Changing acidity of flower bed for hydrangea
Hi all
My dad's given me 3 hydrangea plants all small but ready for going in the garden. My idea was to plant them all in the same area and try to get the petals different colours so that when they have established and intermingled there would be a variety of colour. I've tested my soil and it is neutral so no worries on the pink plant, I have put one in a container full of ericaceous compost prior to it flowering although its now flowered pink but I think this is because my dad took the cutting off a pink hydrangea and in time it will turn blue. I was just going to bury the container (big plasterers bucket) into the soil but my dad said this will prevent it growing as much as the others, My flower bed is just short of 2mtr wide by 2mtr long so my thought was to buy a white one as well and have white, blue, pink and then maybe put the other one in another container with half ericaceous compost and normal compost to get a mauve colour. My reason for using containers on two of them is that I read that if you dig in compost to change the acidity of the soil eventually it will revert back and if the roots of the plant extend beyond the added compost they will not get the acidity they need to stay the different colours. I know they can grow 7.5m tall and 2.5mtr spread but I wouldn't want them that big just big enough to fill up the flower bed so each one would need to be 1mtr spread so with that being said am I best leaving two of them in containers and burrying them or will I not get that size plant if I don't plant them directly in the soil. I know that the white one won't change and hydrangeas actually prefer acid soil so was planning on putting this next to the blue and I could even dig down and put a polythene sheet in and then ericanceous compost into that so in effect it would be a bigger burried container. Thoughts and advice would be appreciated, looking for a solution that isn't going to be cost/labour intensive i.e. digging up entire flower bed and filling with several bags of acidic compost.
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seems a huge amount of work ,for not a lot of gain. IMHO
I agree with Hosta.
It's a vast amount of effort which may work for a year or two but I think you're not going to achieve what you want and it's not going to be good for the hydrangeas.
Leave them be and enjoy their natural beauty would be my suggestion
Billericay - Essex
Knowledge is knowing that a tomato is a fruit.
Wisdom is not putting it in a fruit salad.
ok but if i leave them in the buckets its no work at all for me which brings the next question how big would a hydrangea grow in a 42ltr bucket?
as big as you let it, hydrangea need pruning every year really to give decent flowers
Not all pink Hydrangeas will turn blue in acid soil. Some will be pink what ever you do.
To keep a Hydrangea blue you will have to use acid feed and top ups of a suitable compost. You cannot just rely on the initial potting mix.
When you don't even know who's in the team
S.Yorkshire/Derbyshire border
Sorry snowyy, I agree with punkdoc...I rescued a blue hydrangea and planted it up in good ericaceous compost and it couldn't have been any pinker:
It would need feeding something specific to keep it blue - I didn't look into it though.
It didn't thrive in the pot the following year and last autumn I planted it in the border.
I like the idea of buying a white plant and mixing up with the pinks or mauve your plants will turn, that could look really nice
To keep the blue you can buy aluminium sulphate to add to the soil.
Also called Hydrangea Blueing compound
Billericay - Essex
Knowledge is knowing that a tomato is a fruit.
Wisdom is not putting it in a fruit salad.