Endless Summer Hydrangea

Help please. I bought an "Endless Summer Original" hydrangea in May. It had a beautiful blue colored bloom. Now the blooms are turnng pink. I looked up what the matter might be ,and they say that it needs acid soil to be blue. But if I add aluminum sulfate to turn them blue it, it says if I add to much it will kill the plant. My question is how much and what is another name for aluminum sulfate. I have this plant in a container. Sure is pretty to add a blue color to the landscape. Thank you in advance for any help you can give me. New to hydrangeas.

Wow, oldhat. I usually have the opposite problem. Never have been able to restore the pink color to the "pink" ones I have purchased. I think you can get a small box of aluminum sulfate at McLendons or any other well-stocked garden center. Probably somewhere around the fertilizers. I can't remember if the directions are on the box or not, but I am sure you can get the answer as to how much to use on the hydrangea forum.

You can easily get addicted to hydrangeas and they do so well around here if they get adequate water.

By the way, welcome if you are new to the PNW forum. You will find lots of good conversations and information here.

Wow. I responded to you last night, but my post isn't here.

Here's the link to the Hydrangea forum. http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/f/hydrangeas/all/

It seems odd to me that your plant is turning so quickly. What kind of container is it in? What kind of soil did you plant it in? Cement made with lime can leach the lime into the soil and change the pH. I think Chlorine in the water can also affect it. What are you feeding? Those are all considerations.

You can add aluminum sulfate - the trick is, of course, to add the right amount and keep it steadily supplied. You could also just go ahead change the soil in the pot to a much more acid mixture, which shouldn't be too hard around here.

In my area, the soil is pretty acid and so blue is easy to come by. I'm not sure about down where you are. Maybe some of the people from down that way will pipe up. Pixydish is on vacation, but I'm sure she'll have some ideas as well when she gets back.

Kathy

Thank you for your replies. To answer the questions of Katie59. I put it into a plastic 12" square pot and used MiracleGro potting soil. Then I used the Schultz's all purpose fertilizer.
I went to Home Depot and found a product called "Organic Traditions turns hydrangeas blue" and put that around the plant yesterday. I hope i'm not killing the poor thing, the picture looked so beautiful, and the few blooms it had on it were a pretty pastel blue.
Thnk you for the thread for Hydrangea's. I am not real proficient in finding my way around the web site yet.

You won't be killing it. I think the warning you saw was against overloading the plant with aluminum sulfate all at once. The right dose won't hurt it at all.

I'm guessing that the MiracleGro altered the composition of the soil so that the hydrangea isn't getting as much aluminum as it would need for blue.

I remember that it took me a long time to navigate on the site, so don't worry about asking us questions - we'll probably all learn something new!

Oldhat, welcome. I agree with Katie59 that it takes awhile to learn the navigation. Although I do occasionally post questions on plant-specific forums, I have found that my best information comes from this forum, because what may work in Tennessee may not do squat in the PNW. That said, it is good to get as much info as you can to try to solve a problem. To avoid double-posting, I may post my actual question in the plant-specific forum, and then post that link here. I have at times been pleasantly surprised to see my PNW cyber-buddies all rush over to the plant-specific forum and literally take it over for a brief spell. Reminds me a bit of cackling hens (in the nicest way possible).

Oldhat, here's a thread from the hydrangea forum in which there's talk about pink vs. blue hydrangeas. About halfway down, luis_pr, who seems to know a bit talks about soils amendement.

http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/1105332/

Kathy