It got bigger, and bigger, and bigger, and finally I saw buds on it! But the buds didn't do much of anything; the odd individual flower bloomed, but the rest of the head remained sort of fuzzy and then it went to seed.

All summer, everywhere I went, I'd see Annabelle Hydrangeas in bloom. Everything for gorgeous, luxuriant shrubs to puny, spindly, pathetic-looking things in earth you could only call dirt, wholly neglected...and every single one of them was in spectacular bloom.

All winter I threatened to dig it out, but in the end I didn't have the heart. Instead, this spring I cut it back again. A few days ago, it started to bloom. It looks like this (on the left; it's supposed to look like the picture on the right):

Suddenly I thought "Lacecap Hydrangea?" and looked it up. The site from where I got this picture, http://www.hydrangeashydrangeas.com/annabelle.html, says:

"I often hear from gardeners whose Annabelle blooms will not fully develop. They report that the blooms are a flat, lacecap type bloom, which is not typical of 'Annabelle'. Sometimes these blooms are described as "fuzzy." I believe that these hydrangeas that were supposed to be 'Annabelle' are really a wild type arborescens. Some of these hydrangeas are quite beautiful in their own way, but they are usually not what the gardener had in mind. This is the reason for purchasing Annabelle (or any hydrangea for that matter) while it is blooming."

Sure, now you tell me. It's still mostly just a big monstrosity beside the front steps. It's way too big, doesn't bloom well, and doesn't please me. Next spring, I'm digging it up.