" I cerebrate it pisses God off if you take the air by the color purple in a field and do n’t mark it , " enunciate writer / poet Alice Walker — and there is no denying that the chromaticity grabs all eyes in the garden . If your garden architectural plan admit purple hydrangea , bribe the correct kind and gear up to get your hands dirty .
Bigleaf Is Best
Do n’t just close up your eyes and grab a plant in the garden memory board . With 23 species of hydrangea useable commercially , you ’ll need to count for bigleaf ( Hydrangea macrophylla ) and , as the most popular species , it should n’t be hard to find . It ’s the only eccentric of hydrangea that changes color without use of a magic wand .
Pick Your Preference
you’re able to cook the color of almost any bigleaf hydrangea industrial plant by aline the sour of the territory , so choose something you care . beak the mophead change if you want its pommy - pommy flowers , or a lacecap cultivar for a disk - shaped efflorescence with frilly petal around the bound . Both thrive in U.S. Department of Agriculture plant hardiness zone 5 through 9 . Watch out for white cultivars and a few pinkish ones that do not change color no matter what you do to them .
Pink, Blue or Something in Between
You ’ll see most bigleaf hydrangea in " child " colors — naughty or pink — but careful adjustment of the soil can leave in regal hues . The aluminum in the soil produces the blue subtlety , but do n’t go bestow atomic number 13 . Most soil contains plenty , but it ’s not available to the plant unlessthe soil acidityis gamey .
Soil Acidity Is Key
Soil acidity is measured on a pH scale — the humbled , the more acidic . Generally , bigleaf flowers are downhearted when maturate in dirt with a pH of 5.5 or less , pinkish in grime with a pH of 6.5 or higher , and a mix of gloomy and pink in the no - man’s - land in between . Growing bigleafs in soil with a pH of 5.5 to 6.5 may produce purple efflorescence , or it may leave in bloom with both pink and blue peak .
Soil pH Basics
Test your soil pH first , to get a starting point , using a bare pH examiner outfit you may buy at the garden stock . If your soil is 5.5 or below , you ’ll need to add calcined lime to kick upstairs the pH to above 5.5 . If it is above 6.5 , impart aluminum sulphate to lower it . Act early ; soil amendments can take metre to bring their magic .
Performing the Magic
The amount of lime or Al sulfate you should sum will calculate on your current soil pH. To let down pH by one full point , add .2 pound of sulfur or 1.2 pounds of atomic number 13 sulphate per 10 solid feet . forge it well into the soil . To advance pH by one full pointedness , add .2 to .35 pounds of lime tree per 100 square feet , using the small amount for sandy stain , the higher for clay soil .
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