REPORTING WINTER'S IMPACT ON HYDRANGEAS PART TWO
This is the second of two
reports on winter's impact on my hydrangeas. A brief recap here. In my last
post, I detailed how I went out in May to assess winter's damage, fearing the
worst. We had had a 2 week stretch of exceptionally cold winter weather which
typically freezes the flowers buds that sleep in the stems of hydrangeas that
bloom on old wood. You can get all the details on that report by going to https://bit.ly/2lRGNlm
So now it's time to tell
you what happened to my mountain hydrangeas, botanically known as hydrangea serrata.
A little background here. Mountain hydrangeas are so called because they come
from the mountains of Japan
and Korea
Unlike my bigleaf hydrangea macrophyllas, every
single one of my mountain hydrangeas had flower buds on them, regardless of
where they were sited. Some had a little tip dieback as shown in this photo,
but none had total stem dieback.
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| Hydrangea serrata flowering below tip because of tip dieback.
My
first inspection tour was on May 3 (after one of the coldest Aprils on record) where
my heart leapt when I saw signs of life on serrata stems. Then on June 3, those
little "broccoli" heads were clearly there as seen in this photo
below of Hydrangea Serrata Tiny TuffStuff™:
Hydrangea Serrata Tiny TuffStuff™ showing "broccoli"
I had a "mummy" on one tip of this Hydrangea Serrata TuffStuff™ (a
mummy is a bud from last year that didn't open and froze on the plant during
winter). Now, this plant's reblooming power is producing flowers all along the
stem as shown in this next close up photo:
But
the best surprise of all is a relatively new acquisition, Hydrangea serrata 'Hallasan’,
sometimes listed as 'Spreading Beauty'. It is native to the
And
it has just begun to flower as seen on July 3:
This plant is pH sensitive
so one can change the color of the flowers if desired. But I don't need any
more to do and since this plant is growing near the alkaline foundation of the
house, it will most likely stay on the pink side which is just fine with me.
I am excited to use this
small dependable hydrangea in other places, especially as a substitute for
perennials. It is small enough to do a great job with no maintenance at all.
But be warned that it is hard to find. You will have to use your search engine
to seek it out but if we gardeners persist, the market may just respond and
deliver for us.
My conclusions from this
past winter's experiences are two:
First as discussed in part one of my report: reblooming hydrangeas are the better way to go if you
have a choice and especially if you garden in zone 5 or colder or if you garden
where you can have an unpredictable cold snap. Where the tips of my plants died back, if they have
reblooming capability they will generally produce flowers before the season
ends. In some cases, those are the flowers I am seeing now. And if you don't
garden in a cold climate, magical rebloomers can give you continuous flowering.
What's not to like?
Second,
mountain hydrangeas (serratas) and especially the rebloomers are as close as
you can get to a foolproof mophead/lacecap look-alike. That mountain heritage
makes them tough as nails and now with a reblooming gene thrown into the mix,
they are unstoppable. That is what is making Endless Summer® BloomStruck® such a winner: it is part serrata AND a
rebloomer. This is what BloomStruck® looked like on July 2:
Hydrangea macrophylla Endless Summer® BloomStruck® flowering on July 2
Lastly,
For my small part, you can
listen to me on the radio or speak with me in person.
On Saturday morning, July 7, I will be a guest on IheartRadio with
C.L.Fornari, The Garden
Lady. C.L. hosts a weekly radio call in show. The program is called GardenLine and is broadcast every Saturday morning on WXTK – 95.1
FM, from 8:00 to 10:00 AM Eastern time. You can also hear GardenLine streamed on WXTK.
If you find
yourself anywhere near
Here is their
contact information:
1-800-352-4769
In the meantime, enjoy
your hydrangeas. Now is their time!
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