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Grandma's Tips for Growing Hydrangeas

My Grandma loved hydrangeas. They were her favorite flower. I don't really remember knowing the name of any other flower during my youth except maybe roses. Hydrangeas have always been an amazing flower to me. I remember sitting on the lawn furniture in her back yard and seeing the blue, pink and purple flowers all on the same bush, some even on the same stem with blooms that were always as big as my head. I was confused. How did my Grandma make those flowers do that? Then one afternoon she sat down beside me on the garden bench and began explaining the hydrangea to me.

As Grandma explained it, the soil affected the blooms the most. A soil that contains a large amount of acid causes the blooms to be blue. If the soil has more lime in it then the blooms are pink. She also explained how much the plants needed water. She said that her plants seemed to always be thirsty so she watered every day unless it rained. She told me that hydrangeas only liked to be in the sun for a few hours per day and those hours would be better in the morning than in the hot afternoon. I remember how she would take the leftover food from lunch and dinner and place it around the bottom on the plants. I know now that is what we call composting. We do that a little different now. We have our compost piles out behind our garden shed where we leave it to age before we use it. Grandma just worked the food right into the soil around the plants.

I knew that when I started planting my own gardens that hydrangeas would be a big part of those gardens and would be planted right there around my garden benches and lawn furniture. When I began planting those gardens I took some cutting from the plants in my Grandma's garden and followed her suggestions.

I took the plants and planted them about 3 feet apart in a heavily composted soil that I had ready to plant. I installed a drip watering system to make sure the plants would get plenty of water. I planted them in beds that would get about 6 hours of morning sun per day. I checked the drainage of the soil and made sure it was adequate. After planting the hydrangeas I added lime to the soil in one of my beds so I would have pink blooms there. I added aluminum sulfate to another bed so I would have blue blooms. In another bed I went crazy and added both. My blooms in that bed are purple, pink and blue. Some of those different colors are even on the same bush just like Grandma's were. I then added a good mulch to help prevent the soil from drying out too quickly.

My hydrangea garden has been growing now for several years. I go out everyday and sit on my porch swing or my garden bench and admire the head size blooms of the multi colored hydrangeas. It takes me back to my younger years of my Grandma's back yard and makes me thankful for a Grandma who taught me to love gardening and the simpler things in life.

About the Author

Denisa Faustner is an expert author and owner of LawnFurnitureStore, an online resource for outdoor lawn furniture, porch swings, garden benches, and much more.

Author: Denisa Faustner

 

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