Limelight Hydrangea
This unique panicle hydrangea revolutionized landscaping across North America with its HUGE, football-shaped flowers that open in an elegant celadon green and stay fresh in summer’s heat. Limelight Hydrangeas grow to a maximum size of 8′ by 8′ and thrive in partial to full sun. The blooms age to an array of pink, red, and burgundy which persists through frost for many months of irresistible flowers. Limelight hydrangeas may be used just about any way you can imagine: as a showy flowering hedge, to screen off air conditioners, as an attention-grabbing specimen, in containers, flowerbeds, or anywhere around your home. A long-time favorite of professional florists, Limelight also makes an excellent cut flower, both fresh and dried.
Need something a little smaller, but love the look of Limelight?
Not to worry, Little Lime was cultivated just for you! Compared to its famous sibling, Little Lime may seem like a pipsqueak. While maintaining its compact stature of 3-5’ tall and wide, it packs a visual punch in the garden. In summer, lime green blooms open on strong stems – no drooping here! As it ages, rich pink coloring emerges to prolong the show through fall. Little Lime hydrangea is small enough to grow in containers and also stands out as a bold mass planting.
Plant your Hydrangeas like a Pro
First things first, you will need to select an appropriate location. Each Hydrangea has different needs when it comes to space and light requirements. Some hydrangeas, such as the Limelight above and the Endless Summer collection below, can tolerate partial to full sun, while most of the old fashioned varieties prefer more shade. To be certain, check the label in the pot before planting. Provide a little space for air to flow around the plant to help prevent fungal issues down the road.
When it comes to soil, you tend to get back what you put in. You can expect quicker growth and more blooms when you use nutrient-rich, properly amended soil as opposed to overly sandy or clay based, nutrient-poor native soil. This step often goes overlooked by novice gardeners, but it is far easier than you might expect! The secret? Michigan peat, or as we lovingly refer to it, gardener’s gold. Peat is made of decayed plant matter that has been partially carbonized and decomposed. Michigan Peat is darker in color, softer to the touch and finer in texture than other varieties, making it superior for use in flowerbeds. It has the capacity to hold up to six times its own weight in water. When you purchase peat, it comes in a compressed bale which is dry and powdery in texture. Open and fluff the bale, till the peat moss into your soil at a rate of 1 to 1, and water thoroughly to allow the product to re-hydrate. Once your planting area has been amended, your soil should be soft, fluffy, and moist to the touch!
With your soil in tip top shape, dig your hole about twice as wide as and just a little bit deeper than the pot your new Hydrangea was grown in. Toss a little bit of your fluffy, amended soil into the bottom of the hole along with a handful of BioTone starter fertilizer. The amendments work together to provide the nutrients, aeration, and moisture control your Hydrangea roots will need to become well-established in the weeks after transplanting. Speaking of healthy roots, after you remove your Hydrangea from its pot you can use your fingers to loosen any tangled or tight roots before gently setting the plant into the hole. Ensure that the base of the trunk is in line with the top of your hole and add or remove soil beneath the plant as needed. Once you have the plant exactly where you want it, begin to fill the remainder of the hole with more of your loose, fluffy, amended soil, sprinkling a little BioTone here and there as you go. Ensure that the level of the soil in your hole matches that of the surrounding land, and avoid creating a mound of soil around the base of the trunk. Water your newly planted Hydrangea thoroughly and add a little extra soil around the top if needed. After planting, water every day for one week, every other day for two weeks, and weekly thereafter. A little mulch will help prevent your Hydrangeas from drying out in the summer, but using too thick of a layer can lead to problems. If you decide to apply mulch, use a thin layer that is no more than two inches thick.
Endless Summer Hydrangeas
The Endless Summer collection consists of five beautiful
re-blooming hydrangeas, each with their own unique color and characteristics. The entire collection features a compact size and dense structure for huge impact with a manageable footprint.
Summer Crush
With a profusion of big raspberry red or neon purple blooms, Summer Crush brings floral quality blooms to your garden or patio container. In addition to being drop-dead gorgeous, it is nice and compact proving a neat, tidy look all summer long.
Blushing Bride
This Endless Summer hydrangea has pure white semi-double florets, which mature to blush pink or Carolina blue, depending on soil pH. It may be used in the garden to separate louder, brighter colors, providing harmony and ease.
Bloomstruck
Vivid rose-pink to purple blooms sit atop incredibly beautiful, elongated red-purple stems. Dark green leaves with red petioles and red veins lend great contrast to your other garden shrubs, perennials and annuals. This variety is especially resistant to powdery mildew.
Twist-N-Shout
This beautiful re-blooming lacecap variety boasts picturesque deep pink or periwinkle blue flowers (depending on soil pH) from late spring through fall. Twist-N-Shout features loads of dependable, delicate, cascading blooms in intense colors.
The Original
This is the first hydrangea ever discovered that blooms on both old and new growth. Great for full foundation plantings, striking container gardens or beautiful cut flower arrangements, The Original Endless Summer hydrangea is a hardy, disease-resistant and time-tested sensation.
No Need to Settle on Pink or Blue
One of the coolest things about Hydrangeas is the way their color changes based on soil pH! If you like, you can easily change from blue to pink with each passing year to keep things a little more interesting in the garden. Follow the steps below to make this magic happen in your own backyard!
To turn new hydrangeas blue, use 1¼ cups of Espoma Organic Soil Acidifier; for established hydrangeas use 2½ cups of the same product. Spread the granules evenly around the hydrangea out to its drip line, or the widest reaching branches. Then, water well. Repeat every 60 days until your hydrangea is the perfect shade of blue. An inexpensive pH meter can be used to determine the exact pH of your soil to help you reach one of the desired shades above. Hydrangea color can be affected by lime leaching out of concrete walkways or patios nearby, making blue a real challenge. Keep this in mind when considering where to plant. A word of caution: not all plants like acidic soil. Be careful about what’s growing near your hydrangeas. Prefer pink? Use Espoma Garden Lime at a rate of about 1 cup per year.
Feeding hydrangeas regularly results in healthier plants with more saturated color. Espoma Holly-tone is an excellent choice for blue hydrangeas as it contains sulfur to lower pH. Espoma Plant-tone is ideal for feeding pink hydrangeas because it does not contain the additional sulfur.
Spotty leaves?
We have the solution! Dark spots are fairly common on Hydrangea leaves, but fortunately there is an easy fix. First, make sure you only water the base of the plant and avoid splashing water droplets directly onto the leaves of your Hydrangea. This is the number one reason customers end up with leaf spots. If the problem persists, a common occurrence during the rainy season, treat the leaves with Daconil fungicide weekly, as needed. This product is great for controlling a broad spectrum of vegetable, fruit, and ornamental plant diseases including black spot, botrytis blights, anthracnose, rusts, powdery mildews, and many more.
When should you prune?
It depends on the variety! Old Fashioned varieties only bloom on old wood and should be pruned as soon as the blooms fade in fall. You want to give the Hydrangea a little time to grow before it goes dormant, because this pre-dormancy growth is where your buds will arise in spring. Re-blooming varieties bloom on new spring growth and may be shaped as needed in early spring, before the buds begin to emerge.
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