Please ID this Hydrangea? (pics)

Discussion in 'Plants: Identification' started by lily, Jun 24, 2008.

  1. lily

    lily Active Member 10 Years

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    Can someone please tell me the name of this hydrangea? It is just beginning to turn a very pretty blue. It was already here when I bought my home in December. I just know that it is a Mophead Hydrangea, other than that I know nothing. I don't even know how old it is. I pruned it in Jan/Feb. Could it be Nikko Blue? Thanks to all!
     

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  2. joclyn

    joclyn Rising Contributor

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    most probably 'nikko blue'. it's the most commonly sold variety (around here, anyway).

    if you see some flowers that are pink instead of blue, then it's almost a definite it's that one. why? because the nikko blue is one of the types that you can manipulate the color of the flowers!

    with variations that occur naturally in the soil, my nikko blue has both pink and blue/purple flowers. there are treatments you can apply to the soil to try to cause one particular color to always appear...they work for a year or so - just until the roots grow out and deep enough to hit untreated earth. i thought i was going to be stuck with pink blooms only...then the following year i got the mix and it's stayed mixed ever since...so, there's a mix of soil and some of the roots are in more acidic and others in less acidic...therefore, the two colors of blooms.
     
  3. lily

    lily Active Member 10 Years

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    Thanks Joclyn. I'm surprised at myself for guessing right. LOL ~ I just went out and looked at my hydrangea and although it seems to be coming along beautifully, I noticed a few leaves on the inside are turning yellow. Any ideas what could be causing this? I'd like to correct that now before it worsens. Thanks again.
     
  4. joclyn

    joclyn Rising Contributor

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    they are VERY thirsty bushes...if it hasn't rained for a few days, i'd water the soil around the bush...it's best to water at the 'drip line' which is the area just underneath the outermost leaves. if you just water right on the rootball, the roots don't spread out as well. watering at the drip line forces the roots to move towards the moisture - and you get a really good root system going.

    water the soil, not the leaves - especially if you are doing the watering mid-day.
     
  5. Ron B

    Ron B Paragon of Plants 10 Years

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    Roots have a mandate to spread into fresh ground. And if the watering was concentrated near the shrub and the roots responded by concentrating there, then that is where the roots should be.

    Ever had a plant in a pot root out of the drain holes? The water is held in a column near the stem, then runs out of the drain holes to continue to remain near the pot. Yet roots too readily grow out of the drain holes and into the surrounding soil, to the point that if left long enough there will be few new roots left in the pot. Hmn...

    Watering during the day cools plants down rather than burns them. In tropical rain forests the daily 15 minute dousing is often during the afternoon. In some locations it might be over 100F at this time.

    http://www.puyallup.wsu.edu/~Linda Chalker-Scott/Horticultural Myths_files/index.html
     
  6. lily

    lily Active Member 10 Years

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    Jocyln,
    Thanks for your help. Okay, I've got one of those round edgers placed around the base of the trunk. I have about three inches of bark mulch in it and that is where I've been watering. So, now I know I've been watering it wrong. At least I only water at the base and I never water the blooms or leaves? From now on I'll water at the drip line. Thanks for this suggestion. I don't see any signs of pink on the blooms yet, just a pretty pale blue.

    Ron
    Thanks for explaining and now it all makes sense to me. So it's best to water hydrangeas in the warmest part of the day to cool them down? Oh yes, thanks for that link. I enjoyed reading about all the myths. What an education. Thanks Ron.
     
  7. joclyn

    joclyn Rising Contributor

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    do you mean you have mulch right around the base of the plant? as in, it's touching the stems/trunk? you should leave at least a couple inches of clear space that is just plain dirt and then put the mulch...when the mulch touches the plant trunk, it can cause problems - and may be something to do with the yellowing leaves.

    water splashed on the leaves when it's very bright and sunny leaves them open to being burned.

    watering mid-day may indeed help the plants to cool off a bit...unless you do a slow, deep watering, most of it will just evaporate and won't do the plants roots all that much good.

    watering at the roots isn't wrong! it's just that you want the roots to be as spread out as is possible...the more roots and the wider reach, the more chance the plant will find enough moisture to sustain itself and the less watering you'll need to do.
     
