Category: Garden, Growing Flowers

Planting flowering annuals and perennials in the landscape. New posts are Florida gardening with the hydrangeas and some others being from the north.

Buying Blue Hydrangeas For the Landscape

When buying a blue hydrangea be sure your soil is acidic enough to keep it flowering blue.

Spring is coming, and if you are already dreaming of shopping for a great landscape perennial, a beautiful addition to any garden includes the bright blue flowers of the Mophead hydrangeas.
Often hydrangeas are at nurseries by the bucket load in spring, just in time for Mother’s Day.

Hydrangeas bloom in July and beyond (in northern climates), so that means most likely they will not have open blooms in May. You’ll have to trust the tag for the information as to the type and color of the flower.

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Macrophylla Varieties Have Color-changing Flowers

The trouble with trying to buy a blue hydrangea is that even if it is blue in it’s container it may change color in the ground.

pink and blue hydrangea flowers
Sometimes you’ll see both pink and blue flowers on the same bush (photo credit: Pixabay)

All blue flowering hydrangeas are of the macrophylla variety, sometimes called the mopheads. You’ve no doubt heard of the Nikko Blue and Endless Summer which can have blue flowers.   They are sold as blue-flowering, but if your soil is not acidic enough, the flowers will be more pink.

Potted plants are grown in special soil which is more controlled as to it’s alkaline and acidity levels. Yard dirt can vary widely in acidity.  In New England the soil tends to be acidic, so my blue hydrangeas truly bloomed blue.

Macrophylla Flowers Are Round, Paniculata Flowers Are Elongated

The flower color change can only happen with the macrophylla variety hydrangeas. The paniculatas – like my Pinky Winky – do not change color no matter what type of soil they grow in.

To guarantee a blue flowering shrub, first test your soil. Buy a do-it-yourself test kit to find out if your soil has the right acidity to create blue blooms.
A pH below 6 means you should have blue flowers. If it’s above 6, plan on pink ones.

If your soil is too alkaline to grow blue flowering hydrangeas, consider growing them in a big pot where you can control the soil’s pH and get the color you want.  This is tougher to do in the ground.

What to Add to Soil to Make it More Acidic

To get blue flowering hydrangeas a soil acidifier must be added to the ground. Something organic (I am an organic gardener) can be purchased. Carefully follow the directions, and add as often as the package recommends. Additions to the ground will not last. Rain will wash away the changes, so it must be done consistently.

Other natural ways to create acidic soil may not be enough to create blue flowers all the time, but you can try watering the plant with something acidic mixed with water. I used to pour pickle juice on my gardenia plants. Vinegar in water is another choice.  I’ve never done this to my hydrangeas, so you may want to look into it more.

Lime lowers Ph (you want a lower Ph for blue flowers) and Sulfer raises Ph.

My Trouble With The Pee Gee

white flowers pee gee
Little Pee Gee

When I bought six hydrangea shrubs this past Spring, one of them was a Pee Gee (paniculata – Grandiflora). The tag said that it wanted some shade so after some thought, I ended up putting it at the edge of the yard near some big trees that would shade it partially. I didn’t know that it would bloom that first year but it did and had some very dainty, very white flowers at the ends of it’s long stems.

The flowers were pretty, but they drooped to the ground and we got lots of heavy rain after that which beat the bush down flat almost. By the time summer was over, the shrub was not looking too good. It has many, long thin branches that left the leaves lying in the dirt.

I ended up giving it a pruning and I don’t know Continue reading “My Trouble With The Pee Gee”

The Ever Changing Hydrangea Flower – August Blooms

many colored flowers on the blushing bride shrub
Many colored blooms on Blushing Bride.

Hydrangeas could be called the great, morphing flower.  From the time they bloom in June and July until Fall arrives, the flowers undergo amazing and wondrous changes.

My white flowering “Blushing Bride” is showing some unusual color combos as it ages.  The once all-white huge flower is now mostly green with some pink on each petal.  On the same bush, I have a white flower that seems to be changing to light blue, and some smaller, light green blooms.

By this time of year, late summer, any hydrangea shrub which had held bright blue flowers now has odd-colored blooms that no longer resemble the pretty blue.

It’s not really a bad thing, but the coloring is a bit hard to categorize.  It’s a combo of green, purple, pink and maybe some blue tint still left.  I suppose it depends on your garden dirt.

That is the thing about hydrangeas.  They are never dull.  Even as they age they can still be very interesting and lovely.

green hydrangea flower

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Limelight: A Beautifully Named Hydrangea

budding limelight hydrangea flower
New Flower on the Limelight

I’ve never grown the Limelight hydrangea nor been around any of the shrubs. I purchased two of this type bush in Spring this year and planted them in front of my house.

Figuring that they would need this summer to grow good roots and become hardy, I didn’t expect flowers, so what a nice surprise to see them begin budding!
Sure enough, more and more little round petals began to form and now both bushes are filled with the elongated, lacey looking flowers. I expect that as the flowers age they will become more green. I am very happy with these healthy looking plants. I highly recommend the Limelight hydrangea as a perennial planting for your yard.

white limelight hydrangea flowers
Lacey white Limelight flowers

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Watching This White Hydrangea Flower Turn Green

As you can see in my photos below, the hydrangea flower on the plant named “Blushing Bride” is going through a change to green as it ages.

It started off white, then began showing cream or ivory colored petals mixed with the white.  Now it’s taking on a definite greenish appearance.

However, if your soil alkalinity is different from mine, your Blushing Bride flower may be pink or blue.  This is one type of hydrangea which has flowers that will be various colors according to the type of soil.

hydrangea shrub in garden
Recently planted Blushing Bride shrub with new flower just beginning to grow (top).
White flower hydrangea
Ivory colored petals beginning to show.
green hydrangea flower
Now the white flower is turning green.
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Learning From Experience – Which Hydrangeas Are Best?

white hydrangea flower
The “Blushing Bride” Flower

I am still learning about the hydrangeas I planted this spring. They have all surprised me by blooming very nicely. The only one that doesn’t have many flowers is the Pee Gee.

What I’ve learned:

New hydrangea shrubs will flatten easily in a big rainstorm. After they bloom, it’s even worse as the flowers get wet and heavy.

The flowers which are elongated (Pinky Winky and Limelight) fare better. They droop when the flowers are wet, but not to the ground like the others. Maybe because their petals are smaller and the flowers are more open. Their stems are sturdier too.

The overall appearance of these types of shrub seems to be hardy and carefree. I have to constantly water the Endless Summer (blue-flowering) shrub as well as the Blushing Bride – both are mophead varieties. They wilt terribly in the sun, even though they get mostly morning sun.  It has been hot.

I’ve cut some of the blue ones because they were laying on the ground.  They are now hanging to dry on my drying rack.

They are all beautiful and I don’t think I have a favorite yet.  I may decide by the time summer is over.

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