What is needed to have blue flowers for your macrophylia hydrangeas? An acidic (ph 4.5-6.0) soil will result in a blue flower. The acidic ph releases aluminum in the soil which makes the blue flower. If color is purple to pink or red add aluminum silicate per instructions on the container to drive the ph down. Pine needles around the plant will also help lower the ph. If you want pink or red instead of blue add lime to the soil. this will move the ph up to basic and retard the aluminum from getting into the plant.
Sunday, July 25, 2010
One way of knowing if you need to water your hydrangeas is to check them in the morning before the sun has started to heat them up. If the leaves are already starting to droop they need water. Conversely, just because the leaves are drooping in late afternoon it doesn't mean they need to be watered. You can also feel the soil and if it's dry at 2" it needs to be watered and you can clean your dirty hands as you water them.
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so can you add the lime whenever you want in the season? and if so, about how long does it take to see the color change?
ReplyDeletetake 1 tbsp of dolomitic lime in 1 gallon of water and apply 1-2 quarts per plant around the drip line of the plant. do this once in the Spring and once in the fall. It may take 2 years to change the color. This only applies to the macrophylia (blue to red) type hydrangeas. It will not work for oakleaf, annabella, limelight, or tardivia type hydrangeas.
ReplyDeleteIt has been unbelievably hot in Nashville this summer and the plants are really hurting for water. I have a 6' high fence around the back of our property with English Ivy climbing up on it. In front of the ivy are Mock Orange (Philadelphus virginalis Minnesota snowflake) that have never bloomed in 4 years.They have afternoon sun. My patience was wearing thin so last fall I moved 2 of the 4 plants to an area with full sun thinking they will finally bloom. Still no blooms. A fella down the street planted one last year and it was full of blooms this Spring. so I'm giving the 2 in full sun one more year then "off with its head" if no blooms. I hope they somehow read this. Other plants along the fence are 4 azaleas, 5 clematis, a Pee Gee Hydrangea and 5 endless summers and 2 Limelight Hydrangeas. Interspersed in the bed are 6 or 7 Domesticata heavenly bamboo nandina's. they are great in shade to full sun with bright red berries in the winter. Some Balloon Flowers(Sentimental Blue) are in the front of the bed and bloom in the Spring. Be careful if you have these because they start to break through the soil later than most plants so it's easy to dig them up by mistake. We also have some Russian Sage (perovskia atriplicfolis) but they don't get enough sun and fall over so I'll have to move them. Several Purple Coneflowers are in the bed as well and these are blooming now. We also have 2 Dwarf golden Arborvitae for the year round color.Four varieties of Weigela are in this bed as well. these bloom in the Spring. The 4 types are Dwarf Varigated, Wine and Roses, Pink Weigela and some Red Prince. Next are 2 types of abelia, Glossy and Edward Goucher. Lastly are 2 viburnum, Igloo and Korean Spice. Most of the plants are about 6 feet in height when fully grown so they look nice against the 6' high fence.For the last 3 weeks I've noticed some of the plants along this fence were looking bad as though they weren't getting any water. I increased the number of minutes for the sprinklers to water this area but to no avail. I was out there yesterday when the sprinklers went on but no water came out. the electronics on the irrigation program indicated they were being watered but NO Water was coming out. It turns out the wire opening the valve was chewed into. "Death to squirrels" was the input from dried out plants.
ReplyDelete