My yard averages 5.7, am I doomed to only blue hydrangeas? If so what are the coolest looking blues out there?
PH question
You can use lime to sweeten the soil around your hydrangeas, but it's unlikely that you'll get a really pink hydrangea. some people put them in pots in the ground so that they can control the ph a bit more. This one is 'amethyst'. I have very acid soil, too. Last year this one had a lot more red in it. This is the color this year, unretouched by the computer. It's so blue that it almost jumps out at you!
That's a sweet blue. I don't have a problem with blue, I just don't want to look like evryone else.
Oh, I hear you there! You might consider digging a fairly large hole and replacing the soil with a good potting soil. If you replace enough of the soil you should be able to get some red tones in your blues by adding the lime. I'm going to lime the soil around this one this year and see what happens next year. I have a reference book by Glyn Church and he lists the following red hydrangeas for acid soil:
Ami Pasquier
Alpengluhen
General Patton
Harry's Red
Red Emperor
If you get one of these, you'll likely not end up with entirely blue blooms.
Or how about growing them in a container instead? That way you can control the pH much easier. If you want it to look like it's planted in the garden you could even sink the container in the ground (just make sure you have plenty of drainage from the container so the roots don't rot)
I'm trying to fill up a shady spot in my yard and I really don't want to fool with pots etc. That 'amethyst' posted above would do the trick if I could get pretty close to that color. I wonder if I go the other way and up the acidity what would happen? These are going to end up under some mature pines so fighting the Ph level problably won't work real well.
5.7 is already really acid. I'd say give the shrubs a couple of years to settle in before you start trying to change the color. To give you an idea, here is the same shrub pictured above in a photo taken last year. You can see the dramatic color change as the shrub adjusts to my soil. Last year was its first year in the ground. I have done nothing to change the Ph of my soil. Wish I could tell you what the Ph of my soil is, but I don't really know. However, all of the soil around here is on the acid side. That's why we grow such nice rhododendrons, camelias, and other acid loving plants. This planting bed is surrounded by cedar and mature douglas fir trees. There is also a big leaf maple that drops its leaves in the general area every year.
Do you already have things growing underneath your pines? Some pines are allopathic - they don't let other plants grow underneath them.
