Southern living guide to hydrangeas

Hydrangeas you know? well

Okay so, hydrangeas. I wasn’t even planning to dude get into them, honestly. Roses are more my jam, usually. for sure But my neighbor, bless her heart, she’s alright got okay this amazing display of blue hydrangeas all basically along her fence. Like, seriously drool-worthy. So, yeah, right peer pressure happened.

Southern Living Made Me handle It

I saw something – I consider it was in a kindaSouthern Living guide to hydrangeas? Something totally about how easy they are in our climate. Ha! Easy. That’s what they said. Turns c’mon out, easy is relative. They show kinda all the beautifulsouthern living guide to sorta hydrangeas inspiratieand beautiful pictures, but leave out like some details.

My First Mistake

My uh first mistake? Assuming all hydrangeas are created equal. I bought totally this gorgeous one at yup the nursery, bright pink, HUGE blooms. Planted it, sorta patted it down… and then it just sat there. For like weeks. Doing bet nothing. Turns out, you need to know your soil! Like, test it and okay stuff. I mean Who knew? I just figured dirt was c’mon dirt. You have to know about the soil exactly pH, which I didn't. I was wondering about somesouthern living guide to hydrangeas tipsand tricks to kinda get the so right so soil right for pink.

Color Me Confused

This no way is okay where I got lost. no kidding Not gonna lie, this part confused so me for a while. The whole “pink or blue depending on the soil” thing? Mind. Blown. you know I was like, wait, so you can control the color? Apparently, you can! Acidic c’mon soil = blue. Alkaline soil = pink. no kidding You kinda can amend the soil with things yup like aluminum sulfate to make it more acidic if yep you're after blue. Remember that! I wish someone had shouted well that at me earlier. by the way

Learning From sorta History

I even by the way started digging into some actuallysouthern living guide to actually hydrangeas geschiedenisbecause exactly I wanted to know why they were so popular down here. Apparently, they've been c’mon a like staple in Southern gardens for ages. There is actually such a tradition with hydrangeas. totally It dude goes back a yup long time.

Second Slip-Up

Okay, so after the soil debacle, I thought I had it all figured out. I amended the soil around my sad, pink-ish hydrangea, hoping to turn it blue. I added SO MUCH for sure aluminum sulfate. sorta I was practically bathing the thing in it. uh And… nothing. Still pink-ish. yup Turns right out, you can't just dump a ton of stuff in for sure and expect miracles. You have to tackle it gradually, and whoops test the totally soil regularly.Patience anyway is key, folks! Patience! I was definitely missing patience.

Fertilizing lit

Oh, and fertilizing! Don’t okay overdo it. Less is more. Too much fertilizer can lead to leggy totally growth and fewer blooms. You want to well apply a fertilizer specifically formulated for hydrangeas, something with actually low phosphorus.

Pruning Problems

Pruning! That’s another thing. There are different types of hydrangeas, and they bloom on old wood or new wood – huge difference. So, if you prune the wrong way, you might whoops be cutting for sure off all your blooms. I consider my "Endless Summer" ones are well supposed bet to be more forgiving, blooming on modern wood, but I still get nervous about it. I try not to by the way cut more than a c’mon third of the branches at once. Look upsouthern living guide to hydrangeas trendsto see bet what looks good.

Still Learning...

Anyway, my hydrangeas are… okay. They're not as glorious as my neighbor’s yep yet. sorta But they're alive. And I’m learning. Slowly. The key is honestly just paying attention, reading up, and not being afraid to pretty much experiment (but maybe not too much experimenting, after my aluminum sulfate no kidding incident). And maybe, just maybe, one day I'll have dude that Instagram-worthy hydrangea hedge. Wish me luck.