Hydrangeas

Even after filling a huge bucket of cuttings,
my parents gorgeous purple hydrangea doesn't show any loss of blooms.

Hydrangeas are probably my favorite flowering shrub. June brings the first cut blooms from my parents' gorgeous 25+ year old bushes and I still go over to snip some for my table each summer.

'Sol'

Given the right location and soil amendments at planting, hydrangeas will last for years and provide long seasons of gorgeous blooms with practically no maintenance. They are not fussy plants and will put up with a fair amount of abuse.

'Preziosa'

Location: The most important aspect of planting a hydrangea is location. When we first moved into our house, we installed our first flower bed right on the front (west-facing) side of the house. My poor hydrangeas put up with all of that summer heat against the afternoon sun and hot brick, but they're much happier now that I've transplanted them on the East side of the house where they get morning sun and afternoon shade. They don't wilt nearly as much as they did when in the afternoon sun (but they still wilt a little during the hottest part of the day and will continue to do so until their roots are more established or if there is an extended dry/hot spell). Another thing I noticed about hot afternoon sun: the leaves get scorched looking. Also, rust can get on the leaves if the leaves get wet and there is too much direct sunlight.

My half pink/half blue bloom on 'Forever & Ever'.

Color: When you plant your hydrangea, if it's a blue/pink/red/purple, the odds are that the color can change according to the acidity level and presence of aluminum in your soil. I bought some pink hydrangeas, but wanted blue. I added some aluminum sulfate (or garden sulfur, found in the fertilizer section) when I planted them. Two years later, they're almost all blue. A few blooms will still show some residual pink, but as the soil evens out and the plant settles in, they should all be the same color. If you'd like to go pink/red, add lime to your soil according to the directions. Depending on the cultivar, you might be able to get purple blooms with slightly acidic soil and a limited amount of aluminum present. White blooms will not change color, no matter how much sulfur or lime you add.

Double blooms on 'Together'.
I got this new cultivar this spring and can't wait to see it bloom.

Bloom: The general shapes of hydrangea blooms are mophead, lacecap, and panicle. Mopheads are probably most common and generally make great cut flowers. They're big and bushy. Lacecaps are more flat-topped with a row of sterile flowers around an inner circle of smaller fertile blossoms. Panicle-shaped blooms are conicle and look similar to the shape of crepe myrtle blooms. Even among these, there are many different variations. Striped, solid, double, single, frilly edged... the list goes on! You can even find hydrangea trees and climbing hydrangeas to fill a pergola.

'Gerda Steiniger' mophead, 'Blue Wave' lacecap, 'Pink Diamond' panicle.

Foliage: You can choose hydrangeas with not just colorful blooms, but also colorful foliage. There are variegated types, and also tons whose foliage changes color in the fall. Oakleaf hydrangeas do especially well in hot, humid areas, and their oak-tree-shaped leaves change to deep red in the autumn. They generally come in white or pink blooms, and are panicle-shaped.

Oakleaf foliage and bloom.

Water: Hydrangeas like lots of water, especially when they're first planted. I had to water a mature hydrangea that we transplanted to our yard twice a day for the first few weeks until it started putting out new roots. (This is the only one I've had to do this with because the rootball was too small for such a large plant). Generally, I make sure that my new hydrangeas get watered if it doesn't rain two or three times a week. Once established, I water them when I think about it or if they droop in the hot afternoon and don't perk up when it cools off in the evening.


Fertilizer: Hydrangeas don't really need fertilizer, but will be happy with one or two applications a year of a balanced fertilizer (where all 3 numbers in the fertilizer are about equal). Sometimes I put on a handful of my acid-loving plant fertilizer or just a scoop of good old fashioned cow manure, but not always.

Size: Since we've been in our house just at 4 years, we don't have any plants older than that, and I don't have any really big hydrangeas yet. Hydrangeas can become great big shrubs at 6-8' tall and wide, but there are also miniature versions for small spaces or pots. The Cityline cultivars generally stay at about 2-3' and would be great for a small spot. For a fast-growing hydrangea, I'd recommend 'Annabelle'. This pretty white snowball-type bush has really taken off in my yard, growing from a cutting to 3-4' in just a couple of years.

Purple and blue blooms from my parents' yard.

Cutting: Hydrangeas make excellent cut flowers. The way to get the longest-lasting vase of stems is to cut blooms that have been on the bush for a couple of weeks (not the newest blooms). Also, keep oxygen bubbles from forming in the stem by cutting the stem and placing immediately into water (or re-cut under water), placing the end in boiling water, and leaving in water for at least two hours. Removing the leaves will also help the bloom to receive as much water as possible.

For more info, Hydrangeas Plus has lots of good tips (and *lots* of cultivars to choose from). For info on starting hydrangeas from cuttings, here is a good article.