Tag: blue flowers

Making Hydrangea Flowers Turn Blue: Lowering the pH

Blue hydrangea shrub
Blue Flowering Hydrangea Shrub

Certain plants need a low pH, or acidic soil to grow and thrive. The hydrangea will do well in any pH – acidic or alkaline – but the soil type will effect the flower color. If you don’t care what color your flowers are, then you will accept the fact that your alkaline soil will give you pink blooms, but many people want hydrangeas for their bright blue color.
The pH scale goes from 0-14, with 7 being neither acidic nor alkaline – it is neutral. If your soil is naturally alkaline, or has a pH above 7, you can try adding an organic amendment to bring down the pH which may change your hydrangea flowers to blue.

I live in an area that has acidic soil naturally.  We can easily grow acid soil loving blueberries, rhododendrons, azaleas and other plants – including blue hydrangeas – without adding any amendments.   I have never used any products to create an acidic soil, but I’ve read about it and this is what I’ve learned.
If you buy a blue hydrangea and want it to grow blue flowers in your yard, check your soil’s pH – in the place you plan to plant them.  Any soil that is high in lime can cause pink blooms, and that means plants near the cement walls of a house could be growing in a more alkaline soil.

There are various ways to bring the pH down to the right levels.   Making an acidic soil mix for a pot is relatively easy, but changing the pH out in an area of your yard is much more difficult, and it will need constant monitoring.  It is not a permanent fix and could take weeks to achieve.
In general, organic type matter will help lower a pH. When starting a garden add organic compost, composted manure, and / or pine needles which all help lower the pH.  Also, you may want to buy a bag of garden sulfur and follow the directions for application on the bag.

If your soil is naturally alkaline, you will be fighting the elements to get those blue flowers.  It may work better to grow them in a pot, or learn to love hydrangeas that are pink.

Read more at this page:  How to Lower Your Soil’s pH and Turn Hydrangea Flowers Blue

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.

Image

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.

Vases Filled With Light Blue Hydrangeas

hydrangea flowers in vases
From the Garden

Vases with blue hydrangeas- the Endless Summer variety.  It’s not too hard to fill a vase with hydrangea flowers.  Generally they are huge, and one will fill any kind of vase nicely.  Some of my new plants were flattened by a torrential rainstorm we had just after I planted them and they still bloomed, but the blooms are laying on the ground facing upwards.

Today I decided to cut them and bring some inside, but getting them to look okay in a vase is not easy since the heads are greatly bent sideways.

I brought a vase full of hot water outside with me and plopped the cut stems into it right away.  That keeps the white sap from clogging the stems so the flowers won’t wilt right away.  Than they are added to cold water once I go inside – snipping a bit off the bottom of the stem first.

I dug out my little vases – one is actually an empty Patron tequila bottle- and filled them with the light blue flowers.  I need these photos for my work as I get ready to add new wedding stationery to my BlueHyd store.

More Pictures of Blue Hydrangeas

Photography of pretty blue hydrangea flowers growing on the shrub.

I am looking forward to growing my own hydrangeas, now that I have my own home. My only experience has been in the yard at my rental house, where I was less than enthusiastic about gardening.  However, that is where I discovered my love for the hydrangea shrub and the beautiful blue flowers it produces.
blue hydrangea flower
A small, blue hydrangea flower. I like this picture (above) because the edges of the petals are brownish which give the flower a look of being outlined. I don’t know why they are like that, but I thought it was unusual.

Blue hydrangea shrub
Blue Hydrangea shrub in bloom

This photo was taken just before I moved out of my rental. As you can see, the shrub has lots of flowers, but they are fairly small and more of a light blue than a deep blue.

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A bud is as pretty as the full bloom

I lived at the rental house in New Hampshire for three years, so I was able to photograph these flowers in various stages of growth and color.  It seemed that each year they did something different!

That is the fun part of watching a hydrangea bush bloom, especially this variety which can give you blooms that are large or small, bright or light in color.  And they will change color as Fall approaches.  In fact, watching what happens to theses plants in Fall is exciting, and has given me some wonderful photos of unique flower colors.
(All photography on this page is mine and is NOT free to use.)

blue flower in the sun
Bright blue hydrangea in full sun

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Endless Summer Hydrangeas For Northern Gardens

Hydrangea macrophylla
Image via Wikipedia

If you live in a very cold climate as I do, one hydrangea that should flourish in your yard would be the Endless Summer (Hydrangea macrophylla) variety. It is loved for it’s profuse blue flowers, but acidic soil is needed for the blue color.

The tricky part is knowing whether the flowers will bloom as pink or blue.  That will depend on the acidity of your soil. If your soil has a low ph level (5.2-5.5) your flowers will be blue, but any higher and you may get a pink and blue combination or all pink blooms. The soil where I live in New Hampshire is naturally acidic, so my Endless Summer hydrangeas bloom blue.

Not every type of hydrangea shrub will like the cold winters of New England, so be sure to do your research before buying and make sure you are investing in a plant that will not die over it’s first winter in a northern garden.

The Endless Summer shrub will bloom from new growth (as well as old) in the Spring, so while the shrub sits buried under 2 feet of snow for months you won’t have to worry if the stems break. It will come back. They thrive in planting zones 4-9 so they can take the heat too!

blue hydrangea 100
My Endless Summer Hydrangea bush

Some of My Blue Flower Pictures

blue hydrangea flower
Blue Hydrangeas

If you are looking for blue flower pictures – I mean REAL blue flowers, today I am showing off some of mine.

How many times have you seen a purple flower listed as being blue. In the flower kingdom, this happens a lot and I think it is because there really aren’t that many true blue flowers.

It’s a popular color, especially for weddings – that “something blue” phrase can be taken care of with a blue bouquet or at least one blue flower in the mix.

Blue flowers are popular in the landscape too. The perennials that come in blue are certain types of hydrangea (pictured), such as the “Endless Summer” variety.  But soil must be acidic for flowers to be nice and blue.

I also love the forget-me-not, which sports tiny bright blue petals with yellow and white centers.

Forget Me Not Floral Photography Postage stampLots of gardeners include the blue delphinium that grows tall, and many like to have a morning glory vine grow along the deck railing or up the fencepost.  I have another page with more ♥ pictures of blue flowers you could grow in your garden.

Another flower I grow that is sometimes blue is the Columbine.  I love the variety of that plant and I’ve had light blue flowers, but the more common color is dark purple, as you can see in my photo below.  My images are not free to use, so please contact me if you want to use one, with a link back to my blog.

Blue Columbine Postcard postcard