Hydrangeas: Whopper of a bloomer
Published on: Sunday, November 10, 2019
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As a lovely garden plant, the hydrangea is popular and has always been a favourite among gardening enthusiasts chiefly because of its huge, gorgeous flower heads and bright, lush green foliage.
Although the plant comes from places as far away as China and Japan, nevertheless, it has taken well to Malaysian soils and climate.
This is evidenced by the fact that most growers do not have much problem coaxing the ornamental into yielding really gigantic blooms as soon as they are firmly established.
Being a premier flowering plant, the blooms of the hydrangea are of utmost importance to any grower because without the flowers, it would be of a much lower value to just grow only foliage. Under normal situations, blooms of the hydrangea are able to stay fresh and good-looking for an appreciable period of time, and unless they are damaged or badly neglected, it is possible for them to last for months. This therefore gives growers lot of time to enjoy and appreciate the exquisite beauty of such lovely plants and their flowers, especially if they have just been misted with a light application of water.
Hydrangeas belong to the family Hydrangeaceae which has more than a hundred species. Among these, one of the most widely grown species belong to the genus Hydrangea, which is also the common name used to identify the plant.
This genus has only one particularly outstanding species, that is, Hydrangea macrophylla, which is of great interest and highly treasured as a very attractive and decorative ornamental plant.
Garden hydrangeas are small, low-growing herbaceous to semi-woody shrubs that are mostly below a metre tall. They may grow taller than that in its natural state with mutual support and crowding, which also helps to prevent plant collapse.
Generally, the plant is broader than tall, and there is a tendency for the shoots to droop.
Drooping is likely to occur when there is insufficient water around the root zone especially when the grower depends too much on nature. In this instance of water stress, everything droops, including leaves, soft stems, and flower stalks.
This is much like the tell-tale signs of people drooping their hands, necks, backs, and other parts when they are faced with work stress, financial stress, relationship stress etc.
To overcome the problem, apply water regularly. Also, bamboo stakes are normally used to prop up the heavy heads of flowers.
In a similar vein, the non-blooming shoots are also staked. When the staking is done symmetrically, it adds quite a lot of attractiveness to the entire set-up - pot, plant, stakes and all.
As a matter of fact, lots of bamboo are discarded or removed somewhere every year especially after the Pesta Kaamatan celebrations.
These are normally very nice, straight and thick structures, and may be easily used in the garden after splitting them up. They can be used as single support stakes, tripods, trellises, or for roof structures for plants to grow over. There are so many uses that can be derived from natural materials such as bamboos, or even tree trunks or rock boulders that should serve very well in the garden.
Why choose hydrangea?
Hydrangeas are grown primarily for their large mops of flowers, and secondarily, their lush green foliage.
Firstly, the foliage. Despite being large-leafed, the foliage of the hydrangea never manage to succeed in taking the shine from the mops of flowers, which are often larger in size than the biggest leaves. The leaves have a rough surface and they are broadly oval and slightly heart-shaped. Leaf blades begin in a broad swath but ends in a pointed tip, and the leaf margins are distinctly serrated.
The colour of the foliage is a light, rich green, but this may vary according to the amount and density of shading under which the plant is growing. It is also affected by the dosage and frequency of nitrogenous fertilisers applied.
Secondly, the flowers. It is without doubt that these are what hydrangeas are mainly grown for. Adding mystique to the beautiful characteristics of the ornamental is the curious ability of the flowers to change colour. This is certainly most intriguing and fascinating because one could be befuddled by the change of colours ranging from white, pink, reddish, purplish, bluish to greenish-blue.
This is not very different from the ornamental commonly called Yesterday-Today-And-Tomorrow whose blooms also change colour ranging from whitish to pinkish to bluish and purplish, with the bonus of a strong aromatic fragrance.
Individual flowers of the hydrangea, like those of the Ixora, are quite small. Each of them is made up of four to six petals/sepals, and while each flower may not be very conspicuous and eye-catching, hundreds, or even thousands of them, when formed together into large heads, can certainly be a sight to behold.
A common problem associated with the cultivation of hydrangeas is the occasional lack of or infrequent flowering. This has got a lot to do with the way the plant is grown and maintained.
