Hydrangea Care
What You Should Know About Hydrangea Care
Hydrangea care is not as difficult as some growers would have you believe, but you do need to take certain facts into account when you plan what variety of hydrangeas you buy and where in your garden they are to be planted.
Hydrangeas typically bloom from the buds that were formed from growth of the previous year. If you want your plant to bloom, the buds must survive the winter. If you don't protect your hydrangeas and you live in a cold climate, you may lose buds, if not branches. In particularly rough winters, the whole bush could die. And even though it will return as a new shrub, you won't have any blossoms the first summer. One important aspect of hydrangea care in this instance would be to wrap your hydrangea in a leaf-filled cage made from chicken wire to absorb the cold, for the winter.
There are some hydrangeas that are more hardy, and better able to withstand the cold of a bitter winter.
H. quercifolia is often grown in the United States, and is very adaptable. It grows from four to six feet in height, and it is hardy in all but the coldest winters in the lower 48 states. The blooms on H. quercifolia last for three or four weeks, and its white flowers open in late June or early July. They turn a purple-pink as they get older. The flowers may reach ten inches or more in length, depending on the plant you select.
Once you select what type of hydrangea to purchase, growing it is not that hard. Most hydrangeas are woodland plants by nature, so they enjoy some shade. If it gets sun in the late afternoon or morning, it will fare well, but mid-day sun can actually burn the flowers. If you find that the location for planting your hydrangea wasn't the best choice, you can dig up the root ball and move the plant to a more suitable place. Your hydrangea care will be more easily undertaken after you move the plant to a shadier spot. Hydrangeas can prosper in nearly any type of soil, but you should ensure that the soil remains somewhat moist. Be sure to water your hydrangea frequently.
The flowers of most H. macrophylla will range in color from blue to pink, depending on the acidity of your soil. More acid soils tend to produce the blue color, and alkaline soils throw pink flowers. If you wish to ensure that your hydrangea produces one color or the other, you can add agricultural lime to the soil to make it more alkaline, or add iron sulfate to make it more acid.
Much has been written about hydrangea pruning, but they don't require much pruning, unless you are pruning to remove any dead wood from the shrub. If you wish your shrub to attain a certain shape, you can prune for that, but make sure to prune at the right time in the growing cycle.
Hydrangea care is a small price to pay for the beauty it will provide in your garden for years to come.