My hydrangeas are changing colors

[Indigo Blue]

I’ve never had hydrangeas before. There’s so much to know about them. I had no idea. I have two. One started out blue and has now changed to bright purple. The other one was gorgeous, starting out with a mix of white (center of each tiny flower) to a dusty pink on the outer edge. This was my favorite, but it changed to a solid, bright carnation pink! It’s still pretty. 
 

And it looks like the purple ones might turn pink. Maybe they will end up the same color? 
 

I’m learning how to prune them and take care of them. I won’t need to do much until they get bigger. 
 

Edited April 4, 2022 by Indigo Blue

[Ann.without.an.e]

The soil ph changes the color of hydrangeas so any that are planted in the same soil type will likely end up pink 😊

ETA - I believe pink means your soil is more alkaline. The more acidic, the more blue.

Edited April 1, 2022 by Ann.without.an.e

[Indigo Blue]

I’ll take the bright pink! I’m hoping for that.

[Ann.without.an.e]

1 minute ago, Indigo Blue said:

I’ll take the bright pink! I’m hoping for that.

They’re really pretty. You must have very alkaline soil. Mine went to a dingy sort of faded pink so I was sad 😂

Edited April 1, 2022 by Ann.without.an.e

[Indigo Blue]

I didn’t know this about hydrangeas. I thought people just picked the color they wanted like every other plant and that was that. I hope the Japanese beetles don’t find them. Im worried about that. 

[Ann.without.an.e]

Just now, Indigo Blue said:

I didn’t know this about hydrangeas. I thought people just picked the color they wanted like every other plant and that was that. I hope the Japanese beetles don’t find them. Im worried about that. 

If so then the inexpensive bag traps work well. You can get them at a hardware or home improvement store. 
 

[Indigo Blue]

Oh, I bet they are pretty. I was hoping for NOT blue only because that color is so common here. But I still like blue, though. 

[Ann.without.an.e]

2 minutes ago, Indigo Blue said:

Oh, I bet they are pretty. I was hoping for NOT blue only because that color is so common here. But I still like blue, though. 

Here’s to hoping they all turn pink 😊

I can’t imagine an area that small and close together has different soil ph? I guess we’ll see 

[Indigo Blue]

They rapidly changed colors from their original. I’ll post an update if they change again.

[stephanier.1765]

When I first planted mine, I added pennies to the soil. I had read somewhere to do that if you want blue blooms. After many, many years, the pennies must be wearing off because mine started to turn pink last year. I think it's interesting how they do that.

[Jean in Newcastle]

If your hydrangeas change from pink to purple or blue, add garden lime to the soil and they will turn pink again. 

[Jean in Newcastle]

https://gardentherapy.ca/hydrangea-change-color/

[skimomma]

I have hydrangeas in my yard!  At least I think I do....they are currently under two feet of snow yet....  But, I never knew why they changed colors.  I didn't plant them, they were here when we moved in 20 years ago.  As far as I can tell, they are pretty impossible to neglect.  I have never pruned mine and they get pummeled every year with snow falling off the roof, yet they come back every year.  Mine start white then go to pink, then blue.  However, I will not be seeing those flowers for a few months yet.

[Indigo Blue]

3 minutes ago, skimomma said:

However, I will not be seeing those flowers for a few months yet.

And mine wouldn’t otherwise be blooming, but they were bought from a nursery and planted, which makes me wonder if they will just bloom from now all the way through the “normal” blooming season, too. That would be a long time to have blooms!

[Terabith]

Are you sure nobody buried a dead body near them?  

[Carol in Cal.]

I always heard it was iron that turned them blue, so to put steel nails in the soil if you wanted blue ones.

[Dicentra]

I was just doing some reading about this a little while ago ('cause it's chemistry combined with gardening - be-still my heart 🙂 ) and while pH is a necessary factor in the colour of hydrangeas, it's the availability of aluminum ions to the plant that causes the colour change.  Aluminum ions in the soil are able to move in acidic soils and can be taken up by the plant causing the sepals of the bloom to be blue.  In basic soils, the aluminum ions get "locked" into a compound called aluminum hydroxide that isn't mobile and can't be taken up by the plant.  The normal colour of the sepals is red/pink and the purple/blue colour is only possible when the plant takes up the aluminum ions from the soil and the aluminum ions interact with the normally red pigment molecule to change it slightly.  To get red/pink blooms, then, you just need to make sure your soil is basic (alkaline).  To get blue/purple blooms, you need to make sure your soil is acidic and there is enough aluminum ions in your soil.  That's why articles often suggest using aluminum sulfate to help turn them blue.

