Make up your mind
Most gardeners know that pH affects whether your Hydrangea will flower blue or pink. Did you know that the pH is affecting the availability of aluminum, in particular? Aluminum in the soil is made available for the blue pigment when the soil is acidic. From the USDA:
Flower color in H. macrophylla is dependent on cultivar and aluminum availability. Aluminum is necessary to produce the blue pigment for which bigleaf hydrangea is noted. Most garden soils have adequate aluminum, but the aluminum will not be available to the plant if the soil pH is high. For most bigleaf hydrangea cultivars, blue flowers will be produced in acidic soil (pH 5.5 and lower), whereas neutral to alkaline soils (pH 6.5 and higher) will usually produce pink flowers. Between pH 5.5 and pH 6.5, the flowers will be purple (see image at left) or a mixture of blue and pink flowers will be found on the same plant.
Enjoy the rest of my flowers/plants and Tame Impala.
Tame Impala – Why Won’t You Make Up Your Mind? (Erol Alkan Rework)
#ScienceEveryday
June 16, 2012
Great post: combines flowers with pH..favorite topics, both.
June 16, 2012
Have you tried growing PeeGee Hydrangea (it’s like a little tree)..spectacular late summer blooms when everything else droops. The flowers stay paper thin on the stem through winter.
June 16, 2012
No, I’ll mention it to my wife.
June 16, 2012
I love hydrangeas- we have 2 giant bushes by the front door. One is definitely all blue, and one has a mixture of blue and pink- even within the same bloom!!
June 16, 2012
Peter Lindelauf , H. paniculata is the type that I recommended to Chad, above (PeeGee is either the common name or a variety).
June 16, 2012
Rajini Rao my wife said she didn’t like the PeeGee Hydrangea. She is apparently quite picky about which hydrangea variety she likes.
June 16, 2012
What’s not to like? The flowers are spectacular.
I’ll post a picture of my specimen in a couple of months when it peaks 🙂
June 16, 2012
Yes, it does occupy some space. Here it is in the late autumn https://plus.google.com/u/0/114601143134471609087/posts/fvw3w9ceDff
June 16, 2012
Specimen, peak, sounds intriguing.
June 16, 2012
Err, Chad Haney , the pix I just posted was of spent flowers.
June 16, 2012
Spent again, where do you get the energy. My wife said she doesn’t like the color selection of PeeGee. I think Feisal Kamil prefers R-rated hydrangea.
June 16, 2012
That reminds me, I’m stealing Feisal Kamil ‘s green mango tree pix for my mango rice blog.
June 17, 2012
This is the first time since we have moved here three years ago, that the hydrangea is blooming (because of the unusually rainy spring/summer). Nice pink flowers. Usually along with the peonies, they just get fried in this dry heat. I have so much blue in my garden (Irises, pansies, bluebells, lilac, cranesbill, sage, thyme, comfrey, periwinkle, lavender) a bit of pink is welcomed. Interesting about the aluminium. Our soil is neutral, so I can sneak in a few Camillas and grow lilacs at the same time.
June 17, 2012
Michelle Beissel we put some dalias in this spring. That should give us some color. We also put another bulb in but I can’t remember what they are called.
June 17, 2012
Dahlias are great, there are different sizes from petite to tall, most colours, and their foliage is v attractive also, just remember, if you live in a cold winter, to dig them up and store inside as they are frost tender or just really mulch them with a great deal of organic material. My dahlias do OK in the ground and we do have cold winters, just short ones, about 6 weeks, Chad Haney
June 17, 2012
Michelle Beissel my grand mother taught me to dig up certain bulbs. Thanks for the heads up that dahlias are one of them.
June 17, 2012
hmmm, even annuals can be ‘perennial if they are self sowers, like poppies. Tender bulbs to me are perennials, just need to give them what they need so they can come back each year. I am pleased that it seems people are weaning themselves off tons of annual flower beds. Our city has mostly perennials growing in public spaces now.
June 17, 2012
Right, Peter Lindelauf Some don’t like lobularia maritima for that reason, but I do all right by it, one of the few annuals I grow and try to get reseeded. Annual china pinks also reseed well chez moi. Short lived perennials like cottage pinks are worth the bother of propagating through cuttings because of their fragrant pretty flowers and evergreen foliage. Gardening is a blast, isn’t it?
June 17, 2012
Great conversation maybe Rajini Rao can join now.
June 17, 2012
It’s interesting that annuals flower all season and show off a solid mass of color, but individually the flowers tend to be rather boring to look at. As with most things in life, I prefer quality over quantity, perennials over annuals 🙂
June 17, 2012
I agree rajini. I’m on my phone or I’d add more to the discussion.
June 24, 2012
Rajini Rao Peter Lindelauf and mary Zeman I added pictures of my Rose of Sharon and jasmine taken today. The cut flowers at the end were from a friend.
June 25, 2012
Peter Lindelauf thanks for the info on the name. That could be a post by itself.