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3 Responses to “this question is based on hydrangea plants?”

1. goldwing Says:
   May 14th, 2010 at 5:42 pm

   These plants are as easy to grow as anything…feed them Miracle grow during growth season, water well (they do NOT like to dry out). If you want blue flowers, keep soil basic (a little lime) … if you like pink flowers, feed with Miracid. Prune in fall down to about 2 foot tall.

2. eskie lover Says:
   May 16th, 2010 at 12:17 am

   Epsom salt around the base of the plant worked into the soil will net the beautiful blue flowers. Dead head after blooming unless you are like me and want cut flowers in the house. I am in zone 9 so I don’t cut mine back until the middle of November, but we rarely get hard freezes. I wanted both of my bushes to grow pretty tall along a fence, so I don’t hard prune mine. But, cut about a third off of the top making sure to cut above a leaf, not leaving much of a stem above.

3. Valkyrie Says:
   May 16th, 2010 at 4:10 pm

   It depends on many different things. What zone you live in. Where you have them planted in your yard. And also what variety you have. First, hydrangeas like moist well drained soil and in hot areas cant deal well with direct sunlight. In most areas partial sun is best. They can look droopy in the heat of summer but if you watered them for 2-4 minutes then checked on them 10 minuted later they perk right up so quickly from the cool off. I like to fertilize them once in the spring and once in the fall with Holly Tone fertilizer for acid loving plants. You can find it at Lowe’s, Home Depot, and most places that sell garden supplies. A lot of hydrangeas are one color all of the time and soil acidity or alkaline doesn’t matter at all. Some however like “Nikko Blue” can be color manipulated by soil amendments. If you want blue flowers you will have to acidify your soil with garden sulfur or aluminum sulfate. If you want pink flowers you will have to add garden lime to the soil to reduce the acidity. If your soil is totally neutral you will get a purple color flower with some pink and or blue tones to it. It almost looks tie dye. Many hydrangea varieties bloom on old wood so if you prune them you may be removing buds that have formed the previous year and you will basically be removing this years flowers. Hydrangeas should only be pruned after the shrub completely leafs out and only remove the dead wood. I would recommend mulching around the base of the shrub especially for the first few years until it really grows and establishes itself. Hydrangeas are actually pretty easy very low maintenance plants to have. Try to make sure to buy a full healthy shrub even if its small. I hope this helps some and best of luck with your hydrangeas. : )

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