Growing Hydrangeas

2024 Author: Sebastian Paterson | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 13:47

Beautiful ornamental shrubs that adorn the garden from spring to autumn

Large-leaved hydrangea with umbrella-shaped inflorescence

Every gardener wants to see his garden always blooming. In addition to a variety of annual and perennial flowers, ornamental trees and shrubs also help to decorate the garden. To do this, you need to select an assortment of plants that bloom at different times of the year, replacing each other.

And one more important condition when choosing plants - they must be zoned, i.e. adapted to the local climate. Of course, you can also plant plants brought from more southern territories, but then you have to be patient in order to spend more than one year on their adaptation. The very first shrub on my site blooms forsythia.

It is good because it does not yet have leaves, and all the branches are covered with large yellow flowers. Leaves appear after flowering. The next shrub that pleases with its flowering on May 9 is ornamental almond. His flowers are pink - sakura in miniature. The most beautiful variety with double flowers.

Gardener's guide

Plant nurseries Stores of goods for summer cottages Landscape design studios

Then white spirea (Spiraea arguta) blooms. Its branches seem to be covered with white flakes of snow. At the same time, the flowering of deciduous rhododendrons, tree-like peonies, begins. Chaenomeles (Japanese quince) blooms next. This is not only an ornamental flowering shrub with orange flowers, it also produces edible yellow fruits that ripen in late autumn and also serve as an adornment of this shrub.

It turns out that it is decorative twice a year. After the flowering of apple trees, cherries and plums, a real riot of flowering begins: lilacs, evergreen rhododendron, viburnum, elderberry, mountain ash, white acacia, Thunberg barberries, holly mahonia, chubushnik, comb (tamariks), honeysuckle are blooming. In the midst of summer, roses and decorative raspberries bloom.

In the second half of summer, hydrangeas, budlei, and Potentilla begin to bloom in the garden. At the end of August, rowan trees, decorated with beautiful fruits, as well as barberries, elderberries, viburnum, apple trees, cherries, plums, and maiden grapes turn out to be decorative again.

Notice board

Kittens for sale Puppies for sale Horses for sale

Site and soil selection

My spirea bloomed

For successful growth and lush, long flowering, it is necessary to choose the right place and prepare the soil. In a sunny place grow well: deciduous rhododendron, spirea, forsythia, treelike peony, holly mahonia, roses, hydrangeas, tamarix, budleya, chaenomeles, lilacs. Slight shading is tolerated: mock orange, barberries, cinquefoil, decorative almonds, decorative viburnum (buldenezh), mountain ash, elderberry, boxwood, dogwood, spirea, decorative almonds, hydrangea, honeysuckle, snowberry. Does not tolerate direct sunlight, i.e. suitable for shady garden, evergreen rhododendron.

Many shrubs are demanding on the soil. For example, for rhododendrons and hydrangeas, you need to prepare acidic soil. The rest of the ornamental shrubs grow on well-cultivated fertile soils.

Notice board

Kittens for sale Puppies for sale Horses for sale

Planting shrubs

Our house is surrounded by flowering plants all summer long

I plant ornamental shrubs and trees in planting holes specially prepared for them. When preparing them, I try to maintain dimensions of 80 x 80 x 80 cm. When digging a hole, I fold the top layer of soil (onto the bayonet of a shovel) to one side, and the bottom layer of soil to the other side. The humus layer in my garden is 60 cm (two bayonets of a shovel), then there is sand, so I remove another 20-30 cm of sand, thereby increasing the fertile layer.

At the bottom of the pit I put rotted manure, compost, superphosphate and soil from the top layer of the pit. I mix everything well. In the upper part of the pit I add all the same and add the soil removed from the lower layer of the pit. I additionally apply fertilizers AVA universal (for one year), superphosphate.