  8. Ron B

    Ron B Paragon of Plants 10 Years

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    >water splashed on the leaves when it's very bright and sunny leaves them open to being burned<

    The Bottom Line
    • Wet foliage is not susceptible to sunburn
    • Analyze site conditions to ensure optimal root and shoot health and prevent drought problems
    • Any time plants exhibit drought stress symptoms is the time to water them
    • Optimal watering time is in the early morning; watering during the day increases evaporative losses,
    and evening watering regimes can encourage establishment of some fungal pathogens
    • Do not overuse fertilizers and pesticides, especially those containing sodium or chloride salts
    • If using recycled or gray water, consider running the water through a filtering system before applying it
    to plants


    http://www.puyallup.wsu.edu/~Linda Chalker-Scott/Horticultural Myths_files/Myths/Leaf scorch.pdf
     
  9. lily

    lily Active Member 10 Years

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    This is wonderful help that I am getting from you both. I've printed this out.

    Joclyn: I will make sure that mulch isn't touching the trunk. I'll water in the morning at the drip line.

    Ron: How much fertilizer should I give the hydrangea and when please? I already gave it some fertilizer made especially for hydrangeas and azaleus last month. I just sprinkled about a handful of the granules. I do my utmost not to use pesticides. I can't believe how much I am learning. Do I care for my rhododenrons in the same way as I would my hydrangea?
     
  10. Liz

    Liz Well-Known Member 10 Years

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    Around here wet foliage in the middle of summer is definatly a recipe for burnt flowers and leaves. We grow ours in shade houses or under trees. The yellow on your flower is normal it will darken as it develops. Your soil is only slightly acidic. If you want stronger blue then up the acid with feed that turns flowers blue. In the old days iron filings were good for that. Fortunatly my soil is very acidic and I get very strong colours.

    http://www.hovaria.com/english/care/colour_change.html

    http://www.hydrangeashydrangeas.com/colorchange.html


    Liz
     
  11. Ron B

    Ron B Paragon of Plants 10 Years

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    >Around here wet foliage in the middle of summer is definatly a recipe for burnt flowers and leaves<

    There are many causes of leaf scorch, but irrigation with fresh water is certainly not one of them.
    Hundreds of scientific publications on crop plants, turf, woody shrubs and trees have examined foliar
    scorch, and not one of them has implicated midday irrigation as a causal agent. What does cause damage,
    however, is suboptimal plant-water relations, which can result in tip and marginal leaf scorch, shoot
    dieback, stunted growth, and leaf abscission. After drought, the most common source of these problems
    is salt, in particular salts containing sodium (Na) and/or chlorine (Cl).


    http://www.puyallup.wsu.edu/~Linda Chalker-Scott/Horticultural Myths_files/Myths/Leaf scorch.pdf
     
  12. joclyn

    joclyn Rising Contributor

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    regardless of whatever articles may be referenced, my experience with hydrangea - and this experience goes back 40 years - is that the leaves will become scorched after they are splashed with water and then exposed to sun.

    thus, my comment to make sure water at the soil level and not to splash the leaves.

    irrigation as referenced in the quote above most probably means when using the typical irrigation systems; which are drip-lines laid on the soil (and sometimes below the soil surface). that type of watering wouldn't splash water on the leaves and there wouldn't be any damage as a result. so, in that respect, the article is correct.

    watering with a hose and spraying the water from it while standing a few feet away will end up with the leaves splashed with water and that would be an issue.

    so, just make sure to keep the water pressure low and water at the soil line and you'll be fine!!

    i've not fertilized the past few years...my bushes put out pink and purple blooms and i like the combination, so i'm just letting nature take its course!
     
  13. Ron B

    Ron B Paragon of Plants 10 Years

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    What do you then suppose happens when bigleaf hydrangeas are rained on during the day in the often quite wet environments in which these are both planted and grow natively?
     
  14. chimera

    chimera Well-Known Member 10 Years

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    Lily, Off topic but, wondering if you are on the Abbotsford water system which contains chloramine , a combination of chlorine and ammonia, if i remember right. Not sure how it would affect hydrangeas or the leaves, but it may have an effect on plants which share a relationship {symbiotic} with mychorrizal fungi, eg. hardy orchids, rhododendrons, etc.
     
