Top Tips for Looking After a Hydrangea
It seems like hydrangeas are everywhere. Whether your flowers are cut, in the ground or in a pot, they can be quite needy and difficult to establish, but the results are absolutely stunning. Depending on the acidity of the soil, your hydrangeas may change colour throughout the course of its life. If you're wanting a blue hydrangea, then plant it out in acidic soil. For any other colour, it'll be fine just with normal compost with no manure.
No that's out of the way, here are a few tips for looking after the hydrangeas you've planted. The following things are just what we've found having owned one for quite some time now, so I thought I'd share our findings with you just in case you weren't sure how to go about caring for this natural beauty. SO without further ado, lets get into things :)
Choose the right place for them
This is much easier if you have a potted hydrangea, but they much prefer to grow in partially shaded areas as opposed to full, direct sunlight or 24-hour shade. There also needs to be enough room for the hydrangea to grow as they do get remarkably big. That's another reason why we chose to pot our plant rather than put it in the border.
Water them regularly
Hydrangeas can dry out exceptionally quickly, especially in the hot, dry weather. During those times, we water it virtually every other day, but if the weather is moderate in temperature with some rainy spells, we'll water it every three days or so just to keep the soil moist, but not soaked. You'll know if you're over-watering it as the petals will go brown - likewise if you haven't watered it enough, so keep an eye out for this.
Give them lots of TLC during the colder months
Although hydrangeas are generally hardy, meaning they'll grow back every year, it's important that you're looking after them properly during the winter. This includes cutting down dead wood and dead-heading the plant throughout. You should also add an extra layer of mulch, including leaves, in order to provide the buds with some protection from frost, ice and cold winds. Putting a cage around the plant will also help to keep the wind out and stop pests getting to the leaves.
Be gentle with them
They can be quite fragile, especially when it comes to the flower head itself. When watering, pruning or re-potting, make sure you take care when touching the plant. If you'd still like all of the petals to remain intact, then be gentle with your movements and watch that you don't break any stems by accident.
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I hope you enjoyed this blog post. Let me know of you have a hydrangea you're looking after and how you're getting on with it. Is it potted, are they in the ground or do you have cut flowers? Let me know in the comments below and I'll see you again really soon with a brand new blog post :)
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