It’s not difficult to grow hydrangea in Houston (South Texas), but it’s also not simple. It can be very difficult to grow a beautiful hydrangea shrub that will blossom and endure in the sun and humidity.
It gets difficult when you have to choose the right variety up front. The Oakleaf hydrangea is the kind that thrives in our climate (Hydrangea quercifolia). Although it performs better than other varieties, this lovely shrub does not resemble the hydrangeas we see in books or at flower shops. The cream-colored, cone-shaped flowers on this 8-foot-tall shrub have a rounded appearance. Throughout the season, flowers will transform to pink and even reddish brown in the autumn (note: you cannot change the color of Oakleaf hydrangea by changing acidity of the soil)
PeeGee hydrangea follows as the best performer for South Texas on our list of hydrangeas (Hydrangea paniculata). Again, not the hydrangea you see in magazines. Typically white-green, cone-shaped blossoms eventually turn pink with maturity. If unpruned, PeeGee hydrangea can reach a height of 15 feet, which is impressive for a shrub. PeeGee hydrangeas can often be taught to resemble trees with correct pruning.
However, the picture-perfect French hydrangea or mopheads are what the majority of us would like to grow (Hydrangea macrophylla). These hydrangeas are undoubtedly the most challenging to grow in Houston (and southeast Texas). Do you feel up to the task?
Starting with the ideal location for hydrangeas: The east side of the home (or any other structure) will receive morning sun and afternoon shade. If space on the east side is not a possibility, your other choice is the north side. Of course, if you’re like me and have trouble with orientation, pull out your compass or pour yourself a cup of tea, and spend some time watching: Find a location that receives some morning sun but is sheltered for the majority of the day.
The size of your site is the second thing to think about. Hydrangeas require space to expand. Take into account that French hydrangeas can reach heights of 7 feet and a width of 8 feet. For your hydrangea to flourish, leave at least 2 feet in each direction (from the plant’s center) when you plant it.
The hue of the hydrangea is the third factor to take into account. In Southeast Texas, pink and red colored blossoms are the easiest to grow (our clay soil is very alkaline and as such works best for pinks and reds). Once you master hydrangea cultivation, you can experiment with altering the soil’s acidity (If you want blue hydrangeas, you will need to add Aluminum sulfate to the soil, to lower your pH and make soil more acidic).
Got it all? Let’s make a large hole. The hole must be twice as wide as the pot that your hydrangea came in. The hole should be dug to a depth equal to the soil in your pot plus 4 inches. Fill the hole with compost to a depth of about 4 inches. Add the soil you dug out over your hydrangea before planting it. Mix potting soil in with your clay soil if it’s too dense (keep the ratio 3:13 part potting soil, 1 part clay). Mulch should be applied to the top 4-5 inches of the plant. We advise using cedar mulch (keeps the termites away). Water the mulch until it’s evenly wet.
Maintaining the health of your hydrangea comes last but not least. Moist soil is ideal for hydrangeas. Hydrangeas require daily watering until they are established (2-3 weeks). Just water the dirt (mulch) around the roots; don’t water the leaves or the flowers; let the rain take care of it. Early in the morning is advised for watering hydrangeas, followed by late at night. Once established, you must experiment and make a few observations. Water your hydrangea bush every other day as of now. Maintain that schedule if your leaves appear healthy (not drying out or wilting). You need to reduce the frequency of watering if your leaves begin to turn yellow to rust-colored. Mulch will quickly become your closest ally. It safeguards the roots, effectively holds water, and gives bugs a place to live.
When should your hydrangea be planted is the next concern. The best response for our area is: When the weather is nice outside. It shouldn’t be very hot, wet, or cold: between November and April (weather report should not mention any hard freeze). Only from February to May do we often sell hydrangea at Scent & Violet.
Would you like to raise the ante a bit? Place thyme, lemon balm, and chives close to your hydrangeas. These plants may thrive in the shadow and will aid in luring helpful insects. Why not utilize some of them in your cooking as well? Also think about growing some native Texas flowers that do well in shade.
Your hydrangea lived and flourished, right? You want to prune it since it has gotten too huge. Check out this video from North Coast Gardening to learn how to prune hydrangeas properly.
