Hydrangea School and Rusty Vintage Wire Basket

What is your favorite flower?  Mine used to be roses.  But over the years it's changed from roses to hydrangeas.  I think the love affair started with our first house.  Lucky for me it just happened to have a HUGE blue hydrangea bush next to the back deck. When I say HUGE I mean I'd never seen anything like it ever before. And the depth of the blue was absolutely brilliant.

Fast forward 13 years. In our current house, my husband planted a bunch of hydrangea bushes in the back yard.  Last summer was so sad, though, I could have cried.  We had such a drought here in the Midwest that there was nary a blooming hydrangea head to be found all summer.  At least not in our yard.  But we're hoping for better weather this year, and in honor of that notion he went out and bought me two more hydrangea plants!  Not like I hinted around that I wanted any, or anything.

Aren't they gorgeous?  I placed both pots in a silver tub, and then I placed the tub in a rusty old wire basket.  The basket is an awesome Kane County Flea Market find. It's just the right amount of rusty and it has red rubber handles.  Looking back, I wish I had bought a few more when I had the chance.  Unfortunately, I didn't have the extra cash at the time.

See what I mean about the basket?  Awesome.

So I looked up a bit about hydrangeas in The Old Farmer's Almanac and thought I would share what I found with you here.  So here goes.

Botanical name: Hydrangea
Plant type: Shrub
USDA Hardiness Zones:3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9
Sun exposure:Part Sun, Shade
Soil type:Any
Soil pH:Acidic
, Slightly Acidic to Neutral, Neutral
, Neutral to Slightly Alkaline
Flower color:Red, Pink, Blue, Purple, White
Bloom time:Summer, Fall

Did you know that you can change the color of the blooms by changing the acidity of the soil?  I always thought that was so cool about hydrangeas.  Acidic soils with a pH of less than 5.5 produce blue flowers; soils with a pH greater than 5.5 product pink flowers. White flowers are not affected by pH.  To get blue flowers, you need to lower the pH, which you can do by adding sulfur or peat moss to the soil. To get pink to light red flowers, add ground limestone around the plant.  Any change won't be instant, though. Color correction takes weeks, even months. It's easier to change blue flowers to pink than it is to change pink flowers to blue. Wait until the plant is at least 2 years old to give it time to recover from the shock of its original planting.

Planting
Most hydrangeas thrive in rich, porous, somewhat moist soils. Add compost to enrich poor soil.

• They prefer full sun in the morning, with some afternoon shade; however, many will grow and bloom in partial shade. This is especially true for the bigleaf hydrangeas.  {I think mine get too much sun!} 
• Plant in spring or fall.  {Guess I better get cracking!}
• Dig a hole as deep as the root ball and 2 to 3 times as wide.
• Set the plant in the hole and fill it half full with soil. Water. After water is drained, fill the rest of the hole with soil.
• Water thoroughly.
• Space multiple hydrangeas about 3 to 10 feet apart.  {Mine are WAY too close together!}

Harvest/Storage
Try drying hydrangea flowers to create a wreath or other decorations around the house:
{I love to do this!}

• Harvest the heads when the flowers have matured and developed a papery consistency.
• Remove leaves from stems, and hang upside down in a warm, dry, dark, airy room.
• When completely dry (usually a couple of weeks), store in a dry location out of direct sunlight.
• To enhance flower color, spritz dry flowers with diluted Rit dye.  {I've never done this, not sure you even need to.  Mine dry fine and seem to hold their color well without the dye.} 

 I don't know the specific type of hydrangeas they are since they didn't come with any identifying information.  {Admission:  they're from Costco.)  I'm hoping that that doesn't automatically mean they aren't for long-term planting.  I fully intend to give it a go and see what happens.  Hopefully we'll be blessed with great cutting blooms throughout the summer and fall to come.  

If you're interested in hydrangeas as much as I am you can always check out my Hydrangea Pinterest Board!  I think you'll agree that most of the pins are swoon-worthy.  Be sure to check them out.

What color are your hydrangeas? Do you ever dry them? 

How do you use them in your home decor?  

I'd love to know!  

Well, that's it until next time, friends! 

I hope you enjoyed reading 

Hydrangea School and Rusty Vintage Wire Basket.

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