If I prepare a planting hole for planting a plant in the spring, then I add a complex fertilizer - nitroammophoska or azofoska to the upper part of the planting hole. I mix the whole soil and dig a hole in it according to the size of the roots of the seedling and plant it there. After planting, I water it with Energena solution (one bottle of 10 ml per 10 liters of water). The next watering must be done with a solution of microbiological fertilizer Baikal Em-1 (1 ml per one liter of water).

If I plan to plant some ornamental shrub in advance, then I also prepare the pit in advance and water it with Baikal EM-1 solution several times in order to restore and increase soil bacteria that are absent in the lower soil layer, which is now on the surface. Do not be afraid to swap the top and bottom layers of the soil.

There is an opinion that by doing so we destroy beneficial bacteria and microflora. When compost and manure are added, in which these bacteria are present, the microflora is quickly restored. The deeper the planting pit is filled with organic matter, the more roots the decorative shrub will grow and the more magnificent its flowering will be in the future.

Every spring I sprinkle a complex mineral fertilizer around all the shrubs - nitroammofosk or azofosku and mulch the soil with rotted manure and compost. Twice a month from May to mid-July I feed them with liquid manure with sapropel. At the end of July, I scatter superphosphate and ash or potassium fertilizer (potassium magnesium) around the bushes, slightly loosening the soil, covering the fertilizer.

For hydrangeas and rhododendrons, I must add a lot of peat, spruce and pine litter to the planting holes in each layer. I feed them in the same way as other ornamental shrubs, only I do not bring in ash so as not to change the acidity of the soil.

My hydrangeas

Large-leaved hydrangea

Their homeland is South and Southeast Asia (China, Japan, etc.), North and South America. Now every year new types and varieties of hydrangeas appear in stores. Unfortunately, most of them, and, as a rule, the most beautifully flowering, do not winter in the conditions of the North-West. The shoots of many hydrangeas, not having time to woody by the end of autumn, freeze, and the next year their bushes do not bloom, since such hydrangeas bloom on the shoots of last year, and they lack one month to ripen.

The first large-leaved hydrangea with globular inflorescences, blooming on the shoots of last year, was just acquired several years ago. And, of course, after each winter, all her shoots died, and she did not bloom, but only over the summer increased a huge green mass. This went on for several years until I got tired of it. And I decided to throw it away.

When I dug a bush (at the end of September), a small shoot with roots separated from it. I put it in a large pot and put it in a cool, bright place on the veranda. The transplant did not affect her in any way. Even the leaves didn't wither. By the end of November the shoots had time to woody. In early December, after removing all the leaves, I lowered the pot of hydrangea into the basement caisson. There she hibernated until spring.

In mid-March, she took it out of the caisson and put it in a cool, bright place in a country house. Hortense came to life and released buds on each shoot. In early June, she bloomed with huge blue inflorescences. I planted a hydrangea from a pot (without damaging the earthen lump) into open ground in partial shade. Flowering lasted until mid-August.

In September she transplanted her to a sunny place. I didn't clean it up for the winter. And this year this hydrangea again pleased with its flowering. The shoots successfully overwintered under a huge layer of snow, and they matured under it. If this hydrangea does not want to bloom in the future due to freezing of the shoots, then I will definitely send it to winter in the caisson again.

Hydrangea with umbrella-shaped inflorescence

Large-leaved hydrangea with an umbrella-shaped inflorescence (serrata hydrangea) blooms on the shoots of the last year. She, too, was in line to be removed from the garden. But the winter of 2011/12 saved her. Its shoots have matured under a huge layer of snow, and this year it has bloomed with blue umbrellas.

The most not capricious hydrangeas - large-leaved with spherical inflorescences - are hydrangeas blooming on the shoots of the current year. Freezing of shoots in winter does not affect their flowering in any way. They bloom on newly grown shoots. Last year I bought this hydrangea with pink flowers. The plant was very small and blooming. I was afraid to plant it in open ground because of its size and sent it to winter in a caisson for the winter. In the spring, I planted a hydrangea in open ground. At the end of August, she bloomed.

