Climbing Hydrangea on Arbor  If you’re lucky enough to have a climbing hydrangea (hydrangea anomala petiolaris ), you already know what a fabulous plant it is. And right now it is in its glory in my zone 5B garden. The fact that it grows in shade and is drought tolerant makes it doubly attractive. And in my little slice of heaven, deer have avoided it for 28 years.   The beautiful lacecap flowers are once again dependably in full view. Not only are they beautiful but they are perfuming the garden. Since I have it planted in several places, its non-stop scent practically follows me around. Climbing Hydrangea Flower It’s not uncommon to see this shade loving vine draping arbors and adorning walls. It works really well climbing a tree which does the tree no harm. It’s also a plant you can use as a groundcover. The glossy foliage will scramble over anything in its way. An unsightly tree stump for example is one such eyesore you can make disappear. Know, howeve...

The plant "Audrey" from "Little Shop of Horrors" Credit: Wiki Did your hydrangeas whisper "Feed Me" as you admired them today? If not, they should have because it's high time to fertilize your hydrangeas. Although their needs are similar, you fertilize each a bit differently, so let's take them one by one. Your bigleaf hydrangeas ( macrophyllas ) and mountain ( serrata s) should be flowering by now and if they are rebloomers, need encouragement to set up those second set of buds. If they are not rebloomers, they will soon set their buds for next year, so get busy and give them a little love. What might that be? A b asic tree/shrub product with an NPK ratio of 3-1-2, 6-2-4, etc. You might be surprised to learn that rose fertilizer is ideal. Here's just one you might see at a garden center.  Try to avoid using something like 10-10-10 or even 5-5-5. No plant uses nutrients in equal amounts and add...

Time to report on winter's impact on my hydrangeas. In early May, I went out to my Zone 5 garden to see what winter had done to my hydrangeas that bloom on old wood: macrophyllas (big leaf) and hydrangea serratas (mountain). I also checked on the quercifolias (oak leaf) and petiolaris (climbing).   I held my breath, fearing the worst since we had a brutal 2 week spell of cold temperatures to close out 2017 and begin 2018 in southwest CT :

In my last blog post, I said I would write next about what happened to my hydrangeas after last winter, but I must tell you first about what's happening right now: climbing hydrangeas are in bloom in my garden and they are fabulous!!