Lovely blooms in semishade garden.
Lacecap Hydrangeas Blooms
At its peak blooms ... I haven't tested the soil in this area. But according to the color of the blooms I can see that the soil is shifting from acidic to more neutral as it neither pink nor blue, but sort of in between;
In the same bush, some appear more blue than pink;
Beautiful. I love that color range and have it on a few of mine.
Good morning Arlene, how is your garden coming along? Please share your blooms here when they're ready. Everyone else has hydrangeas, please chime in. Here is one variegated lacecap H. The soil must be tad more acidic here.
Very pretty! None of mine are blooming yet. Most of them probably won't this year since I took them out of the pots I'd been growing them in and planted them in the garden in the fall so I'm expecting most of them will probably take the year off from blooming. But maybe I'll be pleasantly surprised!
Ercane - hope you'll be pleasantly surprised. We had our helper move hydrangeas last year and the two I wanted most to bloom have buds. I'm thrilled. I moved another little one, five years old, Izu No Hana, that was struggling to stay alive and potted it up about a month ago and it has buds, too.
Ecrane, I think you will be pleasantly surprised. Except for drought, hydrangeas are pretty tough (but you know that). I bet we will be seeing photos of your blooms this year. Of course, I am always an optimist, usually a good thing, but not always.
Lily, you always seem to be a month ahead ;) Are your clems getting ready for another burst of blooms?
venu209, our temp. is getting much to hot for clems. I've sporadical rebloomers, but not anything to write home about.
These bigleaf hydrangeas also making their peak blooms of the season now;
Hydrangeas are tough, but like many shrubs they still tend to spend their first year getting their roots going rather than blooming. I've planted a few others in the past--had one arborescens cultivar give me one bloom the first year in the ground but all the macrophylla's have taken a year off. I would be happy if I'm proved wrong, but I don't want to get my hopes up!
ecrane3, that has been the case with mine. They do take a while to get established before they shine.
Lacecap and macrophylla H.
Lily, do you prune your clems after the spring blooms. I've found the clems to be more heat tolerant than the hydrangeas. And drought tolerant. Last year I got 3 inches of rain in 4 months. I lost 2 beautiful hydrangeas, but got repeat blooms on the clems. Go figure!
I deadheaded all the seedpods, but didn't prune them. venu you're providing essential info. in which I've not learned before. Many thanks. Do we prune group 2 clems. after they fisnished blooming? Belle of Woking for instance, gave me two flowers, just two on the reblooming after the initial abundant blooms.
Yes, Lily. Pruning after the initial bloom is the best time to prune group 2. Take a third to to half off, and give them some fert. They'll give you another bloom cycle.
I hope many other DG members reading this thread to learn this lesson along with me. A practice in caring for Clematis that's not often shared among one another. venu. Thanks again.