It must be remembered that flower heads are borne only on new, good wood with healthy shoots, so this means that old stumps with non-performing roots and less-than-vigorous shoots would not be expected to flower.
Moreover, several appropriate maintenance programmes such as pruning and fertilisation also contribute to the difference between a good bloomer and a poor one.
Therefore, the secret lies in coaxing and inducing the plant to develop good healthy growth that produces lots of strong and healthy flowering stems. This is because it is at the terminals of such stems that the mops of flowers are produced.
Propagation and cultivation
The most interesting way to start your collection of hydrangeas is to commence by doing your own propagation of the plant. This is a fairly simple task but first of all, you need to obtain some cuttings. This should not be a problem as the plant is quite a popular ornamental, but remember to take only the healthy green tip cuttings without too much wood.
Recommended lengths of such cuttings may vary from 12-15cm per piece, with the cut made obliquely. This is to enable easier insertion when they are being poked into the rooting medium.
Woody cuttings may also be used but the success rate is usually much lower unless they are propagated using other means such as grafting. Anyway, there is no harm in trying out the old, down and out rejects such as the old wood or even the stumps. Here, it’s about the 3Rs again.
Once the cuttings are available, proceed to strip the lower one third to one half of all leaves. Each of the remaining leaves may then be halved by using a clean pair of scissors or secateurs. When this is done, the cut ends may be treated with a rooting powder, if available, before inserting the lower third of the cutting into a suitable medium.
There are many kinds of rooting medium available for sale in shops and nurseries everywhere. Even along the Sunday Gaya Street Fair, it is easy to find plenty for sale, with the vendor working really hard trying to persuade potential customers to let go of the bundle of cash gripped tightly in his fist.
But the most suitable and practical type of rooting medium happens to be the simplest and most easily available which is right in your backyard.
This comprises some kinds of coarse material that are airy but at the same time are able to retain sufficient moisture for rooting purposes. Such characteristics can easily be met in the common garden peat or compost or perhaps even old sawdust. Sometimes, quartz sand, or some other coarse grade sand can also be used although there is a necessity to mist it regularly in order to keep the medium moist and humid. More often however, is the use of a mixture of sand, peat, sawdust or compost in equal proportions.
After insertion into the rooting medium, the cuttings should be shaded and misted regularly. Rooting should take place within several weeks with the common time period ranging from three to six weeks. Many western books recommend using polythene bags to enclose the cuttings, but the practice is superfluous although harmless.
Most hydrangeas are planted in pots of various sizes, with some of the most common ones being the 30 cm diameter pots. With suitable soil and maintenance, such a pot can sustain three to five heads of flowers for months, provided they are properly staked.
Proper care of hydrangeas
The uptake of water by hydrangeas is extremely great. Therefore, water should be provided every day. Otherwise, drooping of leaves and stems, and wilting may quickly set in.
As hydrangeas are gross feeders, regular fertilisation should be carried out. In this respect, either a liquid feed or solid compound fertilisers can be given at a frequency of one application per three to six weeks. Normally, a complete NPK fertiliser which is readily available in the market, would do just fine.
However, one of the most interesting tasks in growing hydrangeas is in keeping or changing the colour from the blue tinge to the pink side. If your soil has loads of lime or chalk in it, the blooms will remain pink and it will be quite futile trying to compel any change to blue or purple. In cases where the soil is only mildly alkaline, a blueing agent can be added to encourage the conversion of flower colour from pink to blue.
This blueing compound is usually made up of solutions of either iron or aluminium sulphate which can be added during watering time.
Pruning is also another very important factor to consider if you want to keep your plants in good flowering condition. If no proper pruning is carried out, it is likely that a lot of dead wood would remain together with diseased, weak or injured growths.
A proper pruning programme should therefore be implemented by the serious hydrangea grower. This entails the removal of, apart from those mentioned, all old growths after flowering. This means doing some hard pruning by removing the top half of all growths, and manicuring the plant into an attractive shape.
After each pruning, the plant should be given a round of complete fertiliser in order to boost the growth and development of new flowering shoots.
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