This is Weed. And this is WACK with WOWDY gardens. We’re an organic gardening show focusing on how to improve our gardens without spending any money. Right, and we like to use our gardening to eat healthy and stay healthy. That’s right. You know, you get a little exercise out there watering, even if you just stand in there with a hose. Yeah, for sure. And water yourself while you’re at it. Exactly. I feel like doing that first.
I’ve been doing a lot of watering. But yeah, this time we’re going to talk about hydrangeas. It’s a plant I’ve often inherited in the various places I’ve lived in. But I’ve never paid much attention to them, but they make great flower bouquets in a pinch if you need to go on a date. And that’s why you should keep your hydrangeas watered. But anyway, you’ve done a lot. They’re also good foundation plants. You’ve done a lot of landscaping over the years. You had your own business and you’ve dealt with hydrangeas.
Tell us about this species, if you would. Hydrangeas, actually hydrangeas like water. Hydro hydrangea. They will wilt quickly. I spent a very long time with mine last night. Yes, exactly. Mine needed perking. And last night, I stood with a hose right over them and they came right back. They were very happy about that. So we have five different types of hydrangea that grow in this area. And it’s important to know which type you have because
two of them bloom on new growth, whereas three of them bloom on old growth. And you don’t want to cut off the future flowers. So by knowing what type you have, you can avoid improper pruning. What’s the best way to identify the species if you moved into a place and you have hydrangeas and you’re not sure what you got? We have five different types. They are hydrangea arborensis.
That’s the tree type. We have penicillata, which is a panicle flower type. We have pediolaris, which is a vine type. There’s macrophila. That’s the globe flower type with the big leaves. That’s the one I’m most familiar with. That’s the most common. And the corsifolia, which is the oak leaf type. Now the corsifolia macrophila and
penicillata all bloom on last year’s growth. So when you prune them, you just need to basically take out the dead wood and take off the dead flowers. The arborensis, the tree type and the pediolaris, the climbing type bloom on new growth. So you can go ahead and prune those back and they’ll put off lots of shoots with new growth. You’ll get more flowers if you prune them heavy.
The main type, the most common type in the area is the macrophila, which is the globe type with the large leaves. And these have big globe like blue or pink flowers, depending on soil acidity. Basically, the entire area has clay soil. So clay soil is acidic and that will produce blue flowers. If you have the shrub next to a brick building,
the plant will turn will put off acidic water, which will keep the flowers blue. If you have the plant next to a concrete walkway, the flowers on this, that side of the plant will turn pink because the concrete as it, as rain falls on concrete, it emits lime into the soil and the lime causes the flowers to turn pink. So you can literally change the color of your plant. We had, we used to have a large one in front of our house.
And the pieces made me a little art, art piece out of a drop, drop in concrete in a bucket and then dropping some stones in there to make a little design. And I took that slab and I put it on one side of the hydrangea. And as you water, as I watered the thing and on the other side, I put a brick just on top of the ground. And as I watered the thing, I made sure to water the concrete slab on one side and the brick on the other. And sure enough, I had vibrant blue flowers on the brick side, vibrant pink flowers on the other side.
And the concrete side and purple flowers in the center. – Interesting. – Which was really cool. – Right, right. I’ve heard of things like that. – So there are very few shrubs that have vibrant blue flowers. – And if you water them, they’re fairly hardy. You really don’t have to add any extra compost or a whole lot around them, it seems to me. – That’s right. – Because the ones I’ve had, all I’ve had to do to maintain them is water. – That’s right. They’re very hardy in this area.
- Cool. Well, so if you were to plant a hydrangea, would you go for the easiest one if you’re a beginner, such as I am? They’re bush, so you probably have to dig a fairly good sized hole. We’ll deal with that later. But which one would you pick if you were a beginner and you just wanted to start with one, probably a globe one, right? – Well, the macrofila would be the easiest to work with. I would say that a deer love to eat the
quercifolia one, the oak leaf hydrangea. If deer go to a hydrangea grove, they’re going to eat that quercifolia first. And I’ve seen that happen. – So which one is the most deer resistant? That’s important in this area. – Deer resistant, I’m going to say a penicillata or pediolaris. Pediolaris, the vine type. – Right. – I’ve never seen deer eat the vine type. – That can grow out of their reach too as well. - Deer men and have fun and water, they do like sun. – That’s right, full sun. – They can handle some shade. – Some sun, but they do better in full sun. – Right, right. – And you know, plant a hydrangea. – Yeah. – Now there are other types of the macrofila, like for example, in my yard, I also have the lace cap type, which is, it’s not a globe, it’s more like a flatter flower with just the outside flowers in the inflorescence open.
- Opening up. – Right. – So the inside ones stay closed. – And they’re good pollinators, or good for the insects, I suppose. – Yeah, absolutely. – Well, I don’t want to ask this question, but I will. They’re probably not a native species. – I believe they’re Asian. – Well, anyway, folks, garden on. – That’s right. So what did we learn today? – What did we learn today? – Water your hydrangeas.
- I’m like, crazy, and they’re pretty damn hardy. – And if you want to change the color of the flower, you can put brick on one side or concrete on the other for the macrofila. Enjoy that. – Yeah, play with the colors. – And so goodbye from weed and whack. Join us next week, cause we’ll be back.