Tips for growing Hydrangea
Hydrangea are one of my favorite shrubs. I ran across a great article on taking care of them at the Farmers Almanac. Here’s a link to their site if you want to see the original article: http://www.almanac.com/plant/hydrangea I summarized what they had to say below.
We also have a full article on Tips for Growing Hydrangea here.
Hydrangea are a wonderful flowering shrub. The blossoms can be very large and come in several colors: Red, Pink, Blue, Purple and White. Some varieties have blossoms of different colors. The color of the hydrangea flower really varies with the amount of aluminum ions in the soil. Acidic soils with a pH of less than 5.5 produce blue flowers; soils with a pH greater than 5.5 product pink flowers. White flowers are not affected by pH.
Hydrangeas are easy to grow. They produce flowers from mid summer into the fall when many other plants have quit blooming so they are a nice addition to any yard or garden. They make excellent borders and work well in group plantings.
Planting
- Most hydrangeas thrive in rich, porous, somewhat moist soils. Add compost to enrich poor soil.
- They prefer full sun in the morning, with some afternoon shade; however, many will grow and bloom in partial shade. This is especially true for the bigleaf hydrangeas (see Recommended Varieties below).
- Plant in spring or fall.
- Dig a hole as deep as the root ball and 2 to 3 times as wide.
- Set the plant in the hole and fill it half full with soil. Water. After water is drained, fill the rest of the hole with soil.
- Water thoroughly.
- Space multiple hydrangeas about 3 to 10 feet apart.
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