AUGUST 17.2007 jU$tpUt|<3
All About Hydrangeas
Giving attention to color
took a break from my usual weekend trips to
the river, a favorite pastime all summer long.
Instead, I spent the whole day in my garden,
finally getting to the chores I’d been procras
tinating for a solid month or two. 1 yanked out
a shrub that was never going to be as small as I’d
hoped, no matter how much pruning I did. I even
planted a thing or two against my better advice of
not planting things in the hottest month. 1 did this
so I could adjust the color scheme a bit, making
sure all the flowering plants were blooming in
harmony. I spend so much of my gardening time
concentrating on form and texture that I often
overlook the one thing that so many people use as
the basis to their gardens: color.
eries in town. Of course, 1 will suggest following the
I received an e-mail from a woman named
instructions on the package. As for the coffee trick,
Alyce that turned my attention to color. It’s a com
I personally wouldn’t douse my plants in grounds
mon, daily question 1 would overhear at the retail
more than once a week.
nursery, and the answer almost always came out as
The color of your hydrangeas unfortunately
easily as breathing. It has been a few years since I’ve
won’t change overnight. It can take a whole grow
had to answer the question, so it took a bit of
ing season for it to transform into the hue you
research to get it right again, but like riding a bicy desire.
cle, it just comes right back.
Pruning should be done pretty much immedi
ately, once all the flowers have faded. Hydrangea
D ear D irty D an :
macrophylia will bloom on old w<xxl, which means
One of your last columns makes it sound like you
the branches that form this year will bloom next
might know something about hydrangeas [“Heat
year. 1 have made the mistake of pruning one in the
Wave,” July 20]. How do you get the bushes to be fat,
spring only to get only a few flowers come summer.
thick and fluffy.' Mine are spindly but have great
If you do pruning now, the plants have enough time
blossoms. When do you {mine them! Also, how do you
to flush out some new growth and harden off before
change the colors of the blue and pink flowers and get
winter arrives. Next year you will have so many
those lovely purples like my neighbors have!
flowers that you’ll be making bouquets for your
neighbors. If you start adding aluminum now, those
A lyce
flowers might even start to become that perfect
shade of purple that you are after. ©
Ladd’s Addition
I
Alyce, changing the color of your hydrangeas is
To reach DIRTY D an , who will answer any and all of
a matter of playing the part of a chemist in the soil
your gardening questions, simply e-mail
around your plants. But first you should start by
dirtydthegardener&yahoo . com.
making your plants thick, fat and
fluffy. Hydrangea macrophylia
and all of its many cultivars enjoy
a situation that mimics where they
grow natively in Japan. They are
an understory plant in the forests
there, where leaves fall and decay,
creating a rich, moisture-retentive
soil. In your garden, the same
effect of falling leaves can be cre
ated by mulching the root zone of
your bushes. Regular watering of
about every other week in the dry
months will start to improve the
overall health of your plants.
When it comes to changing
the color of your flowers, a little
saying that my pal Penny used to
tell me always sticks with me.
“Add lime for pink because the
second letter in both words is ‘i’.’’
That leaves the blue to purple
flowers up to the acid soil. There
are a few things that you can add
to intensify the color you are after,
Alyce.
I have heard from folks that
dump their coffee grounds around
their plants. Another way is to
score some aluminum sulfate, Homegrown chemistry comes in handy when adjusting the
which is available at many nurs- hues of your hydrangeas.
JMV
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