By Jude50
United Kingdom
HI I HAVE A HYDRANGIA AND I BOUGHT IT TWO YEARS A GO AS A BLUE ONE AND THEN LAST YEAR IT BLOOMED PINK AND I HAVE PUT COPPER PIPING IN THE POT AND IT IS STILL PINK THIS YEAR HOW CAN I TURN IT BLUE AGAIN
- 13 Jun, 2011
Answers
If I'm not mistaken, you mention a pot - so if its in a pot, go out and buy some ericaceous compost, and repot into that instead.
13 Jun, 2011
Ah, right.
I hope it's a decent sized pot :-/
13 Jun, 2011
Thank you for asking this question! I thought I was going mad. I only moved into my place last year and could have sworn my hydrangeas were blue, now both are coming out pink. I know what to do now.
Thanks all x
13 Jun, 2011
You can buy a compound from garden centres that will help them stay blue. Also you can water them with Epsom Salts. Mulch with rotted lawn mowings and all the coffee grounds you can lay your hands on as both these are slightly acid and will help a bit. My soil is only just on the acid side of neutral and mine stays blue, so it doesn't have to be a very acid soil.
13 Jun, 2011
Aluminum sulfate is the compound sold to turn Hydrangeas blue. Note that Epsom salts (magnesium sulfate) will turn some varieties of Hydrangea white!
14 Jun, 2011
Sequestrene iron tonic works as well.
14 Jun, 2011
My Hydrangeas are blue and I wanted to a dark red one. I wonder if I can put something that can make them red?
14 Jun, 2011
No you can't, Aimankay - blue hydrangeas don't stay perfect blue in soil which isn't acidic - the others are largely unaffected. Grow yours in alkaline conditions and they'll be pink or lilacy pink.
14 Jun, 2011
Thats amazing, Tug! Never heard that before.
16 Jun, 2011
Well I missed that completely - when you say turn white, Tugbrethil, I take it you mean the flowers, not the foliage?
17 Jun, 2011
The flowers, yes. I haven't found a complete list of those it has this affect on, but it is mainly the ones that are sold as white, but tend to turn patchy light pink, plus some of the ones sold as light pink or blue, and a few of those rare "picotees"
17 Jun, 2011
Good to know -nothing more annoying than a white hydrangea turning pink. A member on here had slight pinking on a white one, if I can remember who it was, might be worth his trying this.
18 Jun, 2011
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These need ericaceous soil, is yours in that or, is your soil acid ?
They will always revert to pink if the soils ph isn't acid enough and no matter what you do the soil is the only real factor, you can add allsorts of copper items but it's not enough, they need acid soil - the garden centre should have told you this when you were buying/looking at it.
Can you dig it up (DO take the entire rootball) and create an acid bed there ? Pop it back in and with some luck it'll slowly colour up blue again.
13 Jun, 2011