Planting Hydrangeas for Summer Color

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Today I want to talk about one of my favorite subjects… planting hydrangeas!! When it comes to hydrangeas, I consider myself to be somewhat of a hoarder… collector! 😉 Hydrangeas are my absolute favorite flowers and I just can’t seem to get enough of them!

 

I’m a big fan of The Endless Summer® Collection, they typically bloom longer than the average hydrangea, up to 10-12 weeks longer! That’s whole lot more blooming time! In fact, they are the world’s first and best selling assortment of re-blooming hydrangeas. So when I was given the opportunity to receive a free Hydrangea plant, in a brand new variety called BloomStruck™, and post about it… I couldn’t resist!!

Here you can some of the established Hydrangeas in my backyard. Including the gorgeous bright blue one in the foreground and a beautiful Lavender hued bush in the back!

The new one arrived like this… carefully wrapped up in brown paper. I couldn’t wait to tear it open to see the new variety! Even the pot is a pretty color!

It almost seems silly to write a post about how to plant and grow these pretties, because they are so easy to grow, there’s really not much to it… another reason why I love them! However I do have a few tips for you. The first one is, that picking a location is really important. I’ve found that my Hydrangeas love morning sun, but the afternoon sun is just too much for them. So you will want to find a spot in your yard that gets sun in the morning and partial shade in the afternoon. I like to grow mine close to my house, it makes it easier to find a spot with the right mix of sun and shade, and I feel like having them closer to the house gives them a little more protection during the harsh winter months. Once you’ve found your spot, dig a hole slightly larger than your plant size. We’ve planted hydrangeas in every home that we’ve lived in for over 20 years, and those homes had all types of soil. I’ve never had to amend my soil and they always grew great, but if your soil is particularly bad, you may want to amend it, before planting your hydrangea. Fertilizer is recommended as well. This is another step that I usually skip, we typically throw a little compost in the hole instead. Again, depending on your soil you may want to add the fertilizer, and perhaps it may give your plant a boost in growth, even if you have good soil. I’ll provide a link below for more info on planting. Make sure you add a nice layer of mulch on top and then water your new plant!

Here’s a close up of the beautiful new BloomStruck™ variety! Isn’t it gorgeous?!! I love the soft lilac shade of this plant! A new favorite for sure! Keep in mind that depending on the pH level of your soil, the colors will change over time, although you can correct that if you want to. In our last house all of my hydrangeas changed over to pink tones, at our current home they go towards vibrant blues. Endless Summer® actually has a product that you can add to your soil to get more control over the colors. You can use Color Me Pink™ or Color Me Blue™ to get the color that you want! Once planted there’s not much else to do but enjoy them! I do give them a good soak during the hottest summer months, especially if it hasn’t rained in awhile. I don’t prune mine either. All summer long you will have beautiful flowers brightening up your yard! You can cut some blooms and enjoy in arrangements. And in the fall, you can harvest the blooms to dry for Wreaths, or to display in Baskets etc. I usually harvest mine right before the first frost. After the frost hits it’s too late, so keep an eye on the weather if you want a good crop to enjoy all winter! FYI, dried hydrangreas look great tucked into Christmas trees too! For more info about these gorgeous plants check out The Endless Summer® Collection site HERE. Be sure and check out their “Care and Growing” section for more lots more tips and info!

Be sure to visit the Endless Summer brand page on BlogHer.com where you can read other bloggers’ posts!