This is an AWESOME article that will tell you more than you probably ever wanted to know about the chemistry involved: 😁

https://www.americanscientist.org/article/curious-chemistry-guides-hydrangea-colors

They also have a great little summary video with animations that explain things simply and concisely:

 

 

I LOVE CHEMISTRY SO MUCH. 😁

 

[Indigo Blue]

Thanks, @Dicentra!! My older son will be fascinated to know this. I may amaze him when he comes home with this new knowledge, lol. You see, son, the aluminum ions must be able to…….

My younger son loves plants, birds, and nature. He knows quite a bit. He might also be impressed with this. Bet he doesn’t know this. 
 

Thanks for posting all that!🙂

[Arcadia]

36 minutes ago, Indigo Blue said:

And mine wouldn’t otherwise be blooming, but they were bought from a nursery and planted, which makes me wonder if they will just bloom from now all the way through the “normal” blooming season, too. That would be a long time to have blooms!

Mine tend to bloom late Jan to early spring. We have them indoors and our winters can be rather warm.

25 minutes ago, Dicentra said:

.  To get blue/purple blooms, you need to make sure your soil is acidic and there is enough aluminum ions in your soil.  That's why articles often suggest using aluminum sulfate to help turn them blue.

We dump coffee grounds on ours 🤣

[Faith-manor]

These photos are like a warm hug! Gorgeous!

We have snow on the ground again. 😭

[stephanier.1765]

Just now, Arcadia said:

Mine tend to bloom late Jan to early spring. We have them indoors and our winters can be rather warm.

We dump coffee grounds on ours 🤣

I'm glad you reminded me of this. I'll ask DH to save me his (I'm not a coffee drinker).

[MEmama]

1 hour ago, Ann.without.an.e said:

They’re really pretty. You must have very alkaline soil. Mine went to a dingy sort of faded pink so I was sad 😂

The dusty pink is my favorite. 🙂. I don’t usually remember what I added to the soil the year before they turn that color, so more often than not they are blue, but I get really excited when they are pink instead. 

1 hour ago, Indigo Blue said:

I didn’t know this about hydrangeas. I thought people just picked the color they wanted like every other plant and that was that. I hope the Japanese beetles don’t find them. Im worried about that. 

I’ve never had Japanese beetles bother my hydrangeas, even in bad years. They are pretty indestructible plants (at least in the north).

[Indigo Blue]

29 minutes ago, Faith-manor said:

These photos are like a warm hug! Gorgeous!

We have snow on the ground again. 😭

Winter is almost over. Hang in there!

[Drama Llama]

The irony of someone named @Indigo Blue trying to figure out how to make their indigo blue flowers turn pink is making me smile.

 

[Indigo Blue]

2 minutes ago, Baseballandhockey said:

The irony of someone named @Indigo Blue trying to figure out how to make their indigo blue flowers turn pink is making me smile.

 

It’s those pesky aluminum ions…..😁

[Dicentra]

38 minutes ago, Indigo Blue said:

Thanks, @Dicentra!! My older son will be fascinated to know this. I may amaze him when he comes home with this new knowledge, lol. You see, son, the aluminum ions must be able to…….

My younger son loves plants, birds, and nature. He knows quite a bit. He might also be impressed with this. Bet he doesn’t know this. 
 

Thanks for posting all that!🙂

You're very welcome!  If your sons have any questions or need any help with the more complicated stuff in the article, just message me and I'd be happy to help. 🙂

31 minutes ago, Arcadia said:

We dump coffee grounds on ours 🤣

Depending on how you make your coffee and the pH of the water you use, coffee grounds can provide a source of aluminum ions:

https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acsomega.0c01410#

It doesn't take very much aluminum to cause the colour change (the threshold is about 40mg of aluminum available per gram of sepal) and most soils have aluminum ions already present so adding coffee grounds might help to boost the aluminum concentration over the threshold. 🙂

[fairfarmhand]

2 hours ago, Indigo Blue said:

I didn’t know this about hydrangeas. I thought people just picked the color they wanted like every other plant and that was that. I hope the Japanese beetles don’t find them. Im worried about that. 

