How to Grow Hydrangea Bushes

About Growing Hydrangea Flowers in Your Home Garden

Hydrangea bushes are beautiful, perennial bushes with huge flower heads. These deciduous bushes profusely produce huge, round flower heads in mid-summer. Hydrangea plants are native to North and South America, the Himalayas, and central and eastern Asia. Learn how to grow hydrangea flowers with this plant guide.

Colors include white, pink, blue lilac, purple, varying shades of these colors, and a variety of two tones.

Flower heads have two kinds of florets Sterile, or ray florets, are male and form the large, colorful sepals on the outside of the flower head. The fertile florets bear the male and female parts and are usually found in the center of the cluster.

During the spring through fall, these bushes have attractive foliage. Most varieties of Hydrangea grow from 3 to over 10 ft. tall. Some varieties grow up to 25 feet. Most varieties prefer full sun to partial shade.

Perhaps the only downside to these lush plants with their colorful blooms, is that they shed their leaves in the fall. The leafless bush transforms into a less-than-attractive clump of stalks and stems until the following spring.

Did you know? There are over 1200 species of Hydrangeas. People just can’t get enough of these beautiful blooms.

Perennial Shrub, hydrangea arborescens

Hydrangea Bush Propagation

Hydrangeas are grown from cuttings. Start new cuttings from April through August. Select new growth and cut about 6″ to 8″ from the end of non-flowering stems. The cutting should have two to three pairs of leaves. Remove the bottom pair of leaves. Plant them in sandy soil in a shady location. Cover the cutting with a glass jar or other clear cover until the roots form. Keep the soil moist.

Then, once roots have formed, the new plants can be transplanted to their new location in your garden or containers.

Also, Hydrangeas can be propagated by harvesting the seeds.

How to Grow Hydrangea Flower Bushes

Hydrangea bushes are easy to grow. They prefer full sun to partial shade. In warmer climates, put them in a more shaded area, to reduce wilting in the midday sun. They prefer moist, rich, loam soil that drains well.

When planting, add generous amounts of rich compost. Also add mulch yearly to help retain soil moisture, and to replenish nutrients for the plants. Keep the soil moist the entire season to promote lush growth and big blooms. Add a general-purpose fertilizer monthly.

Flowers will begin to bloom in mid-summer. Remove spent blooms. This will promote more blooms. To grow bigger blooms, thin some of the stems.

Prune bushes back in winter to early spring. If the bushes become too big or winter-damaged, they can be cut back close to the ground.

The pH level of the soil influences flower color. See below.

No Blooms? The most common cause is winter damage. A frost will kill the buds. Too much shade and poor soil conditions can also result in no blooms.

Color Me Hydrangea

They say a leopard can’t change his spots. But, a Hydrangea can change its colors. Some varieties will change flower colors, depending upon the soil condition.

The amount of the micro-nutrient aluminum available for uptake by the plant results in color changes. The pH level influences the ability of the plant to intake and use this micro-nutrient. In acidic soils high in aluminum, the flowers are blue. The higher the acidity(and aluminum), the bluer the flower. Neutral soils with less aluminum are white. Alkaline soils result in pink blooms.

To change flower colors, adjust the pH level as follows: