A row of the most beautiful creamy white Hydrangeas greeted me at a plant nursery the other day. Hydrangea panicuata ‘Silver Dollar’ is widely available… but these plants made such a good show because they were all lovely large specimens. It makes a change to see such big healthy plants in full bloom. They flower from August until mid- autumn and the as they age the petals develop a pink tinge. They will grow to around 1.2m/4 feet tall.
Hydrangea shrubs are easy to grow and look after so they are very popular. They prefer moist but well drained soil in a semi shaded spot. After flowering cut back to encourage the plants to produce vigorous new shoots for more flowers next year and apply a generous mulch of organic matter such as garden compost or well rotted manure. If you allow the flower heads to dry on the plant then when you prune you can pop them in a vase for an autumn display indoors.
There are many Hydrangeas to choose from. Most have flowers in shades of white and pink. Some Hydrangeas can develop blue flowers depending on the variety. It’s the mopheads and lacecaps that have that capacity to turn blue when they are grown in an acid soil with a pH of 5.2-5.5. If your garden has alkaline soil with a pH of 6 -6.2 then they will be pink. Or you could grow them in a pot.
Our garden has alkaline clay soil and our Hydrangeas are pink and pure white.
I’m linking with Judith at Lavender Cottage Garden today for Mosaic Monday.
Do you grow Hydrangeas in your garden?
Which is your favourite Hydrangea?
Happy Gardening. Gillian 🙂
I do love hydrangeas and love all that bloom especially blue ones.
They are growing on me too I must say!
My favourites are the oak leaf hydrangea, Hydrangea quercifolia for a shady spot and Hydrangea aborescens Annabelle
I have lovely lime green H. ‘Annabelle’ and a blue lacecap, along with a gifted one that grows about 5′ tall and is supposedly blue, but it is yet to bloom. This time of year, I raid the Peegee flower heads at the local church to dry for winter vases and wreaths. They have tons and my pruning makes all the more branching for next year. 😉
I would think that they look beautiful in your garden Eliza, they seem to go very well with a woodland setting don’t they? And lucky you for being able to raid mature plants at church. The dried flowers are quite beautiful too.
I love hydrangeas. The bushes in my garden were inherited and I have no idea of their names or pedigrees. But they are pretty nonetheless. I love the blue ones best, but the limelights are catching my eye in various posts, so perhaps next summer I’ll get one of those.
I must confess that I don’t know the names of some of mine and I bought them!
I grow lots of hydrangeas, they do well on our heavy acidic clay soil. My favourites are Paniculatas for the way their showy conical flowers change from limy white to warm pinks. They can get quite big, in smaller spots I either prune them or use dwarf forms (Pinky Winky and Pee Wee).
I’m liking them more as new cultivars are produced.