Hydrangea Is like a Chameleon. You Can Easily Change Its Color
Hydrangea (also referred to as hortensia) is one of the most beautiful decorative plants with large, heavy, juicy and colorful flowers. Today we will advise you how change their color and which variety is the best to do it.
There are several varieties of hortensia for you to choose.
French hydrangea
This is the most common variety. Its flowers form a ball or a flat ellipsis. It grows up to 1.5 meter high. Unfortunately, it’s very sensitive to frost. This is the variety where color-changing experiments are most successful – it just cut out for it.
Panicled hydrangea
This variety is getting more and more popular. Their flowers form a characteristic shape of a cone. It is slightly taller that French hydrangea as it can reach 2 meters. Its biggest advantage over the French variety is better resistance to frost. Unfortunately, its color-changing properties don’t look that good.
Smooth hydrangea
It is not as common as the previous varieties. Though its flowers also form a kind of a ball, it is grown largely for the spectacular heart-shaped leaves. It can grow up to 3 meters and again, it is also resistant to moderate frost. Its color changing properties haven’t been reported yet.
Oakleaf hydrangea
This variety is here as a curiosity. While it is almost absent from Europe, it is really popular in America. It’s got really huge flowers and leaves reminding a little those of an oak tree. The plant looks really impressive. It grows up to 3 meters and is also frost-resistant. If anyone knows whether this variety can change its color, please let us know!
How can we change the color of French hydrangea?
French hydrangea is a chameleon indeed. Surprisingly, the color of its flowers largely depends on the soil, namely its acidity. Generally speaking this variety prefers fertile and humus soils, not too heavy (pH 4.5 – 5.5). its flowers are usually pink or blue. The more acidic the soil, the more likely the flowers are to become blue. To guarantee blue blossoming, use ammonium sulphate or potassium sulphate.
If the acidity level is lower, then the flowers will be more reddish. If so, use fertilizers reach in calcium and magnesium.
Please note that excessive fertilization and changing the soil acidity might cause yellowing, drying and dying of leaves. If, while trying to change the plants color, you will notice symptoms of chlorosis, you can quickly remedy the situation by adding acidic turf. You can also augment the coloring process and general plant’s development by mulching the soil with bark compost and high turf.
