Hydrangea care, a winner, and an announcement!

Hello Everyone!

I want to thank all of you who stopped in and left me a comment on my hydrangea post.

I wanted to take the time to answer a few of your questions about my hydrangeas.

I want you all to know I do not claim to be a hydrangea expert, I have experienced a lot of difficulty getting mine to grow too.

I wanted to share a few things that I have learned about this beautiful plant.

If you want to learn more about hydrangeas from an expert I really recommend you visit this site

HYDRANGEA HYDRANGEA

It is a very informative website, it provides you with everything you need to know about hydrangeas!

What I fertilize my hydrangeas with~

I fertilize my hydrangeas once to twice a year with compost. We live on a horse ranch and have a very abundant compost pile.

We first of all dug up all of the existing dirt and replaced it with compost from the ranch before planting the hydrangeas.

After you see new growth then you can start to fertilize on a weekly basis.

I do fertilize with a miracle grow that is specifically formulated for hydrangeas.

Never fertilize your plants if the soil has dried out. Always fertilize your plants when they are well hydrated.

Never plant your hydrangeas in afternoon sun!

They thrive when they receive morning sunlight.

It is best to plant them where they will receive morning sun no later than 11:00 a.m.

Like I said in my hydrangea post, my hydrangeas will now receive sun until 1:00 p.m. and I live where it is very hot! So they will burn very quickly. I am hoping to come up with a solution before that happens.

Pruning~ this is a very important topic when it comes to hydrangeas, if not done right it can determine if your plant will bloom the following year. I didn't know that I wasn't supposed to prune my hydrangea shrubs until I stumbled upon this website~

Hydrangeas Hydrangeas

It is important to know what type of hydrangea you have, as there are two types, and type one shouldn't be pruned, and type two can be pruned.

Type one~Mophead and Lacecaps (macrophyllas - usually pink or blue)

This is the type of hydrangea I have.

Buds are produced on old wood.

If you prune these after July then you will be cutting off the blooms that are forming on the old wood for the following summer.

Most likely pruning your hydrangea (mophead and lacecap type) after July will cause your hydrangeas not to bloom the following summer.

However the endless summer hydrangea is known as remontant, if pruned it will regenerate the bloom bud and bloom as usual.

If you have type 2 (Anabelle types and Pee Gee types hydrangeas), then there are a different set of rules for pruning these types.

If you would like to read more on pruning your hydrangea and finding out what kind of hydrangea you have you can click on the link below.

Pruning Hydrangeas!

How to change your hydrangea color from pink to blue~

Last year my hydrangeas were all pink and were turning green.

When I bought them they were blue, they are called Nikko Blue, and I thought they would always stay blue. That isn't the case.

A year ago I added aluminum sulfate to the soil. I was told it would take a year for them to change back to blue. I was excited to see so many of my blooms were blue this year. It worked!

If you would like to read more about how to change the color of your hydrangeas you can click on the link below.

Hydrangeas Hydrangeas

I purchased my hydrangeas from a local nursery.

They were the Monrovia Nikko Blue Hydrangeas.

I fell in love with hydrangeas after I had read an article on them in Martha Stewart Living.

I hope I was able to share some helpful information with all of you.

I know I have spent the past couple of years being frustrated trying to get mine to grow.

There are a lot of helpful tips on this website,

Hydrangeas Hydrangeas.

A Winner

Also there is a winner for the Cabbages and Roses Giveaway!

Congratulations Jeniffer from the blog, Piney Flats Style, she chose the pale raspberry pattern!

It turns out Jeniffer is making over her reading room.

She has Christina's new book, At Home with Country, and

Cabbages and Roses is her inspiration for the makeover!

I hope you enjoy your tablecloth and napkin set Jeniffer.

Thank you Cabbages and Roses for sponsoring such a generous giveaway!!

Thank you for everyone who participated in this giveaway!

I really appreciate it!

An announcement!

I also wanted to share some exciting news with all of you.

I am in the process of starting an online store. I have been working on it for the past few months. That is part of the reason I have been so absent from the blog world. I will be stocking my store with things that I LOVE!

I owe so much to all of you!

I am not a very confident person, and because of all of your encouragement you have given me, I am chasing some of my dreams!!!

THANK YOU!!!

You guys are the BEST!!!

Before I go though I want to share a link to Shannan's garden.

I have been waiting for this girl to share some pictures of her garden.

The name of her blog is Flower Patch Farmgirl!

Her blog is one of the first blogs I found and she inspires me in so many ways!!

If you guys would like to leave a link to your garden in the comment section, I would love to see some of your gardens and if you feel like sharing a gardening tip, I would love that!!!

Have a great weekend!

Maria

p.s. These are photos of our family room, there is a giant t.v. that sits right to the left of the couch. I will share this entire room with you someday!

Jana from Twig also has a special announcement she wants to make about her Vintage Whites Market she holds in Somers, Montana, you can read more about it here