Author: Pam

New England native, Florida resident. Blogging about boating, beach-combing, gardening, camping, and knitting.

The Light Green Flower of the Limelight Hydrangea

limelight hydrangea shrub
The Limelight Green Hydrangea

One of the hydrangeas I chose to buy on my recent visit to the nursery was the Limelight. It is a large growing shrub with dimensions that can reach up to 8 feet wide and tall. The flowers are a pretty white to light green and they are more lacy looking than the ball type hydrangea flowers of the blue hydrangeas I am used to.

The limelight is a favorite with brides and they use this flower to decorate everything from their wedding bouquets to wedding cakes.  It’s one of the few flowers that is green naturally.

I’ve never grown the limelight (or any hydrangeas), so it will be a new experience, but I am looking forward to watching it mature and bloom.  It’s unlikely that I will see any flowers this year as it will be getting established, but hopefully by next year I’ll have gorgeous light green flowers to enjoy.

I need some photos of this flower to use in my wedding stationery line so it would be wonderful to have them growing right in my front yard.

For now I will settle for any of the hydrangeas blooming and some of my new plants do have buds.

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Time to Plant Hydrangeas Folks!

Time To Plant the Hydrangeas Folks!

Finally — it’s hydrangea planting time!  I’ve been waiting for the local nurseries to have their hydrangea shrubs out for sale and it seems that they all get them in and ready to go just before Mother’s Day.  So this week is an excellent time to shop for hydrangeas.

Hydrangea shrub in pot
Endless Summer Hydrangea

This is the first time I have bought the plants myself.  My yard is in desperate need of landscaping and color is a must so I hoped to find a variety of colors to choose from and I was not disappointed!

I bought six hydrangea plants at The House By The Side of The Road in Wilton, New Hampshire and I only stopped there (at six) because my cart was full!

They offered a wide selection with many plants to choose from in each group and most all of them looked very lush and healthy.  I expected to pay a lot since hydrangeas are popular flowers, but the pricing was reasonable I thought and ranged from $29.99 to $36.99 each and they are good size plants.

I have a lot of shade in my yard, but fortunately hydrangeas can take the shade – as long as they do get some sun.

I bought some bone meal and compost soil amendment at Agway and headed home to get planting.

A Beautiful Day Just Before Spring

green clover leaves
May you find a 4-leaf clover today!

Happy St. Paddy’s Day to all and I hope you will be enjoying beautiful weather like we will here in the northeastern U.S..  It’s early yet, but clouds will be giving way to sun and warmth which has me wondering what to do that will get me outdoors.

It’s too early to garden, and I spent one afternoon last week raking up the dirt that the plow guy dug up from my lawn.  I’ve  also rounded up the broken branches that littered the front yard, so I’m wondering what sort of work I can do today.

There is always the chore of cutting back the wild blackberry briars that line the back hill, but I hate the thought of messing with those thorny shoots.

Maybe I will just take a hike.  I’ve been wanting to check out the trails at Miller State Park at Pack Monadnock, as it is just a few miles away.  This town also has an awesome bike / walking trail so I could do that.

I could visit a local garden center, but that will just make me want to buy stuff – and the IRS is taking all my money, so I can’t do that.  Gardening will have to wait – for months – but I think I might get some seedlings started indoors.  I know that all this sunshine will make me want to grow something.

The Nikko Blue Hydrangea

Nikko Blue Hydrangea
Nikko Blue Hydrangea Shrub

I’ve always heard the Nikko blue hydrangea mentioned when speaking of the blue varieties so I thought I’d look into it. First of all, the Nikko blue will only be blue if the soil is very acidic. If you buy a Nikko blue and plant it in dirt that has a lot of lime or high alkalinity your flowers will most likely be pink. Blooms are rounded and of the mophead variety.

As with many other types of hydrangeas, this one can grow in the shade and should actually be given some shade if you live in a hot climate. I think this is the type that was planted in the front yard of my rental. It would droop on hot days as the afternoon sun beat down on the yard and I’d have to water it often in summer.  They bloom in Spring / Summer and have long lasting bloom.  Be careful about pruning as the new blooms grow on old wood.  Don’t trim them up in Spring and remove all the new buds!

Many mail order nurseries carry this one as it’s one of the best known.  I suggest checking locally for a larger size plant, since the mail order ones are small.

Honestly, this type of hydrangea has tons of info.  Just google it and you’ll see.

A Garden to Play In

tulips and forsythia
A Garden to Play In

When we bought our northern home after moving to New Hampshire from Florida, I had the opportunity to learn a lot while tending my new garden. No more jasmine, crepe myrtles and camelias, I now had to learn about what grows in the north. Fortunately my yard was full of beauty. We moved into the house in May and already the forsythia and tulips were mostly gone by, but the following year I saw the full splendor of what we had in the yard. (My photo here.)

During that next summer (unexpectedly, my last one living there) I added to the plants and learned what many of them were.  The tulips and daffodils were planted in the asparagus garden and yes, I enjoyed fresh asparagus throughout the summer.  I added a bird bath and some feeders and enjoyed seeing the same types of northern birds I had grown up with come to eat.

That yard was a healthy combination of plants and wildlife.  Continue reading “A Garden to Play In”

Brown Spots on Hydrangea Leaves

wilted hydrangea leaves
What's Wrong?

I have not grown my own hydrangeas, but I did help care for the shrub in the front yard at my rental home. The landlady did not have a green thumb, and since the plant was not really mine, I generally just made sure it got enough water so I could photograph the blooms in summer and fall.

My last year living there, I noticed that part of the plant was not as green as the rest and some of the leaves were getting brown (see photo).

I no longer live there, but I’d like to know what this is for when I do grown my own hydrangeas.

Certain types of hydrangea shrubs can get diseases and have problems with powdery mildew, and mineral deficiencies. They can be affected by mites, aphids and Japanese beetles.

In fact the yard was full of grubs which turn into Japanese beetles and although I did seem some beetles on this plant, they didn’t seem to be doing much damage.

So why are the leaves turning brown? And only on a portion of the plant? Could it be Cercospora leafspot or some other similar fungus? Continue reading “Brown Spots on Hydrangea Leaves”