Update Grandaddy Oakleaf

As the blooms on my oakleaf hydranges are aging they started getting pink spots on them...the older they got, the more pink they got. Now thye are dark pink. The new blooms are coming in white just as the old ones did. Soon I'll be deadheading these and seeing if I can keep my babies blooming all summer. In the mean time, I've put landscaping timbers on some of the lower hanging branches in an effort to encourage them to root. My cousin wants some of the babies, and rather than dig up the new growth I figured I'd root the branches that are so heavy they are already lying on the ground. I have three of these plants. Tow of them are this large...about four or five feet tall and about five or six feet in spread. The third one is smaller. That is where I dug up some rootings at the beginning of the season so I think it slowed it down...and that is why I am trying to root the low hanging branches now instead of diggng up new growth.

Pretty! I like it when blooms change color over time.

Gwen

This is my first experience with the oakleaf hydrangeas. They came with the house and we moved here in OCtober. I had never even seen an Oakleaf before...but I could tell from the deadheads on it thah it was some sort of hydrangea. I have really been pleased with them. I've always loved hydrangeas. My grandmother used to play with the soil ph at her house to create different colors throughout her garden....and that was back in the days when hydrangeas didn't come in the fancy colors they do today. I love the old mopheads with the colros that range from purple to blue or pink. But these are so interesting taht I have really become a strong advocate of them. I also have some variegated hydrangeas taht I bought this year...but they were really small when I boght them and haven't put on any buds yet. This may just be a year of foliage and root growth. It may be next year before I get to see what the flowers look like.

I dead headed my OL hydrangeas today. The blooms were starting to look scroungy. I noticed that behind each bloom there was a lot of new growth branching out from the limb. So when I deadheaded them, I cut them at the point where the new growth started. It is amazing how much those blooms weighed! When I got done deadheading the bushes, they literally bounced back up where the limbs had been sagging low. I had a BIG bucket that I was carrying with me to put the dead blooms in...and I filled it and emptied it at least 5 times. I swear when I got through I heard them make the same sound I make when I get home and take off my bra....LOL! You know the sound... it goes something like this, "Oooooh! Aaaaaah! Yeahhhhh...sigh!"

LOL !! Your oakleaf hydrangeas are beautiful. I am new to hydrangeas but I can see I will soon want an oakleaf. ;)

A friend sent me a website that had my OL hydrangeas on it. The cultivar is called Alice. The other cultivars they listed all stayed white. Alice was the only cultivar they had that turned pink.

The new growth has doubled in size since I deadheaded them. It is amazing how fast the new growth is coming in. Wow! The more I get to know these plants, the more I love them. Another thing about these plants is that the woody stock peels...similar to Crape Myrtles.