The Japanese Beetles here never bother hydrangeas.

[prairiewindmomma]

Fwiw, most hardware stores carry supplements to help swing your plants either way. We have naturally acidic soil (volcanic) but we occasionally have to amend it to keep our hydrangea blue. The same stuff works beautifully on blueberry bushes and azaleas.

[mmasc]

Gorgeous! I love hydrangeas—any of the colors—pink, blue, purple. I love them all! Thank you for posting the pictures. 

[Pam in CT]

Pam in CT's Hydrangea Learnings:

1. Preferred deer food.

2. To go toward more blue => add coffee grounds

3. To go toward more pink => add well-ground-up eggshells.  Or, there are various products at garden stores that will get to the same place.

4. The white hybrids are bred to stay pretty white/creamy no matter how alkaline or acidic the soil is, although some of them (PeeGee, Annabelle) turn a lovely dusty rose in the fall.

5. Most varieties propagate with soft cuttings.

6. And most varieties do better/send out more shoots with fairly brutal pruning (although southern zones are probably already past the window for this).

[Indigo Blue]

Thanks @Pam in CT. Hopefully the deer won’t jump my fence to get them!

[KungFuPanda]

19 hours ago, Pam in CT said:

Pam in CT's Hydrangea Learnings:

1. Preferred deer food.

2. To go toward more blue => add coffee grounds

3. To go toward more pink => add well-ground-up eggshells.  Or, there are various products at garden stores that will get to the same place.

4. The white hybrids are bred to stay pretty white/creamy no matter how alkaline or acidic the soil is, although some of them (PeeGee, Annabelle) turn a lovely dusty rose in the fall.

5. Most varieties propagate with soft cuttings.

6. And most varieties do better/send out more shoots with fairly brutal pruning (although southern zones are probably already past the window for this).

 

5 hours ago, Indigo Blue said:

Thanks @Pam in CT. Hopefully the deer won’t jump my fence to get them!

My deer are aggressive.  They'll jump the fence.  The wildlife has gotten really brave since they all figured out we no longer have a dog.  I do NOT want to get another dog. (I kinda want another dog.) However, I really, really REALLY want an oak leaf hydrangea.  I have the perfect conditions and I need the four season interest.

@Pam in CT, do you know anything about camelias?  They're not native, but I really really want one.  I feel like I've built up enough native plant karma to plant the occasional ornamental that isn't a snack for the wildlife.  So few things flower nicely in the shade and I already have azaleas and a rhododendron.

[Indigo Blue]

@KungFuPandayou should definitely get another dog. 
 

I have camellias! Four of them. I trim them to look like small trees. They are planted in the shade across my road frontage for privacy along with several ligustrum. They are gorgeous in the late fall/early winter. 

[Pam in CT]

No, I've never tried camelias. They're exquisite, but I'm too scared: I'm on the edge of 6 headed toward 7 with climate change; whereas they're 8 maybe nudging toward 7 with sturdier variants.

We don't get a great deal of snow, although we do get a few sustained stints of below 20 every winter and a lot of ice; but what most brutalizes stuff planted at the very edge of the zone is we get huge crazy SWINGS at the tail ends of both spring and fall. For four straight days last week we never got above 38, and it was dipping at night to below 25. And my yard is *really* shady, so my microhabitat is colder than others in town. My heart has been broken trying too many times trying to nurse along expensive pushing-the-zone-envelope plantings!

Also, you should get a dog.

[KungFuPanda]

4 hours ago, Indigo Blue said:

@KungFuPandayou should definitely get another dog. 
 

 

 

3 hours ago, Pam in CT said:

 

Also, you should get a dog.

Enablers!

I'm in 6b/7a, but I don't think we've ever seen 20 below.  If it goes below zero at all it's a rare, notable occurrence.  We do tend to get more ice than snow because we like to hover right around the freeze-thaw point.

But, man am I obsessed with the idea of having a few camellias to train as trees and use as a gentle screening plant on the north border of my property.  I could start with one and see how it goes. 😁

[Pam in CT]

{I stated that poorly -- we regularly go less than 20 for sustained intervals, every winter. Only below 0 for brief intervals some years, not all years. And I can't remember ever going below -20.}

But it's the spring and fall spiking that kills stuff. I mean, you can actually *see* things bud out, start to open up, and then last week of March BAM 4 straight days of ~25 degree nights and 4 days of no higher than 34, and all those sweet fragile promising buds just curl inward and then fall right off, and the tree just never recovers.

