Hydrangea Fertilizer

The Best Fertilizer Options For Hydrangeas

Feeding your Hydrangea plant with correct and best fertilizer is the secret to growing plants that look amazing and flower longer!

How To Change The Hydrangea Flower Colour

Only the coloured Hydrangea varieties can be managed to get the flower colour to change from blue to pink or vice versa. As a general rule, Hydrangeas will turn blue in acidic soils or pink in alkaline soils. The stronger the acidity or alkalinity, the more intense (i.e., darker) will be the colour. To make the soil more acidic use soil acidifying fertiliser. To make the soil more alkaline, use dolomite. Please follow the directions with these products as overuse can result in plant injury. You also want to avoid dramatic shifts in the soil pH as the plants need to adjust to the changing soil conditions. The Plant Company advises using pH test kits to monitor the soil pH. Changes in the flower colour should become apparent within a few weeks.

How To Make A Blue Hydrangea

If your Hydrangea is pink and you want to turn it blue, simply add soil acidifying fertiliser. As the acid levels in the soil increase, the flower colour will become darker blue. Please note, however, if your hydrangea is white or cream coloured, the flower colour will not change greatly with changes in soil acidity.

What Is The Best Fertiliser For Hydrangeas Grown In A Pot?

Hydrangeas grown in containers require different fertiliser to those grown outdoors in soil. In this instance the correct fertilisers to use are either the container plant fertiliser or fertiliser tablets. Each of these will provide safe, sustained, and complete nutrition to the plant for the next 12-months. Using other types of fertiliser can be detrimental to the plant and may result in plant injury or death.

Foliar feeding using a liquid fertiliser can be undertaken if you have time but this is not essential if container plant fertiliser or fertiliser tablets have been used. If you think the plant needs an extra boost or has some yellowing, however, a liquid fertiliser application won’t hurt. A great benefit of foliar feeding is that it helps keep the leaves strong and encourages more flower buds to form as the nutrition is right where the plant needs it.

What Is The Best Fertiliser For Hydrangeas?

Hydrangeas are vigorous plants that require feeding to keep them flowering and growing optimally. A lot of articles have all sorts of advice on this subject but we prefer to keep it simple. The Plant Company’s shrub fertiliser has been blended to give plants an initial boost and then sustained nutrition for 12-months. We recommend the fertiliser is applied to the soil surface in spring just as the buds start to burst. More importantly, we advise that no fertiliser is placed in the hole at planting, but rather spread around the soil surface so it can wash through the roots as it releases. The Plant Company shrub fertiliser ensures that nutrients remain in the soil around the plant rather than being lost through the soil profile to where the plant cannot reach it. This also applies to plants grown on sandy soils. This fertiliser is therefore very environmentally friendly and longer lasting than most other products in the market.

Foliar feeding using a liquid fertiliser can be undertaken if you have time but this is not essential if shrub fertiliser or fertiliser for acid loving plants has been applied. If you think the plants need an extra boost or have some yellowing, however, a liquid fertiliser application won’t hurt. A great benefit of foliar feeding is that it helps keep the leaves strong and encourages more flower buds to form as the nutrition is right where the plant needs it.

What Is The Best Organic Fertiliser For Hydrangeas?

Hydrangeas are showy plants that require feeding to keep them flowering and looking amazing. A lot of articles have all sorts of advice on this subject which often requires multiple applications so you use more of their fertiliser. The Plant Company prefers to take a simpler and more environmentally responsible approach. We believe the best organic option is The Plant Company organic fertiliser which is applied in spring and again in autumn and will keep them well fed. You can safely apply generous amounts of this fertiliser to plants without risk of injuring the plants. More details about this organic fertiliser are provided with the product.

What Is The Optimum Soil pH For Hydrangeas?

The soil pH refers to how acid of alkaline the soil is. Hydrangeas prefer a soil pH within the range of 6.2 to 7.5 which means they will tolerate both acidic and semi-alkaline soils. As the pH of the soil moves away from this optimum range, the nutrients the plant is taking up (or not taking up) through the roots changes. If the shift in pH is too far, this can result in deficiencies of some nutrients and toxic levels of others. In either case this can cause the plant to become sick or even die a slow death.

The best way to know whether the pH is correct for your plant is to do a test. The Plant Company has pH test kits available that are easy to use and only take a few minutes to get a result. Preferably this test should be completed before planting so any pH issues can be corrected without risking the plant. A pH less 6.2 should have sparing amounts of dolomite lime applied along with shrub fertiliser. A pH above 7.5 should have small amounts of soil acidifying fertiliser along with fertiliser for acid loving plants applied. In both instances the fertiliser should be thoroughly mixed into the soil before planting. A retest of the soil pH should be undertaken after four weeks and small adjustments made again. If the pH is in the optimum range, just use shrub fertiliser or fertiliser for acid loving plants thereafter.