Hydrangeas: Endearing garden divas

Hydrangeas can be intimidating. Like little divas, they're wonderful and awful.

Gorgeous blooms — when they bloom. No pests and disease-free — who doesn't like that?

A tendency to wilt in the hot summer afternoon. Tricky to prune; you need to know when and how much.

And sometimes winter kills the new ones, and it wouldn't matter what you did. Oh, one more thing: Although this shrub is known as a shade plant, most do best in a minimum of five to six hours of sun.

But hydrangeas are proving to be as valued and prolific in people's landscaping as day lilies and roses.

Hydrangeas are easier than ever if you start with the right plants, put them in the right place and take a few tips from the pros — because a little knowledge goes a long way with hydrangeas.

Omahan Guy Moore found them difficult enough that he hired professionals to come to his Happy Hollow home and get them growing — and blooming — again.

With some root pruning and the addition of aluminum sulfate around the plants, Indian Creek Nursery revived Moore's hydrangeas and they're going strong.

Many growers may be finding the plants' blooms to be especially bountiful this year. That may be due, in part, to the deep snow that protected many hydrangeas high above their crowns. Now most growers are enjoying shrubs covered in blooms.

Hydrangeas don't have to be pampered, said Robert Clark of Shenandoah, Iowa, a sales representative for Minnesota-based Bailey Nurseries in Nebraska and western Iowa.

Clark, who stocks area nurseries and garden centers with Endless Summer or First Editions hydrangeas, passes along some growing tips.

• On watering: Water as needed to get new plants established. After the second year, they should need no extra hand-watering. You want to encourage deep roots so they can handle a tough winter. If established plants droop or wilt after a hot afternoon, they should revive by morning.

• On mulching: Use 2 to 4 inches of natural wood mulch, not rocks, which can heat up the plant's crown.

• On coloring the blooms: Use ammonium sulfate pellets or aluminum sulfate powder mixed with water to get blue blooms. You can apply it throughout the growing season. Treat the plant before the bloom buds set by applying the chemical or pellets around the plant's drip line and crown. Pink blooms are common in alkaline soils.

• On pruning: Prune back to the live part of the stem in the spring, after all danger of frost has passed. If you cut the live stem, you most likely will remove some of that year's potential buds.

• On cutting for arrangements: It's good to cut off some of the blooms during the growing season. For every bloom you cut off, you will get two bloom buds. Cutting off blooms forces the plant to produce more blooms.

Clark said the Endless Summer hydrangea made the plant more accessible to gardeners when it was released in 2004 because it was the first hydrangea that would bloom repeatedly on new and old wood.

What that meant was that a hard winter could kill the previous year's stems, but new stems would emerge and produce buds that would produce blooms. Until that time, a tough winter that killed the plant to the crown wiped out that year's blooms.

Next in the hydrangea lineup was Blushing Bride in 2007 and Twist-n-Shout in 2009.

Next year, Bailey will introduce Bella Anna, a pink Annabelle hydrangea. Annabelles are white, rounded and often mistaken for “Snowball” viburnum shrubs.

With each new offering, interest grows, Clark said, as does the job of educating gardeners on what to expect of the new plants.

Omahan Ann Lorenzen has her first hydrangea, a Quick Fire, which turns from creamy white to pink to red as it matures. A spectacular plant in its third season of growth, it has no signs of insect damage but lots of bugs on its leaves.

What's going on? Lorenzen wanted to know.

Lightning bugs, said Clark.

Although hydrangeas are not noticeably fragrant, they're scented enough that they're magnets for lightning bugs.

Who knew? Yet another quirk for this diva-like plant.

Click here for a list of common Midwestern hydrangea varieties.

Contact the writer:

444-1059, rhonda.stansberry@owh.com

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