Shrubs & Hedges

Planting and Caring for Hydrangea Shrubs

Blair Brown

Blair is the Content Marketing Manager at BrighterBlooms.com, and though she's not your traditional gardener, the planting world is definitely growing on her (pun intended!). She's enjoyed digging into plant care and maintenance and growing her plant collection, especially with exotic indoor varieties.

Written by

Blair Brown

Best Tips for Growing Hydrangea Shrubs

First, keep in mind that Hydrangea Shrubs love humus-rich soil. You’ll get faster growth and more abundant blooms if you mix compost or humus in with your ground soil when you plant new Hydrangea Bushes.

When you're ready to plant, dig a hole that's twice as big as the root ball on your new shrub so that it has enough room. Well-loosened soil will let it easily spread new roots into the surrounding soil. More roots equal faster growth and tons of blooms in the summer.

Planting Hydrangea Shrubs

Once you've found a full sun to partial shade location (any area that gets about 4 to 6 hours of sunlight with some shade during the afternoon) and dug your hole, place your shrub in the hole. Backfill the surrounding soil and water to settle the roots.

How to Change the Color of Hydrangea Blooms

You can get incredible blue hydrangeas from alkaline soil with rotting leaves. Nikko Blue Hydrangea and Bluebird Hydrangea need acid to give you gorgeous blue blooms. It has been found that thickly mulching for winter with fallen leaves raises the acid level in the soil. If your soil is lacking in the acid, everything you do to increase it is one step closer to blue. Other tricks for making your hydrangea flowers blue:

  • Work aluminum sulfate into the soil
  • Apply acid fertilizer regularly or as a slow release

Watering Hydrangea Shrubs

Hydrangeas prefer consistent moisture but will tolerate drought once established. In partial shade, your drought tolerant hydrangeas will survive dry periods. Your new hydrangea bush will flower more and give you bigger blooms with consistent watering.
Blair Brown

Blair is the Content Marketing Manager at BrighterBlooms.com, and though she's not your traditional gardener, the planting world is definitely growing on her (pun intended!). She's enjoyed digging into plant care and maintenance and growing her plant collection, especially with exotic indoor varieties.

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