It's easy to love hydrangeas for their big, beautiful blooms, but these flowers are even more remarkable than you may think. Certain hydrangea varieties can shift colors, changing between blue, purple, and pink shades. Blooms of pink hydrangea are the most romantic of the plant's color range, and it's entirely possible to train the flowers to shift to the enchanting hue regardless of their original color. If you're wondering how to get pink hydrangea to grow in your garden, these tips will help you cultivate rosy blooms in a matter of months.
The 1. Choose the Right Hydrangea
Hydrangea flowers naturally bloom in white, cream, or dusty pink. These plants produce full, fantastical blooms, but if you want to grow deep pink hydrangea, you'll need to start by planting a variety that can turn that color. Only the flowers of bigleaf hydrangea (Hydrangea macrophylla) and mountain hydrangea (H. serrata) can shift colors. Other types, like oakleaf hydrangea (H. quercifolia) or smooth hydrangea (H. arborescens), can't change their flower colors.
Two popular bigleaf pink hydrangea varieties with gorgeous blooms include Let's Dance 'Big Band' ($24, Great Garden Plants) and Endless Summer 'Summer Crush'.
The 2. Know Your Soil pH
Soil pH naturally ranges from 0 to 14, with 7.0 being neutral. Lower than 7.0 is acidic, and higher is alkaline. If you want pink hydrangea flowers, the soil pH needs to be on the alkaline side. Finding the pH of your soil is easy to do with a soil test kit. A reading above 7.0 means your hydrangeas should produce pink flowers without your intervention. A reading between 6.0 and 7.0 usually results in purple to pink hydrangeas, and readings lower than 6.0 yield purple to blue flowers.
The 3. Increase Low Soil pH
Low pH levels make aluminum in the soil more available to plants, and higher availability of this element makes hydrangea flowers bloom in shades of blue. Therefore, to produce pink hydrangeas, the pH of the soil needs to be high. The best way to increase the pH of your soil is to use garden lime made from crushed dolomitic limestone. Add the pellets to the soil when you plant your hydrangea or follow package directions to amend the soil around an established plant.
The 4. Don’t Forget to Fertilize
Soil amendments, such as garden lime, may change hydrangea flower colors, but they don't deliver all the nutrients plants need to thrive. To produce a healthy, happy crop of pink hydrangea, fertilize the plants as soon as leaves emerge in early spring.
If you're growing a reblooming variety like those from the Endless Summer series, add fertilizer again after the first flush of flowers in midsummer to encourage plants to produce another set of flowers. Avoid feeding your hydrangeas after July; doing so may stimulate tender new growth that's more sensitive to frost damage. Instead, use a slow-release, all-purpose fertilizer to give your plants a steady supply of nutrients over the growing season.
The 5. Practice Patience
Changing the pH of garden soil takes anywhere from 3 to 18 months. Amend your soil with garden lime according to package directions until you're happy with the color of your hydrangea flowers. Maintaining consistently pink hydrangea blossoms will require regular applications of garden lime, so add it whenever you fertilize for an easy routine.
Do note that once the first flowers of the growing season appear, they won't change color. If your hydrangea bloom before you begin your efforts to turn them pink, you'll have to wait until the following year to see if the soil pH modifications result in different-colored blooms.
The 6. Consider Containers
In yards with very acidic soil, it may not be possible to raise the pH enough to grow and maintain pink hydrangea flowers. Consider growing your bigleaf hydrangeas in containers with a good-quality potting mix if your garden's soil is especially acidic. Aluminum isn't usually present in good-quality potting mix, so hydrangea grown in the mix won't be able to turn blue.
Frequently Asked Questions
- Why do my hydrangeas bloom multicolored?If your hydrangea flowers bloom multicolored, displaying simultaneous shades of pink, purple, and blue, this usually indicates the pH of your soil is in the middle of the acidity spectrum. To produce hydrangea flowers of a single color, you'll need to amend your soil's pH to be more acidic or alkaline, depending on the desired shade.
If your hydrangea flowers bloom multicolored, displaying simultaneous shades of pink, purple, and blue, this usually indicates the pH of your soil is in the middle of the acidity spectrum. To produce hydrangea flowers of a single color, you'll need to amend your soil's pH to be more acidic or alkaline, depending on the desired shade.
- Are there organic soil amendment options for producing pink hydrangea?Amending soil with crushed eggshells is an organic method some gardeners successfully use to grow pink hydrangea. When mixed into soil, eggshells reduce the acidity as they break down. Higher soil pH makes aluminum absorption more difficult for plants, which helps produce pink hydrangea over time.
Amending soil with crushed eggshells is an organic method some gardeners successfully use to grow pink hydrangea. When mixed into soil, eggshells reduce the acidity as they break down. Higher soil pH makes aluminum absorption more difficult for plants, which helps produce pink hydrangea over time.