Bigleaf hydrangea Hydrangea 'Elegant Rose' Pink - Hardy plant

These hydrangeas (Hydrangea macrophylla) do well in the ground. Prior to planting, check if the root ball is wet. If not place the clump of roots in a bucket of luke-warm water. Prepare a large hole and loosen the soil with a fork. Plant the hydrangeas at the correct depth – the top of the root ball should be just below ground level. Refill the hole with soil and press firmly down. Water thoroughly, immediately after planting. The hydrangea macrophylla thrives in a not too dry humus-rich soil. Improve your garden soil with a mix of well-rotted garden manure and compost. Plant in a sunny spot, or partial shade. These hydrangeas also do well in large pots on your patio or decking. Make sure you choose a pot with adequate drainage. Hydrangeas in the garden Hydrangea macrophylla is a beautiful shrub, suitable for every garden. The large flowers look great in groups or on the edge of a border. You could fill a flower bed bordered with ‘Box’ with these colourful hydrangeas. They will even look at home grouped in the shrubbery or combine them with other hydrangeas and they will look great together!

What do I need?
• Watering can
• Plant food
• Cow manure
 
How do I care for the hydrangea?
Water the Hydrangea macrophylla regularly. The hydrangea does not handle dry periods or dry soil well. If you would like more flowers to bloom between March and July, add plant food for blossoming plants to the water once a month. Add cow manure to the soil in the early spring. When should I prune the hydrangea? The hydrangea flowers on branches that grew the previous year. If the hydrangea is pruned in the spring, no flowers will bloom in the summer of the same year. Only prune the hydrangea if it grows too large. In those cases, trim 1/3 of the shrub’s branches all the way to the ground. This will stimulate new branch formation. During the first year afterwards, there will be less flowers, but blooming will return to normal by the second year.
Remove dead branches completely. At the end of February or at the beginning of March, carefully clip off all the flowers that have already blossomed. During this process, make sure that the uppermost bud always remains on the branch.

The ball-shaped flower heads start off a greenish colour, gradually turning to its own colour and fade back to green at the end of summer. The flowers stay on the plant for months. They still look lovely in the winter, especially when covered with a layer of snow. The colour of the flowers is strongly influenced by the acidity (ph levels) of the soil. In autumn the dead flowers can be dried and are great to use in a flower arrangement or autumn wreath to hang on your front door!