Some people love the uniqueness of green hydrangeas and some wonder why their bright blue blooms fade away to ugly green. Everyone is different. But if you wonder where green blooms come from – they are seldom found in nurseries – the answer is they come from blue blooms, and sometimes from late in the season white-flowering plants (Blushing Bride).
The Limelight hydrangea can also have green flowers, especially in early stages of growth. It’s flower is elongated in shape so it is different than the blue macrophylla, big leaf hydrangea, I’m writing about here.
Now my little hydrangea is in the ground and here is what I’ve learned. Deadheading Florida hydrangeas is a good idea. I found new growth and new flowers hidden beneath those huge, dying blooms.
Blooms turning green and dying
Until a few weeks ago I had not tried to grow a hydrangea in my Florida yard. I kept thinking there was no way it would do well in all this heat. So the fact that my little hydrangea plant is doing so well is a nice surprise. If it has been growing in a greenhouse it would adapt well to warmth, and it does seem to be thriving this summer.
Walking through Home Depot the other day I came across a small display of potted hydrangeas. Because I have been wanting to see how hydrangeas do in this southern climate, I splurged and bought it. It cost around $12.00.
New hydrangea plant
Difference Between Indoor and Outdoor Hydrangeas
This potted plant is meant to stay in a pot and be grown indoors. It has probably been growing in a greenhouse and has been babied along with attention and fertilizer and whatever to make it bloom. This helps to get it sold. But once the plant is home and the blooms have gone by, then what? Well, I have no experience with growing potted hydrangeas.
In New England, where I learned first hand about growing beautiful hydrangea perennials in my yard, the plants I bought were large and flowerless. I bought them in Spring or early Fall and planted them in the ground. They were meant to grow and thrive outdoors. Each year the plants grew larger and would provide pretty blooms in summer. Each winter they went into hibernation and came back to life in Spring.
Limelight Hydrangea – August 20th, 2014
I don’t know what to expect from this new little plant, or how it will do in my Florida yard. I won’t be keeping it in the pot because potted plants demand a lot of care.
Read my update on how the flowers changed color and what is happening now that it is in the ground.
At Home Depot I spotted a table with small hydrangeas for sale. I call it a “greenhouse” hydrangea because I imagine that is where it came from. The price was around $12 as I recall, so I bought one. Now I know these are not like the hydrangea plants I purchased in New Hampshire to plant in my northern yard.
The tag on this one said it “likes cool nights” and it’s climate preference is 50-70 F. That’s what “cool” is in Florida. It’s also listed as a Houseplant. This plant obviously can’t take wintering in a dormant stage over several months. Growing hydrangeas this way is new to me.
When I bought my house nearly 2 years ago, there was a little flower garden under the trees out front. I neglected it and it became overgrown very quickly. I’m not inclined to work outside in the heat, but the other day I decided a quick fix was in order. The garden is small, so the work would be minimal. We had brick pavers leftover from the building of the patio, so I used them to create a new border to hold the additional dirt needed.
I’m not yet very good with my Florida plant names, but the ones with the colorful, pointed leaves are Caladium. The link to Eden Brothers calls them “bulbs”. Mine came out of a pot so didn’t look like bulbs to me.
The white leaves are called “Florida Moonlight”. I don’t know the name of the pink-leafed one, but they add lots of interest in the yard. They love heat and humidity, which explains why they do so well here.
Flower garden under the trees
Also in the background around the tree are the thin leaves of the Variegated Flax Lily. I spent a lot of time removing lots of dead leaves from them. Even without attention they continued to grow, so I would say they are very hardy plants. Now that I have given them some attention, the lily is blooming. Each plant has tiny white flowers on stalks among the leaves.
Little stalks of white flowers on the Varigated Lily
When I first moved in here I bought a bunch of New Guinea Impatiens and put them in the garden by the front door. The brightly colored flowers add continuous color to the landscape. It turned out those annuals lasted nearly a year. The very cold nights in January finally froze most of them. Because they did so well, I bought a few more to put under the tree.
The purple flowering plant which is now under the tree is still in the short fabric pot. It is a Mona Lavender Plectranthus. I bought it because it was pretty, and I especially love the deep green of the leaves.
Now that I am researching this plant, I have discovered it needs some shade and is a perennial in warm climates. It seems that I have chosen a good spot for it to grow under the tree. I moved the fabric pot and did not dig up this plant. The potted Mona Lavender is now part of the shade garden and no one can tell it’s in a pot!
Plectranthus, Mona Lavender
Because planting around the base of a tree can be difficult because of roots, fabric gardening pots can be super helpful.
The purple flowering plant is in a fabric pot.
All my new plants were purchased at the Home Depot. I also bought more organic garden dirt, and added blood meal and black mulch.
In my part of central Florida, plants can be killed in winter. When freezing temperatures are coming overnight I will have to cover all these plants to keep them from dying.
When I grew hydrangeas in my New England yard, my favorite time of year was end of summer. The blooms would begin to fade and change color. Sometimes they didn’t look all that great, and at other times the Fall colors could be even more beautiful.
Fading pink bloom
I didn’t have pink flowering hydrangeas. Mine bloomed white (Blushing Bride) or blue (Endless Summer). Usually the blue flowers would turn an amazing green color, like the picture below.
Blue hydrangea bloom fading to green and pink
Even the dried flowers left on stems add beauty to a winter landscape.
Dried hydrangea bloom still on the stem as snow falls.
Fading Pink Hydrangea Bloom
Fall is an awesome time to look forward to. Summer heat is gone, and changes in the yard bring new colors to enjoy. Don’t be sad. Spring and summer will come again and offer a whole new set of flowers to enjoy.
Pale green and pink hydrangea flower
All flower photos on this page came from the free, public domain site Pixabay.
Hydrangeas Blue 