No stranger to hydrangeas

As some things in the garden are beginning to go over, you can count on the hydrangea to still be looking fabulous.

Coming in shades of pink, white or blue, hydrangeas are a must-have for garden interest into late summer.

You may think that the hydra in their name would mean they love moisture but this is not the case, the name comes instead from the multi-headed beast in Greek mythology and is nothing to do with loving water. If you have a close look you will see the stigma has three heads.

So despite their bad PR they will, in fact, tolerate a wide range of soils even excellent in shade where other plants may struggle.

If you do have a lighter, sandier soils, they could benefit from a feed in early spring with a flowering shrub fertiliser, which should be enough for the season but this won’t be necessary on richer soils.

Flower colour:

Hydrangeas exhibit a chameleon-like characteristic, changing flower colour according to the type of soil they’re growing in.

Only the mophead and lacecap cultivars of Hydrangea macrophylla are able to do this and it is due to the soil PH that affects aluminium availability.

Those with blue or pink flowers tend to be bluer in acid soil conditions, mauve flowers in acid to neutral and pink flowers in alkaline conditions.

White flowers and also green-flowered cultivars stay white or green regardless of soil PH.

So if you want to keep your flowers blue you are best to grow them in containers, where you can add more ericaceous compost or change the soil in the area where you plant them by adding sulphur chips around them once or twice a year.

Pruning and training:

Climbing hydrangeas, such as hydrangea anomala subsp petiolaris are pruned after flowering back to healthy buds. Height and spread: 80cm-7m by 90cm-2.5m

Shrubby hydrangeas, such as hydrangea macrophylla and hydrangea paniculata are pruned in early spring, which is a bonus as snow covered mopheads look lovely. Height and spread: up to 15m high!