hydrangeas.

[drray23]

We have several hydrangeas in our yard. We are in southeastern Virginia. After hurricane Isabel in 2003 they stopped flowering. At that time yard got flooded but it did not kill the hydrangeas.

For the first time in 18 years , one of them is putting out a flower. We had tried fertilizing, weeding around it, etc.. in the past and could never get them to flower again even thought they put out a robust foliage. Not sure what changed. The only thing I can think of is that we now have chickens that we let roam and they maybe picked bugs around it and pooped there fertilizing it ?

[mopinko]

1. do you prune them?

this is one that needs new wood from time to time.

[drray23]

4. yes we did prune them before. all the way down to a few sticks.

[lark]

2. Yeah that's strange because hydrangeas are generally big producers when fertilized.

WEll, they do need acid type fertilizer to bloom abundantly. I've got 5 in one of my large front flower beds, one white with blue centers (it's unusual) one fuscia, one dark purple, and a huge light lavender one. It's neat, the fuscia one has now surrounded the white one so it looks like one bush and 2 different color flowers.

The house where I grew up had so many of these bushes, as a kid I called them cloud plants and still love them and get excited every year to see what exact color they will show me this year.

[mopinko]

5. we had them too. called them snowball bushes.

[Phoenix61]

3. They are picky little suckers.

Just the right amount of light in just the right place and it’s all but impossible to kill them. One little thing off and they struggle. I love them but don’t have any place in my yard where they would get the right amount of light.

[lark]

6. We live in an old growth oak forest that was minimally thinned to put in housing.

It's the perfect climate, growing up under the drip lines of 2 of the big oak trees in front so they get early morning sun, and good filtered light the rest of the day but no hot direct afternoon sun. NO light at all and they die and direct sun in the summer afternoons kills them too.

[Phoenix61]

7. I had lots trees then Hurricane Michael happened.

I’ve planted a bunch and hope in the next few years I’ll have a space for some hydrangeas. They are one of my favorites.

[lark]

8. Sorry you got hit by that strong storm.

It was originally forecast to hit Jax straight on, but it moved west so our fortune was other people's nightmare. Good luck with the hydrangeas! If they have bright filtered light and lots of water and you fertilize them regularly with an acid fertilizer, they can sure bring lots of beauty.

[Phoenix61]

9. I'm not sure what storm you are thinking of.

Michael came out of the Bay of Campeche and nailed Mexico Beach in the panhandle. There have been so many it’s hard to keep up with them all. Fingers crossed on the hydrangeas.

[lark]

10. I bet it was Matthew - sorry about that.

Old brain gets confused by so much history....