Hydrangea Surprise—Blue!

'Nikko Blue' flowers starting to open up—and they're turning blue!

I've been popping out to check on my hydrangeas almost every day. I enjoy watching the flowers as they open and color up. My 'Nikko Blue' hydrangea is just beginning to open its flowers and, would you believe it, they're actually turning blue this year!

If you are familiar with macrophylla hydrangeas, then you may already know that their bloom color is largely determined by the pH of the soil they're growing in. It is generally said that more acidic soil produces blue blooms and more alkaline soil produces pink blooms, but there's more to it than that. If you happen to have a macrophylla hydrangea and you, like me, have no idea what you are doing but will spend hours of internet research trying to figure it out, then I have a handy list of terms for you to include in your googling!

Search Terms for Changing Hydrangea Color

• soil pH
• water ph
• aluminum sulfate
• lime leach
• phosphorus fertilizer
• ericacious compost

There you go. Just add the words, "hydrangea color" to each search and you're off on a quest for the perfect color! Of course, there are restrictions on how much you can control the color of a hydrangea. Color intensity is determined by genes, health and climate, not soil pH and all that. If you want a really dark pink or a really pale blue or a really deep purple, you need to start by selecting the right cultivar. Also, don't buy a white hydrangea and go mucking about with the mineral content of the soil trying to turn it a different color. Ain't gonna happen. Again, read up on your species and cultivars so you know what you're looking for and, to be certain it wasn't mislabeled, buy the plant while it's in bloom.

(Disclaimer: I know very little from experience; I just do an extensive amount of googling. If you want to talk to experts and people with real color-changing experiences to share, visit a great forum like this one: GardenWeb Hydrangea Forum)

Anyway, back to my Nikko.

I planted this mophead hydrangea in May of last year, and all that summer it had flowers of a primarily pinkish hue, with some purple on the side. In my googling, I've learned that the color may vary the first year after planting, simply because the plant is adjusting to the change in locale. I wasn't expecting much of a change this year, but now that I've seen this first cluster of blue-tipped flowers, I'm hoping that it's a promise of more blue to come.

...If not, I'll add hydrangea blueing formula to next year's garden shopping list. For now, I'm too curious to see what I'm going to get without any tinkering. Wish me blue!