In my part of the world we crave blue hydrangeas. We try to change the pH of our soil to coax anything vaguely resembling blue from a hydrangea prone to blue flowers. One year I had a bit of success and celebrated when a half-pink, half-light blue flower showed up on my Nikko blue hydrangea. I think we raised a raise to toast it.
So pardon me if I get a little miffed that in some places it is so easy to produce amazing blue hydrangea blooms that they act like it’s no big deal.
Like this lacecap variety (I hope it looks blue; I was trying to do photoshop on my iPad, mostly unsuccessfully).
Where did I find that? Oh just along the side of a busy roadway.
And then there’s this:
All those blooms just hanging out in the parking lot. Just because it’s a little raised planting box that keeps people from parking their Mercedes on the deck of a yacht doesn’t mean they have to throw it in our faces.
Or this lowly planting, jammed in the corner of the parking lot at the hotel.
Oh yeah? Well those geraniums look like crap. So there. See what I’ve been reduced to? Geranium bashing. How sad.
(Filed from a quick trip to Newport, Rhode Island, where I had to take a whirlwind work trip this week. Just because they happen to have amazing seafood and world-class sailing doesn’t mean they should get blue hydrangeas too.)
6 Responses
I feel your pain. I can get every color except blue. I work at a major trauma center and one night I had 5 minutes to take a breather so I went outside. I had never noticed before but there is a HUGE blue hydrangea bush right outside the main entrance. I even looked both ways hoping no one was looking because I was so going to cut me some flowers with my bandage scissors.
Hey People,
Show-offs
Alright alright alright that's exactly what I needed! Always a good job right here, thank you very much.
My sister lives in Erie, PA and there are so many blue hydrangeas that it actually gets boring! And they can grow Japanese maples so well that i have seen people do topiary type pruning on them. We laughed when we saw that as it was hard for us to imagine life in their zone!
I agree!!!! I've just read somewhere that adding coffee grounds MIGHT help; ready to try most anything!
Nancy
You made me laugh with my cup of coffee, Erin. Thanks for the morning smile.
But you are right – it's just not fair!!! All I ever can grow is good old Annabelles, not that I'm complaining about their huge flowerheads which light up my shade garden. And I really dont' trust all the homemade recipes to make the flowers blue – I've never had any success with it. But the rusty nails idea above sounds fun.
Hi !
Here in Belgium we have a special product to make hydrangea's blue but some people use rusty nails, they put rusty nails in the soil arround the hydrangea bush. You can also try to make your soil more acid by using soil for rhododendrons or you can put your hydrangea's near conifers or pine tree's. Good luck !
greetings,
gwennie