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betdy1345
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What kind of Hydrangea is this? How to Care for it?

hy2.jpg
hy1.jpg
I have a hydrangea I think is a tree breed. I would like to know the best way to take care of it. Does it need pruning? When to prune? What will help it get bigger if it will? it is 2 feet tall now. the base of the plant is about 1.75 inches thick. The picture does not do justice to the color. It is a beautiful purple. Also if someone could tell me what specific breed it is. If someone needs more info about it let me know. Please help. Thank you.

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Hey B, welcome! :)

I changed your title to make it more descriptive and I moved it to the Hydrangea forum from the intro forum. Both these actions will make it easy for others to see a hydrangea question.

Thanks for joining!
;)

Roger

luis_pr
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Hello and welcome, B. Looks like a mophead (more properly called Hydrangea macrophylla). Generally speaking, these are hardy to Zone 6 and need winter protection to bloom reliably in cold zones like 6 or colder. They eventually should be planted outside or in a pot as they do not grow well inside the home but, during winter, they can be kept inside a garage or shed (water it once a week or once every two weeks) and move it outside about 1-2 weeks after your average date of last frost in Spring. If there is no space in those two, well, try inside the home but keep it away from a/c and heater vents and pay close attention to the soil humidity because homes in winter are particularly dry.

When a hydrangea is planted outside in 'morning sun/afternoon shade' conditions with 3-4" of mulch up to the drip line, the soil should be kept as evenly moist as possible, meaning try not to have dry spells, followed by wet soil and back to dry spells. Once the soil freezes, there is no need to water but, until then, water the soil (not the leaves) early in the mornings and give it about 1g of water (1.5 or more in the summer).

Mopheads purchased in grocery stores or at florists may not be particularly winter hardy so, if that is its origin, consider planting it outside in the Spring 2016 for sure!!! Many people use these florist hydrangeas as annuals but others (including me) plant them outside. If they do not make, well, at least we tried.

If the potting mix has those round fertilizer pellets, there will be no need to fertilize until Spring since it will go dormant at some point (ie, somewhat "soon"). Hard to say exactly when since yours was bred to bloom now and that is the wrong time of the year for that. While potted, you can use slow-release general purpose chemical fertilizers like Osmocote with a NPK Ratio of about 10-10-10. Once planted outside in Spring, you can continue with that regimen in Spring or you can also use either 1/2 to 1 cup of organic compost, composted manure or cottonseed meal. During the rest of the year, no more fertilizer is needed but you can also add these weak fertilizers thru the growing season: liquid seaweed, liquid fish or coffee grounds. However, stop all forms of fertilizers by the end of June so the plant will go dormant at its proper time in your neck of the woods. Too much nitrogen tends to make the plants stay active and then early frosts can zap them.

The bloom color is produced by controlling the minerals in the potting mix so as the plant's roots get into your garden's soil, the color will eventually change to something more appropriate. Shades of pink occur when the soil is alkaline. Shades of blue occur when the soil is acidic. Purples occur in narrow pH band and require control of aluminum and phosphorus minerals.

If your normal mophead blooms in the ground turn out to be blue, you have acidic coil. To convert them to a shade of pink, you will have to add garden lime. If your normal blooms turn out to be a shade of pink, you have alkaline soil. To acidify the soil and get blues, one adds aluminum sulfate as a soil amendment. Purples are extremely hard to produce once in the ground. That is best done by growing the plant in a pot, starting with a 12 to 18" pot. Then you have to add aluminum sulfate or garden lime and keep phosphorus high. A royal pain, whether done in the ground or in a pot if you ask me. Most people thus maintain whatever bloom color they get as that is easier. :o)

Winter protection is usually applied in the Fall just as the plant goes dormant. People will put chicken wire around the plant to protect the ends of the stems, which is where the invisible flower buds develop between July and August. The chicken wire should be wider than the plant and taller than the plant. Then it should be filled pack full of dried out leaves or organic mulch. Then topped with cardboard and a few rocks to keep it in place. Add more leaves in mid-winter as settling will create gaps. Then remove the winter protection about two weeks after the avge date of last frost. If the plant returns next year with all growth coming from the base and has no blooms at all, the winter protection (ie, the leaves) was insufficient and needs more denser set of leaves. Or I guess the winter was stupendously cold too.

I do not recommend winter protecting it this year because the wholesaler made it bloom quite late in the WI growing season so it is probably confused and may not know when to go dormant. So, keep it in morning sun and afternoon shade outside and bring it inside when temps go down to the mid to high 20s or if it happens to go dormant (leaves dry out).

When dormant, you can either deadhead the spent blooms or leave them there for winter interest. Eventually, they will fall down on their own.

While potted or while brought inside, remember to water it. About a gallon of water per watering. You can fertilize every 2 months or so if you decide to grow it in a pot.

If planted in the ground where it will attain its size (usually given in the plant label), you should not need to prune. An unknown mopheads can be assumed to get 6x6' here but less than that in WI due to your shorter growing season. Some mopheads do get less than that so check to see if your plant label gives estimated dimensions. Best time to prune if you have to: after it has bloomed but before the end of June; this way, you get to enjoy the blooms some. Again, the invisible flower buds normally develop between July-August (closer to August in WI) and they open in Spring. So if your plant were to be doing bloomage normally, it would have developed the invisible flower buds located near the ends of the stems in August 2015 and would open the flower buds in Spring 2016.

More info: check out this website https://hydrangeashydrangeas.com/mopheads.html

Luis

luis_pr
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PS - I forgot to say that mopheads are not the type of hydrangeas that grow tall into small trees. Those are called Hydrangea paniculata and its blooms usually start white and go thru a set of color changes ending in brown. Yours will start with either blue/pink shades and progress thru a different set of color changes ending in brown too.

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betdy1345
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thank you luis_pr. very informative. this plant was given to my wife and I when her best friend passed so it is pretty important to us. we don't have the specific space you suggested but her mother does. I will print out your reply for her and hope all goes well. thank you very much.

luis_pr
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Re: pretty important plant options.... you can propagate it by cuttings if you want to develop a "back up" of that one plant.



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