My hydrangea plants are budding, and it is time to feed them acid plant food, ensuring I have deep blue flowers. Our soil here is peat and tends to favour acid loving plants. I feed the strawberries and blueberries as well, as one more month and we will have spring where I live .
The Secrets to Successful Hydrangeas
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The island of Faial in the Azores (located near Portugal) is known as the “blue island” because of the great number of hydrangeas growing on the island. The island sees plenty of rain and has perfectly acidic soil.
Hydrangea is a shade-loving plant that enjoys a moist, fertile, well-drained soil. When grown correctly, its flowers are incredibly blue due to the acid in the soil and the high aluminum content.
If you don’t know the pH of your soil, you can still grow hydrangea, the flowers will simply bloom pink or white (depending on the type of plant) instead of turning blue. Yet successful gardening means knowing the pH of your soil. It’s easy to test the pH of your soil when you buy a pH test kit or pH meter at Stockslagers.
The pH scale ranges from 0 to 14. Acid soils have a pH of 6.5 or less. A pH of 7 is neutral. Alkaline soils have a pH of 7.5 or more. Hydrangeas grow best in soil that has a pH of 5.2-5.5. If your soil is not in that range, you will need to manipulate the soil so the plant can absorb its needed nutrients. Growing some acid-loving plants in pots may make manipulation easier.
You can lower the pH by adding soil amendments such as:
- potting mix
- peat moss
- perlite
- compost
- organic mulches
- manure
Or you can have a more immediate effect using acidifying fertilizers such as:
- aluminum sulfate
- urea
- ammonium nitrate
- elemental sulfur
- iron sulfate
- acidifying nitrogen
Plants such as foxglove, azalea, heather and all types of ferns grow well in acidic soils. Stop in to Stockslagers and get the “dirt” on all the acid-loving plants and how to manipulate your alkaline soil.
Other acidic loving plants include:
When I am not writing I am usually gardening.
- Aster
- Azalea
- Blueberry
- Camellia
- Clethra
- Fern
- Fir
- Gardenia Heath
- Heather
- Hemlock
- Holly
- Huckleberry
- Juniper
- Lily-of-the-Valley
- Magnolia
- Marigold Mountain-ash
- Mountain-laurel
- Oak
- Phlox
- Pine
- Raspberry
- Rhododendron
- Spruce
- Strawberry
- White cedar
- Woodsorel
When I am not writing I am usually gardening. My recent projects in my garden are the mini grafted avocado hedge and the hen run. The three pullets are happily settled in their enclosure, gaining weight and readying themselves for egg laying in a few weeks.
Author Glennis Annie Browne
glennisbrowne.com 