Heavenly hydrangeas
Here are some tips to ensure your hydrangeas keep their colour
Hydrangeas are stunning flowering shrubs, and make a beautiful inclusion in cool to warm temperate zone gardens.
New gorgeous varieties of hydrangeas are being released regularly and flower colours include the traditional brilliant blue, white and bright pink, as well as ruby red, lime green and multi-toned and lacecap flower heads.
With summer just arrived, it’s hydrangea flowering season.
Here are a few tips to help keep your hydrangeas healthy in preparation for their showy flowers:
Most hydrangeas prefer growing in a position protected from harsh sun. Morning sun and afternoon shade are ideal or dappled sun all day.
Keep hydrangeas well-watered, as the large leaves can rapidly lose moisture and wilt.
Hydrangea foliage can also be susceptible to sunburn during hot dry weather.
Move potted hydrangeas into a more sheltered location. Apply Yates Thrive Natural Seaweed Tonic around the root zone of hydrangeas to help them cope with heat and drought stress.
Feed hydrangeas regularly with Dynamic Lifter Organic Plant Food.
It contains a rich blend of chicken manure, blood and bone, fishmeal and seaweed and provides slow-release organic nutrients to hydrangeas and improves the quality of the soil. Scatter Dynamic Lifter around the root zone of hydrangeas and water in well.
Watch for white, talcum powder-looking spots on leaves which could indicate the damaging disease powdery mildew.
Regular sprays of Rose Gun will keep powdery mildew under control.
Grow a Village Green
If the idea of a beautiful vintage garden border overflowing with flowers sounds wonderful, then Yates Village Green Vintage Border Mix is for you.
It embraces the iconic gardening style of yesteryear, with an informal and romantic blend of more than 43 varieties of flowers.
It will radiate old-fashioned charm with a rainbow of vibrant colours and will help attract bees and butterflies into your garden.
Border Mix contains gorgeous flowers including campanula, cherianthus, chrysanthemum, cornflower, cosmos, dahlia, delphinium, dianthus, digitalis, godetia, gypsophila, hollyhock, larkspur, lupin, matthiola, nemophila, nigella and poppy.
It can be sown all year round and the result will vary depending on the climate and time of year.
This blend is best suited to a garden bed or border that receives at least six hours of sunshine a day.
It’s easy to sow this mix by scattering seeds thinly direct where they are to grow onto bare soil and rake lightly into the soil surface.
Firm down, keep moist and seedlings will start to emerge in 7-21 days.
To promote lots of gorgeous colour, feed the flower bed each week with Thrive Flower & Fruit Soluble Fertiliser, which provides a complete and balanced diet of nutrients as well as being boosted with additional potassium to encourage flowering.
Keep the soil moist and regularly trim spent flowers to help prolong the flower show.
Growing tip: Control any weeds in your flower bed with Nature’s Way Organic Weed Gun two weeks before sowing seed, as weeds will compete with your new flower seedlings.