gardenguide - to hydrangeas - Brief Article

Sunset, Dec, 1999 by Jim Causland

Hydrangeas as white as snow

Pair them with red poinsettias and evergreens for the holidays

By early fall, hydrangeas have finished blooming in Western gardens and are on their way to dormancy. But this year, a California grower has introduced two hydrangeas whose forced snow white flowers are perfect companions for red poinsettias. 'Sister Theresa' ('Soeur Therese') has ball-shaped flowers; 'Libelle' (above) is a lace cap type. Look for these hydrangeas at nurseries and supermarkets.

Indoors, display them where they'll receive bright, indirect daylight and no drafts. Water whenever the top 1/2 inch of soil dries out, and mist the leaves daily if the air is especially dry.

Hydrangeas aren't hardy enough to grow outdoors in Sunset climate zone 1, but in other zones you can successfully transplant them into the garden after the weather warms up in spring. Until then, keep them in a light, protected place, such as a heated porch.

At planting time, choose a place that gets partial shade and dig a hole three to five times as wide as the rootball and twice as deep. Add plenty of peat moss and some controlled-release fertilizer to the backfill, and set the plant so its crown (where the trunk meets the roots) is about 1 inch above the surrounding soil level. Allow room for it to grow into a 4- to 6-foot shrub.

In zone 1, you can grow hydrangeas as indoor-outdoor plants in 16-inch-wide containers, keeping them indoors during frosty months, then moving them outside into filtered sun for warm months. Even in a container, this plant will grow 4 feet high. - Jim McCausland