Many flowering shrubs do not winter here, but I really want to see them in my garden. Therefore, they can be planted in the fall from the ground in pots or immediately planted in pots in the spring, and sent to the basement for the winter. And from spring to autumn next year, grow them as a pot culture. But every spring you need to transplant them into a larger pot, adding fresh soil. This must be done to restore microflora, which dies when the soil in the pot dries out in winter. So you can grow budley, kerria, hibiscus, chebe, fuchsia, action, tree peony.

Large-leaved hydrangea

Indoor hydrangea also hibernates in a caisson. At the end of autumn, she usually sheds her leaves (she has a dormant period), and she does not want to keep such a plant at home. Moreover, in the conditions of a city apartment from central heating batteries (the house is hot and dry), it can die. Therefore, the indoor hydrangea, like its street relatives, overwinters in my caisson. In mid-March, I take it out, transplant it into a larger pot (by 2-3 cm), add a little fresh soil (the same as for garden hydrangeas) and put it in a bright, cool place on the windowsill, but away from direct sunlight.

Stalked hydrangea is the most unpretentious of all hydrangeas. It is grown as a liana or as a groundcover. With the help of air suction roots, it can be easily climbed onto walls or supports. Shoots, when in contact with the ground, take root easily and quickly. Therefore, if you grow it like a liana, you need to constantly monitor the shoots and prevent them from spreading.

In the first years after planting, this hydrangea grows a root system, and its shoots do not grow up at all. The bush seems to freeze in development. But after 3-4 years, the hydrangea quickly begins to grow upward. It blooms in early summer and blooms until mid-autumn. White openwork flowers look very impressive against the background of dark green foliage. Its inflorescences are flat, with sparse large marginal flowers and many tiny greenish-white star-shaped flowers. This hydrangea hibernates without shelter and does not freeze. I do not remove it from the support for the winter. It has to be trimmed every year to limit upward growth and lateral spread.

Panicle hydrangea is distinguished by its large size, both a bush and inflorescences, and a rapid growth of shoots. In three years my bush has grown taller than me. This hydrangea requires a lot of living space, otherwise you will have to cut it every year. She winters well. It begins to bloom in mid-July and before frost, changing the color of the flowers. At first they are creamy white, then the flowers become snow-white, then they turn pink, and in late autumn they are greenish. Its varieties with huge inflorescences-panicles of white and pink color were bred.

Reproduction of hydrangeas

Hydrangea paniculata

All hydrangeas are good cuttings. In the spring, I cut off small branches of hydrangea (the leaves should already be on them), put them in a jar of melt water. As soon as small roots appear, I plant the cutting in a pot and put it in a greenhouse (made of cellular polycarbonate).

In mid-July I take the pot out into the street, be sure to shade it with a covering material from direct sunlight or put it in the shade. At the end of August, in cloudy weather, I take it out of the shade into a sunny place. At this time, the sun is no longer so active. Such plants overwinter in a caisson.

Next year they will already grow in the open field. You can immediately plant the cuttings in a pot, close with a plastic bottle and put in a greenhouse. As soon as new shoots appear, the plant has taken root. I gradually begin to temper him. First, I remove the cap from the bottle, then I lift the edge of the bottle, and later I remove it altogether. At the end of August, I take the pot out of the greenhouse to the street.

Care advice

The soil under the plants is loose and dries up quickly. Therefore, all hydrangeas in hot dry weather in summer must be watered abundantly, and in dry autumn too. In summer, I tie panicle hydrangeas with large inflorescences to supports or install a green plastic mesh (with small cells) around them, up to half a bush.

I do this so that the inflorescences do not break after rain when wet. For the winter, I mulch my hydrangeas with a small layer of peat and coniferous litter. I wrap the branches (except for the petiolate hydrangea) with spunbond and tie them to the stakes. I do this so that the snow does not break them. I cut off old inflorescences in the spring before bud break. I shorten the young plants slightly to cause the growth of lateral shoots for better tillering.