I love hydrangeas simply because they produce massive amounts of long lastting beautiful flowers. Even my husband agrees that they are a hard plant to beat (and that’s saying something)! There are a ton of varieties but definitly ones that do better in Iowa than others. Here are a few of our favorites that we sell in the garden center.
Endless Summer Hydrangea
What’s not to love about the Endless Summer Hydrangea? It begins blooming late spring and blooms endlessly until early fall. The blooms can be pink or blue in color depending on the soil acidity (add lime to the soil for pink blooms and aluminum sulfate for blue blooms). The shrub will grow up to 4′ tall by 4′ wide and tolerates full sun to part shade.
Pinky Winky Hydrangea
Pinky Winky Hydrangeas are a great shrub because it has a strong vigourous upright growth habit. The blooms are large (up to 12″) and pyramidal in form. The blooms begin later summer and last into the late fall. They start off as creamy white and transition into a dark pink color. Pinky Winky’s can grow up to 8′ tall and wide and can quickly fill an empty space.
Limelight Hydrangea
Limelight hydrangeas are fabulous for their upright growth habit and their large cone shaped flowers. The blooms start mid summer as creamy white and eventually transition to a chartreuse green and onto shades of pink into early fall. They can grow up to 6′ to 8′ tall and do well in full sun.
Annabelle Hydrangea
Annabelles are always a favorite in Iowa gardens. They have enormous creamy white (volleyball size) flower heads, blooms all summer long, can tolerate full shade to part sun, and are super hardy in Iowa’s winters. Their only downfall is that the stalks often droop when the flower blooms are at their largest. This hydrangea gets approximately 3′ to 5′ tall and wide. Trim it back to the ground before winter hits for best results.
Bella Anna Hydrangea
One of the newest varieties we’ve added to the garden this year is the Bella Anna Hydrangea, which is a strikingly beautiful plant with large, bright pink flower heads. It is the first truly hardy pink Annabelle Hydrangea. It began blooming in the early summer and is supposed to continue to bloom through Fall. Plant it in full sun to part shade. It grows 3’ wide x 3’ tall.
In my next few blog posts I will show you how to make a fresh hydrangea wreath and how to dry them for use in dried bouquets. Happy planting!
Just wanted to let you know how beautiful your flowers are. I Love my flowers and birds. Hope you had a good weekend.
I have purchased 3 hydrangeas from Ted Lare. I have the small version. This year my plants are not blooming. The plants our in great condition, but won’t bloom. I have fed them blooming food, with no results, can you offer some better suggestions.
At this point I am greatly disappointed in my hydrangeas. They bloomed last year pretty good. It was there first year so my expectations were not as great as this year.
Please advise.
Karolyn Davis
Hi Karolyn. Sometimes the Hydrangesa actually have a harder time the second year than the first. They were forced into blooming the first year in the containers by the growers . The second year they do not always bloom as well or at all because they are catching up on rooting out into the soil. It also depends on how much sun the hydrangeas are getting. They really need to get at least 1/2 day of direct sun in order to have enough energy to produce blooms. Typically the more sun, the better the blooming. -Melissa
I have 3 Endless Summer hydrangeas on the east side of my house (sun until 2:00, then shade. They’ve bloomed only once this summer.
Also I have 2 more in another location, but similar sun. NO blooms this summer.
All the plants are 4 years old, and still need frequent watering on hot days.
I’ve fertilized with Miracle Grow/ acid version.
Suggestions?
Hi Linda. Low to no bloom count on a more established plant is sometimes a hard thing to diagnose. There are many things that have to be just perfect in order for your plant to produce those beautiful blooms and if one thing isn’t quite right it won’t produce them. At this point since your plant is well established you should consider having a soil test done by ISU Extenstion. Your soil may be short in a particular nutrient (that would help the hydrangeas bloom) or may have too much of something. Soil with excessive nitrogen can often produce nice leafty green plants with no blooms. A soil test is the only way to know for sure what nurtrients your soil (and your plants) may be missing. -Melissa