The panicle hydrangeas are very beautiful, this species has many varieties, which look very spectacular in the garden, decorating flowerbeds, favorite nooks for recreation in the countryside.
Perhaps you have a suitable place in your garden, which is worth transforming and decorating, in which case, first of all, pay attention to this magnificent plant. The beauty of hydrangeas can only be appreciated by seeing them with your own eyes and feeling their alluring scent and the undeniable tenderness of these flowers.
Garden hydrangea – it is quite a heat-loving beauty, so the preservation of bushes in the cold winter period – a definite process that will require attention.
But there are some types of panicle hydrangeas that can grow (with or without cover, depending on the variety) in areas not only with a temperate climate, but also in colder regions. However, getting a plant is not enough; in order to enjoy abundant flowering at the right time, you need to know how to take care of a hydrangea.
Choosing the right location for planting
The first thing to consider is that hydrangea panicle should not be planted in areas where some part of the day shines bright rays of the open sun. In such an improper placement, all the flowers will lose all their bright personality and decorativeness. The best location is a light shade.
Planting hydrangea panicle should be carried out in fertile soil, only in this case it will please during the summer and autumn with good flowering.
The plant can not live on sandy, and even more so on calcareous soils. It does not like even neutral soil – the color of the inflorescences will fade, and the whole bush will be weak.
If the soil is acidic, then hydrangea flowers much brighter, more abundant, so if your garden soil is neutral or weakly – acidic, you should add under the bush when planting this plant:
- A little brown peat;
- Some sawdust;
- Coniferous soil, spruce or pine.
Moreover, the alkaline Ph of the soil will inevitably cause the panicle hydrangea to lack magnesium and iron, and as a consequence, chlorosis (painful, yellowed leaves). In addition to simply acidifying the soil, you can treat the bush with an iron chelate preparation. In the old days, gardeners buried unnecessary iron objects (carnations, cans, old horseshoes) under hydrangeas.
The soil for the plant should include not only humus and sod soil, but also peat and leafy soil.
If pines and spruces grow nearby, gardeners are very successful in planting hydrangeas in the open ground, often without fertilizing during planting.
Hydrangea trusses also need a good supply of moisture, as she does not just love it, but simply loves it. The plant may well exist on slightly waterlogged soil. So, for perfect growth, good flowering and healthy vitality of your hydrangea, it is worth taking care to constantly moisten the soil around the shrub (a radius of about a meter and a half). If you are sure that the site fully meets the conditions listed above, you can start planting a panicle hydrangea on your plot.
Hydrangea panicula: features of the plant
The shrub (or even a small tree) Hydrangea panicula has more than twenty varieties known in our regions.
Very large, delicate and at the same time bright flowers, which have a pleasant fragrance, have the following features:
- Inflorescences pyramidal shape, about 30 centimeters long, resemble a panicle (hence the name);
- The flowers themselves are mostly sterile, they do not give fruit;
- Flowering lasts from late June to early November, during which time the color of the inflorescence may change.
At the very beginning, the panicles are usually cream-colored, then they become just white, with the passage of time gradually turning pink. At the very end of their flowering, in autumn, this type of hydrangea changes color to almost reddish, sometimes with flecks of green (depending on the variety).
Beautiful garden plant florists rightly nicknamed the oriental beauty, since the homeland of this type of hydrangea – the territory of China and Japan, as well as the southern part of Sakhalin. Plant hydrangea panicle can be planted in all zones with a temperate climate, it is perfectly safe to tolerate not only the summer heat, but also the winter cold.
Rules for optimal planting of the hydrangea
The right time to plant Hydrangeas, given the cool and temperate regions, is spring. In warmer areas, it is quite possible to plant it not only in the spring, but also in the fall. The plant of three or four years old is planted after the site is re-cultivated and the preparation of holes (depth of about forty centimeters, width – seventy). If hydrangea panicle will perform the role of a hedge, in this case, dig a small ditch, observing the distance between the bushes. However, young bushes may well be planted closer together, later seeding them.
So, the algorithm for action is as follows:
- Set the bush in the hole and fill the earth roots, then compact the place of planting;
- Properly, abundantly, water the hydrangea;
- Mulch the earth under the bush with peat.
All the ground parts of the plant immediately cut, on the shoots should be put on four buds.
After the young plant has survived the summer, under the bush make mineral fertilizers. Then everything depends on how properly and thoroughly the hydrangea melodious will be cared for.
Proper watering and fertilizing
The plant loves a lot of moisture, so, the soil around the bush should be moistened daily. If the summer is hot and dry, then no drying of the soil under the hydrangea should not be allowed, watering should be not only regular but also abundant, however, if the summer is rainy, watering can be reduced.
It is advisable to add a little manganese (potassium permanganate) to the water while watering. To save precious moisture, the soil under the bush is carefully mulched. In addition to constantly loosening the soil under the bush, pulling weeds and good watering, you should take care of the hydrangea by feeding it constantly.
In the spring, Hydrangea panicle is fed with a solution of urea, and at the very beginning of the vegetation process an excellent result can give under a bush of nettle tincture.
After the nettle infusion is poured under the plant, you need to fill it with a bucket of plain water. Every couple of weeks, a solution of manure is applied under the bush, and when the first buds are noticed on the hydrangea, she is given mineral supplements.
Pruning hydrangea panicle and preserving it in the cold
Correctly, and most importantly, in a timely manner cuttings septal hydrangea blooms beautifully. Although hydrangeas have in principle a good resistance to sudden changes in temperature or cold, it is better to take care of its favorable overwintering in time. The roots, as the most vulnerable part of any plant, are covered.
An excellent insulator will be, for example, decomposed manure, dry peat or even just collected from other corners of the garden dry leaves. The latter are placed under the bush in a fairly thick layer, about twenty centimeters.
In order to ensure that the hydrangea hydrangea bushes always keep a beautiful appearance, the branches do not stick out in different directions, it should be periodically pruned. Before the cold weather, in late autumn or early winter, the dried inflorescences should be removed from the plant, and in spring, until the buds open, all weak or poorly placed shoots should be removed.
The following should be taken into consideration in this connection:
- If the shoots were seriously damaged by frost, they are cut back to the beginning of a healthy branch;
- All annual young shoots should be shortened by one-third;
- If the hydrangea bush in the garden is old, the obsolete shoots are cut back in a ring.
Reproduction of the panicle hydrangea and some of its pests
To grow a new plant, this type of hydrangea, as well as others, is propagated by cuttings and grafts. Small shoots left over from spring pruning can be used to make cuttings. However, it is better to cut shoots for propagating cuttings in early summer, at which time they contain a normal amount of moisture.
Cuttings should be prepared with five buds, their length should be about ten centimeters. It is also possible to propagate the panicle hydrangea by grafts, this method is suitable if you need one or two more plants, no more.
Hydrangeas are sometimes diseased and attacked by pests. The most common of diseases is powdery mildew, which is well treated with Bordeaux liquid, of pests, hydrangeas are very “fond” of aphids.
So, the care of the capricious beauty hydrangea metelicheskaya in the garden will probably require close attention, but nothing so decorate it as a lush blooming, changing its color, depending on the season.
Hydrangeas can create a really charming composition in your garden. Flowers will stand out for their brightness, cheerful and friendly mood, incredibly romantic notes and incomparable warmth. Thanks to the variety of shades of these flowers, they will be able to convey the right mood of the entire flower composition of the garden.
