Hi, I have (3) questions please? 1. My blue mophead hydrangea bush has put out some huge blossoms but the sun has scorched some of them. I would like to remove those spent blooms, where do I make the cut without ruining next years blooms? 2.) Since the blooms are so big and heavy they have fallen over. What is the best way to stake them? Can someone please help me with this? Thank you. 3. How can I get the blooms to change to a deeper blue?
i've never pruned or even deadheaded my hydrangea, so i can't say where you should cut the blooms off. you can get some stakes at just about any garden center or the garden dept at the chain stores...they come in different lengths as well as some are straight (and you use ties to attach the plant to them) and some have a curved area on one end where you put the stalk into the curved part to hold it up. do you know which variety you have? some only get so blue and others can get a richer/deeper color. i have a nikko blue and that one can range from pale pink to various shades of blue to deep lavendar. you can treat the ground around the plant and it may help change the color. it would only be temporary, though. i wouldn't waste the time with it ...i almost lost my hydrangea doing that...if you've got the right soil to make the blooms blue, then, as the roots grow out and down (and past whatever they were planted in from the greenhouse), they'll hit the different soil and the flowers will probably be the color you prefer. that's what ended up happening with mine...it was blue/purple when i first planted it; the second year it was pink and that's when i treated it (mistake!) and the next year i had no blooms at all...the bush barely survived...the third year the flowers were again pink. the fourth, there was a mix of blue/purple and pink. and again this year. it looks quite nice, actually! so, give the plant time to grow and spread the roots out.
One compensation is that the PNW is overall a good place to grow hydrangeas, including the lovely Hydrangea quercifolia from the southeastern US. And lots of wonderful Asians. Back in the Southeast, regular florist hydrangeas do well in hot, muggy summer weather but demand shade and very regular watering.
not usuallt reccomended to cut back dead blooms......... as far as deepening the blue.is they are a true blue cultivar you should be adding Alluminum Sulphate.which is a granular......found usually in a 2kg box......you mix recommended amount with the soil around your hydrangea during growing season...usually May-July. Only on blue varieties.you can't change a pink to a blue.
Probably don't have to dig it in, which will damage some roots. Blue is the alternative color to pink. Red becomes purple.
Thanks to you all for your help. I love my blue hydrangea, I just want to make it a deeper blue. So, I'll just add a bit of aluminum sulphate right? and I can do it now. Do you 'all' agree that I should not cut off my spent blooms?
To the best of my limited knowledge what determines the color changes in hydrangea is the alkalinity or acidity of the soil, in plain language acid/blue alkaline/pink. If you desire a bluer flower you can simply mulch with shredded autumn leaves.
It has also been established that a hydrangea plant needs to absorb aluminum in order to maintain blue flowers. The sepals of blue flowers contain ten times more aluminum than pink ones...More recent studies...have indicated that potassium and molybdenum, and possibly several other substances, may also be essential for maximum blue coloration, but it is agreed that aluminum is the principal requirement. There is usually aluminum present in the soil, but it has to be in a form of a soluble salt which can be absorbed by the plant. This can only happen in acid soil, as in alkaline soil the aluminum forms an insoluble compound which the plant cannot absorb --Lawson-Hall/Rothera, Hydrangeas - A Gardener's Guide (Timber Press)
