by Kim Brockman

Created on: June 06, 2007

Hydrangea, meaning "water tub" in Greek, are perennial bushes with huge round flower heads made up of many tiny blossoms. As its name implies, it likes lots of water. Colors range from white to pink to blue to purple. Some varieties change colors over the summer. We've even seen bushes made up of two or more colors spliced together, leading to beautiful and patriotic (depending on where you live!) red, white and blue arrangements in one bush!

You can affect the color of your hydrangea by altering the soil nutrients. Two things affect the color of the blooms aluminum and the pH level of the soil. Aluminum is a micro-nutrient that actually causes the color changes. The pH level governs the plant's ability to take in the aluminum. The higher the acidity, the bluer the flower. Less aluminum means white flowers. A more alkaline soil results in pink hues. You can add aluminum sulfate or wettable sulfur to the soil to make it more acid or quantities of super phosphate or dolomitic lime to make it more alkaline. It may take a year to see the changing color from these treatments.

There are over 1200 different species of hydrangeas! Different varieties have different characteristics, but most grow from 3 to 10 feet tall, with some getting as high as 25 feet. They thrive in full sun to partial shade. The warmer the client, the more shade they'll prefer. All have attractive foliage spring through fall, with the large flowers appearing mid-summer. One disadvantage is that they lose their beautiful foliage in the winter and are reduced to a rather unattractive clump of woody stems until spring.

Hydrangeas produce seeds that can be harvested and grown, but they can also be started from cuttings. Cut new growth about 6 to 8 inches for the end of a non-flowering stem, sometime between April and August. Make sure the cutting has two or three pairs of leaves, and remove the bottom pair. Use a rooting hormone like Roottone or Hormonex, and plant the cutting in sterile sand, vermiculite or sphagnum moss placed in the shade. Keep the soil moist and protect the new plant with an inverted glass jar until the roots have formed and taken hold. It is at this point you can transplant it to your garden or container. It will do best in a mix of loam and peat moss. Old, established hydrangeas can also be divided.

Hydrangeas only bloom on the tip of new growth. Therefore after the bloom fades, the stem can be removed completely. This allows more blooms to grow. If damaged, never fear! The hydrangea

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