Several years ago, maybe 7, my daughter gave me a beautiful potted lacecap.
It was absoutly spectacular. Deep pink with light pink in the center. I could not bring myself to throw it out, so I planted it...I know, I know, this usualy does not work. Well, it thrived, but did not bloom. Then about 4 years ago it rewarded me with about 4 incredible blooms. Now I have 2 or 3 blooms every year, and I swear every year that I am going to pull it out if it does start blooming more. This year, I thought was going to be the time, but, alas, I just found 2 new blooms. They are so beautiful, that even if it just has a single bloom, I will keep it. I have lots of other Hydrangeas, (Nikko Blue, and Endless Summer) planted in the same area, and they bloom their little heads off. Is there something different that has to be done to lacecaps? It is planted closer to my roses than the others, and gets more fertilizer. Any help would be greatly appreciatied, it obviously means alot to me.
Thank you,
Lisa
Help with my Mother's Day Hydrangeas!
Have you been protecting it over the winter? It's definitely one that blooms only on old wood and you're in a zone where most of the time you should probably get most of your flowers without protecting plants (otherwise you'd be having trouble with Nikko Blue too) but it's possible this one is slightly less hardy or starts forming buds a little earlier than Nikko does which would make it more susceptible to late frosts. The extra fertilizer might contribute too, are you noticing that it grows a lot more than your others? If so it could be putting out lots of leafy growth at the expense of making flowers. I suspect it's the cold weather though--next year you might try building a cage around it and fill it up with leaves for the winter and see if that helps.
My first thought was the extra fertilizer might be doing it.
Thanks, ecrane and medinac,
I will try protecting it more this winter. I think you might also be correct about the fertilizer. It does have great foliage. It is a delema, though, both the rose (my favorite McCartney) and the lacecap have been together so long that I am afraid to pull one up and transplant. I don't quite know how to fertilize the rose without having it effect the lacecap.
Thanks again,
Lisa
Do you know what the numbers are on your fertilizer? I don't do much with roses so I don't know if rose fertilizer tends to be high in nitrogen or not. If it is high in nitrogen though that could definitely be a factor. However, since it could also be the cold weather, it wouldn't hurt to protect it this winter and see if that helps, maybe that will fix the problem, and if it doesn't then you know for sure it's the fertilizer and you'll have to move it or cut back on fertilizing the roses if you want blooms.
You may also want to stop fertilizing the rose/hydrangea combo as early as you can. I normally stop fertilizing in August (September is more appropriate for you) so the hydrangea will go dormant in time for winter. Maybe you can fertilize only the side of the rose that is away from the hydrangea. If you keep feeding the hydrangea past that time, it may stay in growth mode and when winter comes, the cold temps and/or drying winds may kill the flower buds.