  15. Liz

    Liz Well-Known Member 10 Years

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    Ron I don't know how hot your summer sun is but it really is dynamite here. Our fresh flowers bloom is at Christmas time [southern hemisphere]. Years ago we raised them commercially and they were always watered at night (in those days it was overhead big agricultural sprinklers) because of the damage watering during the day did to them. If it is natural rainfall there is probably a softening moisture in the air. Here it is one blasting hot day after another and humidity is low. However the flower heads were stunning because of the acidic soil they grew in under their shade canopies.

    Liz
     
  16. janetdoyle

    janetdoyle Active Member 10 Years

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    Re leaf scorch...

    May I weigh in here, totally uninvited! Just perhaps, the droplets of water get so hot they burn in a hot climate? That sounds unlikely, but is it possible? Wouldn't they evaporate first, though? Or is it that the sun's rays are somehow magnified by the water droplet? I can't imagine that either. There has to be a scientific reason if this true, and I would like to think that if the scorching is seen by professional growers then something must be happening, but surely a botanist or plant hybridizer would know for sure. Perhaps a test run should be done with a particular plant, one watered during the day at noon, one not. My parents after living in Saskatchewan in the dustbowl '30's also had the same theory, carried over to living in more moderate New Brunswick and Nova Scotia.

    Any more opinions?
     
  17. joclyn

    joclyn Rising Contributor

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    i've seen my hydrangea leaves turn after being sprayed from the hose as well as from rain.

    yes, janet, by all means, weigh in!!

    and you are right on the mark - on all points you mention.

    i think the key to it is the air temp as well as amount of sunlight...if it's cool enough that the water doesn't just evaporate away then, yes, the sunlight going through the droplet (which is just sitting there waiting to dry up) will be magnified and damage will result. a cool & cloudy area won't produce the damage because there isn't enough sunlight, or for long enough, for the magnification damage to occur.

    so, it comes down to the particular area you live in.

    years ago people learned about plant care from the previous generation and then passed it on to the next one. and the info definitely applied - unless you moved to a vastly different climate zone...then, what you knew wouldn't necessarily apply and you had to relearn how to deal with things in the new area.

    these days, forums like this provide a wonderful opportunity to get some of the info passed on...we do need to remember that what may apply in one area may not apply to the area someone else lives in.

    even when you are both in the same zone - there are other conditions that need to be accounted for and they can cause drastically different effects. most notably is the lattitude - the sun is stronger or weaker depending on what lattitude you are located at. also, time of year affects the angle of the sun in the sky - and that has an effect on how strong it's rays will be. smog/ozone issues will also affect the strength of the sun's rays.

    some will still argue the point about the sun being magnified through the water droplets; some will agree. i know, for a fact, that it does occur here in the area i live in.

    would it occur in the same zone in the state of washington? i don't know as i've never lived there. from a logical standpoint, i'd say it wouldn't happen...higher lattitude and the area, in general, is much more overcast than the conditions here...even though they're the same 'temp' zone. even in a warmer zone in washington, i'd say it wouldn't be likely to occur...again, lattitude and overcast conditions would make it less likely for sun damage to occur even though the temps are generally higher and for a longer time period throughout the year.

    a zone 6 area in, say, texas (dunno if there is one or not, just making comparisions), i would think it would be more likely to occur - closer to the equator so the sunlight would be stronger, and not a high rain area, so, more chance of the sunlight having lots of time to be magnified through the droplets.

    what it all comes down to is you take the basic info about a plant's care and then need to customize it to your particular conditions. it can be a lot of trial and error - regardless of whether you have gardening experience or not.
     
  18. lily

    lily Active Member 10 Years

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    Hi Chimera,
    Just noticed your post today or I would have responded sooner. My apologies.
    Anyway, I'm really not sure about the water system here because I recently moved to the south side of Abbotsford. However, that is a really good question and I will do some checking.
     
  19. lily

    lily Active Member 10 Years

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    Hey Janet,
    New Brunswick is close to my heart. I born and raised there. For the past 20 years I've made British Columbia my new home and I love it here too. It seems that each province in Canada is so unique in all it's beauty.
     

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