June Hydrangeas
The hydrangeas in our yard are blooming this month. I have always loved hydrangeas, especially the ones that have blue flowers. For the past few years, we have attempted to get our pink bigleaf hydrangeas to turn blue by feeding them aluminum sulfate. We have not been successful. But after a few applications of the aluminum sulfate this spring, the hydrangea in the first picture now has deep purple flowers. Last year, it had pink flowers.
We did not apply aluminum sulfate to two of our hydrangeas. Their flowers were lavender colored last year. This year, their flowers are a light pink color. It seems that without the aluminum, blue or lavender bigleaf hydrangea flowers tend to fade to pink over the years.
We also have three oakleaf hydrangeas. The second picture shows our oldest oakleaf hydrangea with its white flowers. I like oakleaf hydrangeas. They don’t need as much water as the bigleaf varieties, and they usually don’t wilt in hot weather. The flowers of the oakleaves are not as spectacular as the bigleaves, but the oakleaves do have beautiful leaves that often turn red in the fall before falling off. Also, oakleaf hydrangeas attract lots of honey bees.
June 21 2009 02:22 pm | Hydrangeas