Garden

[Allegheny]

I don't know what it is with me and hydrangeas....I love them but they don't love me.  

About ten years ago I got some Cottage Farms hydrangeas from QVC.  They grew beautifully, but only one bloomed, and not every year.  I've tried cutting them back, not cutting them back, no luck. Some are in full sun, some in shade, some partial sun.  While they make a nice follage plant I am going to remove them and free up the space for something else.  

Note, I do have one plant I purchased elsewhere that blooms, but not anything to brag about. 

[Kitlynn]

I have them planted in a huge pot. They sit in partial shade and I keep them really wet. They love water. When the blooms start to die I dead head them. I pull the off right at the bottom of the bloom and then they bloom again over and over.

[Allegheny]

Thanks Kitlynn. May-be I just need some newer plants. I am in Zone 5, SW PA. Are you able to keep your plants in the pot year round and over winter?

[JustJazzmom]

@Allegheny

Zone 5 might be the cutoff point for hardiness tolerance for your hydrangeas to have buds and blooms survive through the winter months. Many times on the bloom on old wood varieties, the buds form at the end of summer and with the continued cold temperatures in Zone 5, the buds freeze and die. So it looks like you get just foliage and maybe a few flowers as you mentioned.

You may want to investigate more cold tolerant shrubs other than hydrangeas.

Hydrangeas are hardy from zones 5/6 - 8/9

From hydrangea.com website:

Often I am asked, "Why don't my hydrangeas bloom?"

Usually the answer lies in what happened to your hydrangeas during the preceding winter or right at winter’s end.

Except for two species ( H. arborescens & H. paniculata ), hydrangeas form flowers during the previous growing season (on so-called "old wood"). These nascent flower buds have to survive the winter and the unstable weather of early spring to blossom in full glory in our summer gardens.

http://www.hydrangea.com/Winter_Care.php

[Bridgegal]

You must just be one zone off.      We are in SE PA , zone 6b, and while we don't have any, many of our neighbors do and they grow and bloom like crazy.  One neighbor has some white ones that are at least 10' tall on the west side of her house.   Maybe try some in pots and switch to something else outside, like you said.

[Allegheny]

Oh good grief...my husband says I need checked for early dementia and I am slowly thinking he is right.

I looked up my zone.  I am in 6a and as these are planted right up against the house, they are probably in a micro zone of 6b. 

I do have a hydrangea tree and a white lacecap shrub that do beautifully.  But I would like the old fashioned kind my grandmother grew, the ones that you could change the color to pink or blue.  

I think next year I am going to go to a reputable garden center and see what I can find.   

[JustJazzmom]

@Allegheny

There are two varieties of the Hydrangea macrophylla that change from blue to pink-- lace caps and the pom pom varieties. These bloom on the previous season's wood. Lacecaps and pompoms are also Hydrangea serrata (saw toothed hydrangeas) and these grow in the mountainous regions of Japan, China and Korea unlike the macrophyllas that bloom in the coastal areas. The mountainous ones (the serratas) are more cold hardy than the coastal ones (the macrophyllas). I noticed this with my own here-- the serratas had little winter damage-- dead stems and no buds over the past two years while the macrophyllas had some winter damage.

I also own smooth or arborescens hydrangea too-- these bloom like the paniculatas on the current season's wood so they set their buds after winter has passed.

The paniculatas are sun tolerant, the rest of them are shade tolerant with morning sun and preferred PM shade so northern and eastern exposures work for the macrophyllas, serratas & quercifolias (oak leafed types).

Now to throughly confuse you-- there are newer varieties now that are remontant-- these bloom on old and new wood and are available in lace cap and pom pom varieties.

hydrangeashydrangeas.com has some very good explanations and FAQ to hydrangea cultivation.

[mousiegirl]

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@Allegheny wrote:

Oh good grief...my husband says I need checked for early dementia and I am slowly thinking he is right.

I looked up my zone.  I am in 6a and as these are planted right up against the house, they are probably in a micro zone of 6b. 

I do have a hydrangea tree and a white lacecap shrub that do beautifully.  But I would like the old fashioned kind my grandmother grew, the ones that you could change the color to pink or blue.  

I think next year I am going to go to a reputable garden center and see what I can find.   

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Try Endless Summer and/or Nikko Blue for the colors you want, but they need acidic soil so if your soil is not, aluminum suphate needs to be added.  You will know when there is enough as months go by when they begin to bloom blue.  It takes a while for this to happen unless your soil is naturally acidic, but it eventually happens.

[JustJazzmom]

@mousiegirl

Most of the East Coast of the USA is acidic soil, its West of the Mississippi River that you start to see the more basic soils due to the limestone in them.

Most of the blue hydrangeas will remain blue unless you add lime to the soil and keep testing the pH for that desired range for the flowers to remain pink in color. Also certain varieties are blue and if you add aluminum sulfate or sulfur to the soil, the varieties won't turn bluer or purple unless they actually started that way as a cultivar.

[mousiegirl]

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@JustJazzmom wrote:

@mousiegirl

Most of the East Coast of the USA is acidic soil, its West of the Mississippi River that you start to see the more basic soils due to the limestone in them.

Most of the blue hydrangeas will remain blue unless you add lime to the soil and keep testing the pH for that desired range for the flowers to remain pink in color. Also certain varieties are blue and if you add aluminum sulfate or sulfur to the soil, the varieties won't turn bluer or purple unless they actually started that way as a cultivar.

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I have Nikko Blue, and it blooms pink unless I add aluminum sulphate, and the same for others, and Nikko Blue took much longer than others to begin to turn blue, which surprised me as since it is supposedly naturally blue, I thought it would be the first to turn, but that was not the case.  The Nikko Blue is in a pot also, but still, it took it a long time to begin to turn.