For those on the hunt for a brightly coloured plant for their gardens, hydrangeas have become a popular choice thanks to their striking, large blooms and adaptability to various garden settings. They also boast long-flowering periods, meaning they will ensure your garden remains a beautiful colour throughout the summer months.
However, gardeners may find that their shrubs are struggling to bloom or have failed to grow to the desired size. Luckily, a gardener has shared her tips for growing beautiful hydrangea shrubs in her front garden. She has revealed that she used one key ingredient that has left her loved ones jealous of her garden.
“I’m always asked by friends and family how I get my hydrangeas to be so large,” said Stacey via her TikTok page, @stacey..marie.
“I bought a new build property and our front garden wasn’t that big, so I wanted to put something that was simple and I love the colour of white and green, so I put in hydrangeas.”
According to Stacey, the secret to encouraging the hydrangeas to grow is tomato feed: “I start feeding them with tomato feed every other week from March.
“I get this from Home Bargains – it’s around £1.99. The hydrangeas are absolutely massive, so I highly recommend.”
Hydrangea is a summer-flowering shrub known for its attractive, colourful blooms. They come in a variety of colours and can even change colour depending on the soil’s acidity, from white to shades of pink, blue and purple.
Those with blue and pink flowers tend to be blue in acid soils (high available aluminium levels), mauve in lightly acidic to neutral conditions and pink in alkaline conditions. White, red and green-flowered cultivars, meanwhile, remain white or green regardless of the soil pH.
According to the RHS, the best time to plant your hydrangea is in spring or autumn. Ideally, plant you shrub in light shade, however, you can plant in a sunnier spot if the soil is not too dry in summer.
Continue to water regularly during the first grow season from spring to summer when there has been no significant rain or seven to 10 days. Even mature plants will benefit from watering during hot, dry spells.
If you’re specifically after a blue flower, you can use “hydrangea blueing compounds”, which contain aluminium sulphate. If you wish to enhance red or pink flowers, apply a dressing of ground limestone or chalk at a rate of 75-100g per square metre (2-3oz square yard) in winter.
