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Happy April everyone!
Kristin VanHoose
April 11, 2024
I hope everyone is having a wonderful spring and your taxes are done. We’ve had every kind of weather this week, how about you?
Hydrangea Serrata Golden Sunlight pictured here.
The Serrata hydrangeas are starting to bud up. If you don’t know about this family of hydrangeas, they are one of the toughest of them all. They tend to leaf out later than their Macrophylla cousins so those late spring freezes don’t nip the flower buds. They are usually in full bloom here by Memorial Day, weeks ahead of Macrophylla. Some are more compact (Diadem), some have colorful leaves (Oamacha Nishiki), some have purple stems (Kurohime), some bloom on the new wood (Blue Deckle) and some have two tone blooms (Kiyosumi). Can you tell I’m a bit of a fan?
Plant sale season
It’s plant sale season for us here in Oregon. We participate in many spring plant sales around the Willamette Valley. We’ll be at Gardenpalooza this Friday and Saturday held at Bauman Farms in Gervais. Friday hours are 9am to 5pm Saturday hours are 9am to 3pm Address is 12989 Howell Prairie Rd NE Gervais OR 97026 |
We also have some overstock hydrangeas, many of which are too big to ship and available for pickup at the nursery. Please email [email protected] for a link to the order form! |
What should I being doing with my hydrangeas this month?
WATER: As Mother Nature ceases to do our watering for us, check your irrigation before you actually need it. We recently found a root growing through our sprinkler system. Yikes!
MULCH: Do you like to use mulch? It is a great way to keep moisture in the roots come summer time. Spring is a good time to put that down. A word of caution with some of the mulch products out there - check the pH. If the pH is high, you could have a tough time getting blue hydrangeas.
SUPPORT: Did you hydrangea flop over last summer? Some of the new wood blooming hydrangeas do have this issue. Dahlia or Peony rings can work great for the hydrangeas as well, check your local garden center or farm store.
PESTS/DISEASES: With spring comes bugs. Around here, slugs love the fresh new growth. In other parts of the country, looks for aphid and beetle damage. Now that temperatures are on the rise, watch out for powdery mildew and leaf spots. Always try to water hydrangeas at the base.
AMENDMENTS: If you haven’t fed your plants yet, it’s a good time to fertilize or amend the soil to get the colors (macrophylla/serrata) you want. Just a balanced, time-released fertilizer is recommended. You can add Lime to make the blooms more pink (raising the pH) or add Aluminum Sulfate to get more blue blooms. A healthy plant is also more resistant to pests and diseases.
As always, let me know if you have any specific questions.
Have a great month!