I do!
Blue Hydrangea that is!!
Got the Blues?
Wow!! That's BLUE.
Very pretty. My BIL just got one as a gift yesterday.
Finally I must have enough sulfur in the soil,usally its mixed pink and blue.
Tropic - what type of exposure do you have your hydrangea in? Does it face northeast? I assume that's a macrophylla right? I've had mine on the North for 3 yrs with no blooms because it dies completely back to the ground and the buds on the old "wood" (read: stems) are gone. It gets full and lush and green each year and then nothing. I relocated mine to a new East bed between the house and my neighbors. Hoping it makes it through the winter this year with a bit more protection. I've got to start all over in the new bed with acidifying it for the blue blooms! :-(
Love it. Mine is always deep pink. Tried acid fert. had a horrible rose/blue bloom!
Lang,mine is on the north side of the house only gets the spring sunshine before the tree's leaves come on,almost deep shade,I cover mine thru the winter with a quilt,and take it off in early March but keep it closeby when temps dip below freezing or I'll lose the flower buds too,
Hi, it has taken yrs to get the soil right here,this was supposed to ben a nikko blue hydrangea,not really sure what it is.
Beautiful blue, Tropicman! I can't figure mine out. My Endless Summer is a beautiful blue, and my Nikko blue looks like it's going to be pink again. Just how much sulfer did you add?
I understand now some varieties will be blue no matter what the soil ph might be while others need an acidic soil,to be blue,
Nikko is one of them.
I have had this one several years and it has taken several years of taking a handful of sulfer and scratching it in the soil,at least 3 times a year.
But for years I never got any bloom,for the spring freezes would get the flowering buds,after I learned to cover it up when a freeze came did only I start getting blooms,first few years after I started adding sulfer,I'd get a half pink half blue flower,but now they are all blue.
So if I could answer I would guess about 2 to 3 years of adding sulfer,before the change was completely all blue.
Thank you. I guess I better get started.
Thats so cute...I've almost given up trying for pink !
Thanks,I think adding lime to your soil will change the ph to a more alkaline soil,which would turn the flowers to pink.
Mine are all pink. Even the blue ones I bought. Guess you can tell somethink about my soil.
The cool -- hydrangea, the soil barometer! I purchase a baby girl pink shaded once, it lost the two blooms it had on it and then I never saw another bloom until it died 2 years ago.
Rylaff the one in the far back left,looks like it could have gone to blue,but at the last minute went pink!!!
I had a lady once tell me to stick a few nails around the plant,and when they rust,lets iron into the soil and will turn the flowers blue as well!
Most blue flowering varieties such as ‘Nikko Blue’ will produce blue flowers in acidic soil and pink flowers in alkaline soil. If your blue hydrangeas are flowering pink you can make your soil more acidic using Aluminum Sulphate fertilizer.
The general rule with pruning hydrangeas is "don’t touch them". Most mophead and lacecap hydrangeas flower off the old wood. This means the flower stems will come from the woody stems off last year’s growth. If these stems are cut back, you will also cut back your chances of seeing flowers.
from: http://www.kennedyscountrygardens.com/hydrangeas.htm
Also in spring,protect the old stems from a hard freeze or they won't flower either.
Or buy Endless Summer. I bought two bareroot this year, one of them has 6 blooms already. It will bloom even if it freezes to the ground.
I wish I'd known about it 4 or 5 years ago, when I bought Ami Pasquier, Blue Wave, Goliath, Mme. Faustin Travouillon, Bodensee, Breslenberg, and Ayesha. The only one that reliably blooms for me is Blue Wave.
This message was edited Jul 1, 2005 12:38 PM
Is this a mop head vareity?
And a new hybrid as well?
Endless Summer is a mophead , Blue Wave is a Lacecap.
Blue Wave is an older variety, in my yard growing almost 6 feet tall and vase shaped. It has bloomed every year no matter what, even after transplanting!
Endless Summer was developed a couple years ago by Prof. Michael Dirr, the famous writer of " Dirr's Hardy Trees and Shrubs". I waited to get mine because it was a little expensive, but now I wish I hadn't waited. It is not just beautiful, but is blooming and growing like crazy!
Here's a pic of Endless Summer :
Sorry, I haven't taken one of Blue Wave.
Here's another of Endless Summer:
No doubt a beauty by anybodys book!
Thanks,well look for it.
That plant is only a foot tall! Isn't that amazing? I can't wait to see what it does next year and the year after!
All that flowering in a foot is amazing!!!
I feel bad. Three of my Ami Pasquiers are starting to bloom! After I said they were no good! I felt I had to correct my faux pas. They are really pretty too. Maybe they just needed a few years to get established. I will try to get pictures when my camera is working.
Please do,would love to see them.
Allright, here is Blue Wave, which looks the same as the first posting on this thread- she's a lovely plant that has done great for me. I have just pruned her a bit so she is floppy right now, and not near her original height.
Here she is close up:
Here is Ami-
And another-
I'm amazed at the small leaf size,and how fully bloomed for such a small plant!!
Ami not sure she wants to be pink or blue!
Thanks for sharing
The Blue Wave is sort of funny this year, from having been transplanted last year. Her blooms started very small in comparison to other years, and the leaves too. She is a little unbalanced, as well. Normally, this plant is quite sturdy and very uniform (not floppy), making a perfect vase shape.
I moved her because for the seven years we've been here, she would droop and then burn in summer. She was facing east, but in the hottest part of the garden, up against a boiling hot stone wall. Every year I would pour tons of water on her, to keep her from drooping. Her flowers would be blue for a couple weeks then fry to a crisp, ugly pink, then brown.
One day at the end of summer, I saw a Blue Wave in a partially shaded spot, and was shocked to find it was still blue! That's when I decided to move my 6 foot tall shrub! I pruned her by a third in spring before transplanting. Then I dug around the root ball, DH had to dig the rest because I was too small to get the tap root (whoever said Hydrangeas have a shallow root system should be shot). Then we put her on a tarp, dragged her across the yard, and planted her in a pre-dug hole in part shade with lots of compost.
She is usually a deep blue, but this year started out almost white! Every day she gets bluer and bluer. It's tremendously nice to see her in a place where she can really show off! I've had to baby her a little more than I thought, I think because she was so big when we moved her.
I'm not sure whether Ami Pasquier will turn out to be this color or a deeper blue or purple. They were planted three years ago, and I don't know how long it takes for them to establish their true color. We are definitely acid soil here, so I'm guessing that they will blue up a bit.
Sorry! I did go on talking, didn't I? Anyway, that's the story of those two plants. Probably more than you wanted to know!
Thanks you can never know too much!
Here is another pretty blue....Sky vine prennial, grows really good in zone 9, likes sun to Pt shade, blooms all spring to frost
Wow! That is so beautiful.
Yes,I've tried that one several times can't seem to carry it over the winter.
Is Sky Vine the same as Thunbergia? I had a couple last year, but I think I gave them too much fertilizer. Tons of beautiful climbing foliage to about 6 feet and only about 3 blooms!