A full-service florist in Houston, Texas, Scent & Violet, flowers and presents offers flower, plant, and gift delivery in Houston, Katy, Richmond, Fulshear, Sugar Land, and Bellaire. We want to develop a hassle-free, regular buying source for presents, plants, and flowers. We really believe that giving gifts can lead to stronger relationships, better settings, and better mental states than receiving them.
Are hydrangeas able to thrive in Texas?
Hydrangea shrubs come in a wide variety of shapes, sizes, and cultivars that come in an amazing array of colors. While some hydrangea varieties won’t do well in the stifling Texas heat, there are undoubtedly those that do well there.
The most common kind of hydrangea in our area is unquestionably the oakleaf variety since it can withstand the heat without becoming overheated. They don’t exactly resemble the common hydrangeas with bloom clusters in the shape of globes that frequently adorn the covers of home and garden magazines. Oakleaf hydrangeas have tiny white blooms that grow in panicles that resemble cones and tumble downhill, giving them a hybrid appearance between hydrangeas and lilacs. As you may undoubtedly infer from the name, its lobed leaves resemble oak tree leaves quite a little. Before the plant goes dormant for the winter, the blossoms change as they ripen from milky white to delicate pink and occasionally take on a wine-red hue. Oakleaf hydrangeas can grow up to 7 feet tall when fully grown.
Another gorgeous variety of hydrangea that thrives in Texas is PeeGee. With huge, cloud-like bunches of blooms reaching heights of up to 15 feet, they are absolute attention-getters. These shrubs are excellent accent plants for the front yard because you can even train them to grow into trees. PeeGees have blooms that start out white with a delicate green tint and gradually grow more pink as they mature, much like oakleaf hydrangeas do.
The traditional variety of French hydrangeas that you frequently find in bridal bouquets. Their mophead-shaped, spherical blossoms appear in a stunning array of white, green, purple, pink, and blue hues. By experimenting with the pH and Aluminum levels in the soil with different amendments, you can even extract a Sleeping Beauty and turn them from pink to blue, or from blue to pink. Although these hydrangeas are extremely popular in more Northern parts of the US, they are obviously more difficult to maintain in Houston, but it is possible with the right care. You may create the garden of your dreams if you take extra care to ensure that the striking, icy blue blossoms receive all they require to thrive.
Should I remove the hydrangea’s dead blooms?
Because hydrangea blossoms are so large, deadheading a hydrangea can help the plant focus energy on other, more crucial aspects of its growth. To promote new blossoms and keep your plant appearing healthy, you should continue this approach throughout the flowering season. The time of year determines the best way to deadhead hydrangea blossoms.
You should cut the wasted blossoms with a long stem still attached if it’s before August. Look at the stem’s junction with the larger branch; there ought to be several little buds there. Make sure to keep the buds whole when trimming the stem back as short as you wish.
The plant is probably developing new buds along the stems in anticipation of the following spring if it is August or later. Check the area between each set of leaves as you work your way down the stem from the faded bloom. You should see buds at the first or second pair of leaves. Offset the spent bloom far above those buds with a knife.
Carry a cloth that has been dipped in denatured alcohol while you work. To stop disease from spreading throughout the bush, wipe your pruners clean with the rag in between cuts.
How are hydrangeas cared for?
Although the hydrangea’s leaves and flowers seem delicate, little careful care is actually needed for them. Everything you need to know about caring for hydrangeas is provided in these recommendations.
- Over the course of the growing season, water at a rate of 1 inch per week. To promote root growth, deeply water three times each week. All varieties of hydrangeas benefit from constant moisture, but bigleaf and smooth hydrangeas need more water. To water thoroughly while keeping moisture off the flowers and leaves, use a soaker hose. Hydrangeas won’t wilt as much if they are watered early in the day on hot days.
- To keep the soil around your hydrangeas cool and moist, add mulch. Over time, an organic mulch decomposes, supplying nutrients and enhancing soil texture.
- Apply fertilizer according to the type of hydrangeas you have. Every variety has varied requirements and will profit from applying fertilizer at various times. A soil test is the most effective tool for determining your fertility requirements.
- In March, May, and June, bigleaf hydrangeas require numerous mild fertilizer applications.
- Two applications in April and June work best for oakleaf and panicle hydrangeas.
