Saturday 8th December, 2018

Scone making obviously resonated with many out there as I had a heap of thoughtful replies and many that wanted the recipe for scones the lemonade way! It was a quick SOS to my mate Grant, who suggested it in the first place, and now its up there on the web site under What's Cooking. I really must give it a go one day to see if the result is better than my old fashioned version. Apparently its lemonade for the sweet scone like orange and date and soda water for cheese and onion.

As much as I'm thankful for this good bout of rain, its starting to get in the way of getting all the gardens up to scratch for Christmas. As many would know, we have quite a few meters (or should I say kilometers) of hedging of all types and usually they are all neatly trimmed in time for the big day. Everything from the low Buxus, the Camellias, right up to the tall Bay hedging that surrounds the display garden. Its not only the wet weather causing the delay in trimming these as one of the petrol trimmers has spat the dummy and is away getting repaired, after just being serviced I might add, and a couple of the team are off on well earned holidays and so time keeps rolling onward and the urgency grows.

 

Get the best out of Hydrangeas

Its interesting about Hydrangeas, many think of them as a plant for under shady trees and whilst this is kind of true there are a couple of points that I would offer.  The shade factor does keep the sun off their flowers which are quite delicate and some may scorch in bright sun. The other fact is that most hydrangeas actually like to have a reasonable amount of moisture in the summer when they are in flower.  

It's interesting, but when I look around, I often see them wilting in gardens because the established trees that they are often planted underneath, for the shade they provide, have already sucked all the moisture and stolen all the food.

I guess if you must plant them in such a position then lots of extra compost and perhaps a watering system, to save on the summertime stress, otherwise Hydrangeas will grow in most dappled light and even full sun positions.

Another rather interesting fact about the those beautiful large mop head hydrangeas is that they have a habit of collecting aluminium ions which has quite an effect on the colour of the flowers... so aluminium sulphate will change the pink ones to blue or at least some kind of purple hue. If you want them to stay pink then hopefully repeated use of lime will help, otherwise grow them in a pot with potting mix.

                

Libelle                 Nigra                    Annabelle           General Patton    Red Start

Then there are the flowers of the macrophylla types which are called mop heads with the full head of flowers or Lace caps which have the larger flowers surrounding an almost pincushion center looking almost like a row of small butterflies dancing around the edge.

The other big thing to remember is that, when cutting these types back in the winter, they flower on old wood and not new seasons. So don't chop off all the unflowered spikes as they are your first flowers next season. You will know them because they end in a leaf bud.

If you like the other types of Hydrangeas and mostly these have large cone shaped flowers which are pretty cool. The usual colour would be a whitish cream and some of the beauties will age to some pretty mean shades of pink though to almost a distinct red. 

These are the Paniculata types and there are few of these these days from good old paniculata grandiflora to Limelight, Kyushu, Tardiva, Levana with varying head formations from full bloom to almost lace cap. 

The ones that age to pink hues have names that kind of describe the shade that they age to like Candelight, Diamond Rouge, Sundae Fraise and Pink Persuasion. The other great thing about the paniculatas is that they flower on new wood so you can cut them back quite hard and they will still reward you with flowers.

I would be remiss not to mention the oak leaved Hydrangeas which also have cone shaped typical hydrangea flowers. Oak leaved because their leaves are the same shape as a typical oak leaf.  I am quite fond of these ones as not only do they have beautiful creamy white flowers but the leaves will colour to red hues in the winter.

Paniculata                                                                     Quercifolia

                

Pink Persuasion  Limelight             Diamond Rouge  Ice Crystal           Pee Wee      

     

Quercifolia has the classic flower formation and snowflake has the double ones. Ice Crystal is a new one to us and flowers lovely cone cluster white flowers while Pee Wee is it's dwarf cousin. These look amazing planted en masse.

The last Hydrangea that I should mention as it has become very popular and looks cool in my garden planted with the tractor seat plant is Annabelle... The species is Arborescens and this one I cut back to ground level every year and it springs up each season with beautiful  heads of creamy white flowers that age to chartreuse green.  Once these flowers get to that stunning green thay will dry and keep all year in a vase.

Those shaded areas under established trees can actually be too dark and dry for hydrangea and could be well suited to other plants like Clivias, Liriopes, Mondo grass, Aucuba and Aspidistra the cast iron plant.