Potted Hydrangea 'Annabelle', Martha Sims of Alabama

Doreen writes:

Greetings Ms King

Can you plant hydrangeas in pots/planters? If so, what kind of pots are best?

What kind of soil,etc to use when planting in pots?

Your site is great, I am in the process of reading each category.

Thank you

Doreen

Potted Mophead Hydrangea by Martha Sims of Alabama

Hi Doreen,

Thanks for writing and for the kind words about my site. I’m glad you enjoyed visiting it.

Many people grow beautiful hydrangeas in containers. One lady wrote that she grew all her hydrangeas in pots [See the next post above]. Using large containers is the key to success unless the hydrangea is small. A ½ whisky barrel (or the equivalent) would be about right size for a large plant, especially in a hot climate.

One word of caution: when small plants are put in very large containers, the roots can rot if the soil is kept too damp. Start these plants in terra cotta (clay) pots and allow them to grow for a couple of years. Eventually the plant will be large enough to be put in a large container. If you purchase a hydrangea in a 3 or 5 gallon container, you can start with a large pot.

There are both advantages and disadvantages to growing hydrangeas in containers. The advantages are: (1) you can move the pots to areas where the sun/shade situation is best. Hydrangeas should get morning sun and afternoon shade or bright shade all day. (2) You can move pots to a garage or other protected area if your climate is too cold in the winter for hydrangeas; and (3) you can grow hydrangeas in areas where no beds exits such as a balcony, a well lighted porch, or around a swimming pool that receives afternoon shade.

The main disadvantage to growing hydrangeas in pots is the difficulty of keeping them watered once they have grown a bit. In hot climates, they will require watering every day once their roots have filled the pot (usually hydrangea roots will fill a pot in one or two summers). They are also difficult to transplant into a larger pot since the original pot is probably pretty big. It would be easiest to use dwarf or compact varieties of hydrangeas in pots.

There is no doubt that hydrangeas are easier to care for in the ground where, after the first two years, they can almost care for themselves. But sometimes this is not possible. In such instances, pots can be extremely practical.

Best of luck and

Happy hydrangeas,

Judith

All About Hydrangeas

http://www.HydrangeasHydrangeas.com

A Flower for All Seasons

This entry was posted on March 13, 2009 at 8:25 am and is filed under Hydrangeas. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

My wife Cheryl has compiled a list of Web sites that should provide all the help you need to protect your plants this winter, so I will turn this week’s column over to her. As Cheryl points out, “Every homeowner should know the best way to protect their landscape regardless of which area of the country they live in.”

A frequent question has been on winter rose care and protection. With roses, a little prevention is worth the effort. The University of Illinois Extension site has put together a great page on how to protect your beauties over winter. It has sketches which make it easier to understand if you are a newbie to roses.
http://www.urbanext.uiuc.edu/roses/winter.html

Hydrangeashydrangeas.com, which is my favorite site on hydrangea care, now gives information on winter care specifically for hydrangeas. It also offers great pictures on how to insulate any containers you may have (of any shrubs or trees). If you have any pots or containers on your deck or patio, you will want to check this link out for that reason.
http://www.hydrangeashydrangeas.com/winter_protect.html

Those of you, like me, who are just getting around to doing any fall clean up work in the landscape should check this out from the University of Vermont Extension site on how to prepare your garden for winter. It really covers all of your landscape from bulbs to perennials to shrubs to trees to vegetable gardens, listing everything that needs to be done for these plants to help make sure your plants get through winter with the least possible damage.
http://www.uvm.edu/~uvmext/publications/oh/oh3.htm

If you are in an extremely cold region with heavy ice and snow, you will find this link helpful as it gives detailed instructions on building A frames for your plants.
http://landscaping.about.com/od/shrubcare/ss/shrub_shelter.htm

One of my all time favorite idea sites is the Fine Gardening Magazine web site. You can read and enjoy many of the articles from the magazine here. We often recommend this site to readers who contact us for tips and ideas on landscaping and gardening design. I keep old issues for reference and the link here is to one of the most informative articles for winter protection. This link will show you how to wrap your shrubs and trees to prevent damage from ice, snow and freezing winds.
http://www.taunton.com/finegardening/how-to/articles/shelter-plants-from-winters-worst.aspx

I recommend printing these pages out for future reference. Keep them in a folder for easy access. Fall and winter is a great time to read about gardening and landscaping. Start a tickler file. When you find landscaping ideas, plants or techniques that interest you, print them from your computer or tear them out of the magazine and put them in the file. I started a gardening file years ago and continually add to it. When I want to add a plant or do something special with an area, I pull out my tickler file and go through it. There are always great ideas. After all, I thought they were great to start with. Right?

For anyone who missed our window box ideas last year, here's a link to it. It's just basic ideas and pictures to give you some thoughts to go out on your own and create great window boxes or containers for the fall and winter season.
http://greenwoodnursery.com/Images/window%20boxes.pdf

In a recent column, I included a “lawn cocktail recipe” that drew some questions from readers regarding the 20-gallon sprayer that was referred to. I asked the reader who sent me the recipe to clarify. Here’s his response:

“A 20 or a 25 gal sprayer (depending on the make & model) is available at Lowes, Home Depot, Wal-Mart, etc. It is about half the size of a football and only holds about a quart of liquid or Miracle Grow granules. The reason they call it a "20 gal sprayer" is because it takes (out of the garden hose) 20 gallons of water-to flush or empty the mixture inside the container. I personally prefer one where you can adjust the spray so it can shoot out a really heavy/course spray for the grass & bushes...not the delicate Miracle Grow one unless it has an adjustable nozzle. However, any one will work.” – TSgt Michael Gray

The Plant Man is here to help. Send your questions about trees, shrubs and landscaping to steve@landsteward.org and for resources and additional information, or to subscribe to Steve’s free e-mailed newsletter, visit www.landsteward.org