Tips on planting and caring for Hydrangeas

I have decided to dedicate a post to those Hydrangeas lover out there.

I have been referred for tips to care for hydrangeas.

I am no expert really but I did my research before I embarked on this risky journey.

I have heard so many failure stories about planting hydrangeas.

Heck! even my neighbours hydrangea just passed away recently as whispered by my gardener.

Here is a crash course for hydrangeas.

There are many types.

This is Annabelle hydrangeas

Mophead hydrange just like mine.

You can see the differences in the leaves.

Lacecap hydrangea.

According to the type of hydrangeas, we can decide which one to is suitable for our climate.

Some hydrangeas grow better in spring and summer but some prefers colder climate.

Mophead hydrangea is very easy to grow and prefer spring or summer climate which makes it suitable for our climate.

Now that you have chosen the type of flower, the next most important decision is to decide on the location.

Hydrangea likes 5 hours of morning sunlight and afternoon shade.

Some can do well in full sun but you need to make sure that the soil is moisturize all the time, which means watering more often.

Though some hydrangeas do fail to bloom in full sun in certain area.

No hydrangeas do well in full shade.

So I chose my location next to the porch where they will receive the morning sun and afternoon shade from the porch.

Hydrange can grow very big so make sure you choose a spacious area because they don't do well transplanting around.

This is how a full grown hydrange tree looks like.

Plant in a well drained soil. If your soil is the clay type, do not over water it as the roots can decay in pool of water.

Do not plant it too deep.

Just enough like the above picture.

Now that you have planted the flower, you need to water it regularly in a day either morning and evening or just morning.

When I bought the flower from the nursery, they advised me not to water the leaves in the hot sunlight or the leaves will have burn mark.

You have to nurture and care for your new plant every day atleast for a month until the new roots grow and adapted to the soil.

Fertilization:

You can either use chemical fertilizer or organic.

For me I prefer organic fertilizer as the result has proven safer for my plants.

Some chemical fertilizer can cause burn injury or death to the plant.

A mistake I have learned from the past.

Make sure you don't let the fertilizer touch the tree or leaves.

Place it in the soil.

When I planted mine, I used an organic rich soil mixing with the ground soil.

So, I haven't fertilized them yet.

You don't have to fertilize that often.

It was written in the website that I read around 2-3 times in a year.

The most fascinating fact about hydrangea is its ability to change color according to the soil's pH.

Turning to pink bloom:-

For the hydrangeas to turn pink, it must not take up aluminium from the soil.

The trick is to use dolomitic lime (kapur) twice or 3 times in a year.

Maintain the pH 6-6.2.

If the pH goes higher than that the plant might have iron deficiency.

You know when the leave become pale and you can see the leave line.

If you wish to have blue hydrangeas, you have to provide enough aluminium in the soil and to maintain pH between 5.2-5.5

Add a tbs of aluminium in a gallon of water.

Beware to not put too much as it can burn the tree.

My hydrangeas turn pinkish after we transplanted to the ground.

Which means the pH is between 6 plus and the soil is low in aluminium.

My husband and I are very proud of our hydrangeas.

So far so good.

The bloom lasted for so long. It has been almost a month and still staying strong (flower).

Now we have more buds coming out which means more flowers soon.

When we bought our tree, 

Now you can see more buds and leaves coming out

This is the latest bloom.

Still small as more petals are emerging.

My source is http://www.hydrangeashydrangeas.com

Happy experimenting dearies and Good luck :)