Why hydrangeas change colour

Using ammonium sulfate as a nitrogen source in the fertilizer will also help to keep pH low. But what if my hydrangea is purple? You Might Also Like: Four-Season Hydrangea Border Pink Hydrangea Garden Easy Flowers to Grow Colorful Backyard Border Grow hydrangeas in a container to change bloom color easier Raising or lowering pH takes time for additives to affect soil and is not usually permanent, so you must maintain the desired pH every year for the blooms to stay the color you want.

Hydrangea color change tips: More intensely colored hydrangeas will be more intense after a color change. In other words, if your hydrangea was a deep pink, it will be a darker blue. Do not add more amendments to get a darker color — it will not help and may cause problems in your soil. Use amendments according to package directions.

White bigleaf hydrangeas will never turn colors no matter what the soil type, though some blush pink or even red as the flowers age. Red hydrangeas are bred to be a deep, dark shade of almost-red pink not really a true red , so grow them in alkaline soil to get the best color. Changing soil pH is a slow process and must be maintained throughout the growing season to ensure your hydrangea stays the color you want.

Published: April 1, Tags: shrubs soil special techniques. Eggshells will slowly break down and reduce the acidity of your soil—making it harder for hydrangeas to absorb aluminum. Many gardeners add vinegar to their watering can to change the acidity of their soil and turn their hydrangeas blue. However, you'll probably have better results using Hydrangea Blue , a liquid fertilizer that produces blue flowers.

Garden Soil Color in the Garden. Get plant information, gardening solutions, design inspiration and more in our weekly newsletter. More about the newsletter. Copyright In a pot, it will be much easier to control the requirements for bluing. One last suggestions for those who are serious about this process. It is important to have your water tested so that it will not "contaminate" the soil that you have so rigorously balanced.

The pH of the water should not be higher than 5. Planting hydrangeas near a concrete foundation or sidewalk will often affect the color since the pH of the soil may be raised considerably by lime leaching out of these structures, making it difficult to obtain blue.

The Almighty sometimes adds pink and red to blooms as they age. If you live in a hot climate, it is unlikely you will ever see a "true red" hydrangea.

No matter how convincing those pictures in the catalogs are or how much lime is added to the soil, one can only achieve a very deep or dark pink, but not a true red at least here in the South.

I'd love to hear from you if you have a different experience. One can rarely change the intensity of a color how strong or pale the color is. The intensity develops for a number of reasons: the heredity of a particular hydrangea variety, weather conditions hot or cold, humid or dry , health of the plant, and possibly other natural factors.

Fertilizing hydrangeas once or twice a year may result in a little more saturated color simply because the health of the plant may be improved. A few varieties of hydrangeas tend more toward the pink or the blue range of colors, but will not retain even this color if soil conditions are not right.

Douglas Bailey of the University of Georgia is an expert in floraculture. His Commercial Hydrangea Forcing presents information on hydrangeas for commercial growers in a readable, concise form. It includes a section on controlling flower color for the industry. Work in England seems to indicate that higher aluminum content influences blueness more than pH levels. Related Tips by Subject.

September , October Tip. Related Tips by Month. September , October , November Tip. August Tip. We use cookies to ensure that we give you the best experience on our website. Continue browsing if you're happy with our Cookie Policy.