- The only time smooth hydrangea plants require fertilizing is in the late winter.
- By selecting cultivars with resistant characteristics, you can avoid pests and diseases. Hydrangeas can have leaf spots, bight, wilt, and powdery mildew. Although they are uncommon on hydrangeas, pests might arise when the plants are under stress. Aphids, leaf tiers, and red spider mites are examples of potential pests. Your best line of defense is to properly care for hydrangeas.
How are hydrangeas kept from blooming?
Smooth hydrangeas (Hydrangea arborescens), which get their name from the texture of their huge leaves, are more well-known for their massive, spherical, white flower heads. The most popular type, “Annabelle” (also known as Snowball Bush), was identified as coming from Anna, Illinois, by a horticultural expert in the 1960s. The ‘Annabelle’ hydrangea displays large, pure-white blooms that gradually turn green. A more recent cultivar, Invincibelle Spirit, blooms pink rather than the usual white. The smooth hydrangea, which is native to parts of North America, starts blooming in late June and keeps periodically flowering all summer long. In zones 4 through 9, it thrives in sunny or slightly shaded environments.
How to Get More Smooth Hydrangea Flowers:
- If the soil is damp, grow smooth hydrangeas in full sunlight. (Spots that occasionally dry out benefit from partial shade.)
- In droughts, especially in the sweltering summer, water them.
- soil amendment using organic matter (such as compost).
- In the early spring, soon as new growth begins to appear, trim back stems.
Are hydrangeas suited for coffee grounds?
Coffee has always been amazing to me. If not magical, then pretty close. I mean, I’m a writer, and I’m pretty convinced that writers account for at least half of the sales in the coffee industry. But this also means that every day, we throw away tons of used coffee grounds. Although coffee grounds alone are not very harmful to the environment—in fact, I’ll teach you how to use them in your yard in a moment—they do add to the volume of landfills. Coffee, ever the sociable drink, mixes with other trash in foul trash heaps to produce methane, which as we all know is a greenhouse gas that contributes to climate change. So the next time, try something a little different rather than simply throwing the grinds in the trash.
If you just drink one pot of coffee per day, you will have a lot of wonderful, mineral-rich grounds left over after you finish your first pot of the day, which you can use to enhance your garden. We coffee aficionados enjoy the strong coffee fragrance, but insects that harm flowers respond negatively to it. Coffee grounds not only deter ants and snails, but they also stop neighborhood cats from digging in your flowerbeds. Therefore, pile the material high around your preferred plants to ward off slimy, stingy, or fluffy pests.
Use coffee grinds to alter the color of your hydrangeas. The soil around hydrangeas becomes more acidic thanks to coffee grinds. Chemically speaking, the plant can more readily absorb naturally occurring aluminum in the soil as a result of the increased acidity. Pretty blue flower clusters are the result. Coffee grinds let you play with the color to transform pinker blossoms into other shades of blue, or perhaps a shade of purple in between, even if coffee won’t influence the brilliance of the flowers (pale blue flowers will remain pale blue, for example).
Coffee contains nitrogen, which helps plants grow, so give your plants a boost by turning the grinds into a natural fertilizer. Add a quarter cup of coffee grounds to four or five liters of water to make a “tea of coffee grounds.” Pour the liquid over all of your plants the next morning for a nutrient boost after letting it set overnight.
Do hydrangeas tolerate shade?
It’s no surprise that hydrangeas have grown to be so well-liked among gardeners given their profusion of blossoms and remarkable adaptability. There is a hydrangea for almost every garden because there are so many different types. They are certain to provide you happiness year after year if you give them a sunny place with well-draining soil. Will hydrangeas flourish in the shadow, though?
Full sun (more than 6 hours of direct sunlight) to part sun is ideal for hydrangea growth (4-6 hours sun). All hydrangeas can tolerate some shade, but the timing and nature of the shade should be taken into account. As long as they receive some early sun, they can spend the warmest part of the day in complete shade. In sweltering conditions, this is especially true. They don’t flower as frequently, though, and their stems tend to be weaker and floppier if they don’t get enough sun.
Don’t let a little shadow ruin your plans for a hydrangea garden. A list of hydrangeas that can tolerate shadow better than others has been assembled.