It's the worst.

 

 

It's jasmine I've longed for all my life. Something about the smell of jasmine just resonates with my soul.

[Catwoman]

On 4/1/2022 at 7:05 PM, mmasc said:

Gorgeous! I love hydrangeas—any of the colors—pink, blue, purple. I love them all! Thank you for posting the pictures. 

I agree! I think they are so beautiful, no matter what color they are!

[KungFuPanda]

15 hours ago, Pam in CT said:

{I stated that poorly -- we regularly go less than 20 for sustained intervals, every winter. Only below 0 for brief intervals some years, not all years. And I can't remember ever going below -20.}

But it's the spring and fall spiking that kills stuff. I mean, you can actually *see* things bud out, start to open up, and then last week of March BAM 4 straight days of ~25 degree nights and 4 days of no higher than 34, and all those sweet fragile promising buds just curl inward and then fall right off, and the tree just never recovers.

It's the worst.

 

 

It's jasmine I've longed for all my life. Something about the smell of jasmine just resonates with my soul.

I have jasmine in a pot that I bring in every winter. It’s my absolute favorite smell. I don’t know why lavender gets all the good press. Sometimes I make jasmine green tea just to breathe it in. 

[Pam in CT]

re transcendent jasmine

4 minutes ago, KungFuPanda said:

I have jasmine in a pot that I bring in every winter. It’s my absolute favorite smell. I don’t know why lavender gets all the good press. Sometimes I make jasmine green tea just to breathe it in. 

Yeah, I like lavendar; I like honeysuckle and verbena and Thai basil and all sorts of other smells in the garden too (not, weirdly, roses).  And other smells too - cinnamon, cumin, sandalwood, pine needles, all kinds.

But jasmine = something else for me. Hearkens me to a previous life or something.

 

It never occurred to me to try to overwinter indoors. What kind of light?

[Indigo Blue]

4 minutes ago, Pam in CT said:

re transcendent jasmine

Yeah, I like lavendar; I like honeysuckle and verbena and Thai basil and all sorts of other smells in the garden too (not, weirdly, roses).  And other smells too - cinnamon, cumin, sandalwood, pine needles, all kinds.

But jasmine = something else for me. Hearkens me to a previous life or something.

 

It never occurred to me to try to overwinter indoors. What kind of light?

I agree about jasmine. Sandalwood, lemongrass, and lavender are wonderful, but jasmine is just the best. 

[mmasc]

Ok, if we’re talking smells, then my vote is for honeysuckle. I ❤️❤️❤️ the smell of honeysuckle. Absolutely love it. Someday I’ll plant some along an old, back fence in my (imaginary) country house and let it run wild!

[Faith-manor]

On 4/1/2022 at 3:37 PM, Indigo Blue said:

Winter is almost over. Hang in there!

It will never be over! It snowed again today. 😭😭😭

[Lisa]

They are gorgeous! I've tried to grow two hydrangeas and killed them both.

[Indigo Blue]

1 hour ago, Lisa said:

They are gorgeous! I've tried to grow two hydrangeas and killed them both.

Oh, no!!!!!

[KungFuPanda]

5 hours ago, Pam in CT said:

re transcendent jasmine

Yeah, I like lavendar; I like honeysuckle and verbena and Thai basil and all sorts of other smells in the garden too (not, weirdly, roses).  And other smells too - cinnamon, cumin, sandalwood, pine needles, all kinds.

But jasmine = something else for me. Hearkens me to a previous life or something.

 

It never occurred to me to try to overwinter indoors. What kind of light?

We can start a jasmine cult.  I have a dark house.  I put it by a west-facing window where it gets very diffused light.  I bring it inside in the fall just before the last frost, and put it back outside as soon as I can in the spring.  It seems to be surviving its 3rd winter inside.  Some years it blooms before I can put it out in the spring.  It's wonderful.  One year it bloomed twice. 

I'm attempting to propagate some for a friend now.  My friend NEEDS some.  She named her daughter Jasmine. I was going to send my plant to overwinter in her sunroom, but I'd forgotten that I potted it up and it was WAY to heavy to move to another house.  I barely got it rolled into mine and I have a wheelchair accessible home.