Spotlight on Hydrangeas

Brestenburg 

Endless Summer hydrangeas in bloom

I have three varieties of hydrangea plants: Brestenburg, Endless Summer, and the newest one, David Ramsey. The Brestenburg are bigleaf hydrangeas, and the blooms tend to be huge puff-balls but they're still small right now. My Endless Summer blooms are fairly small, although occasionally I see some that are bigger than my hand.

Both my Brestenburg and Endless Summer varieties' blooms tend toward pink, but I'm trying to lower the pH of the soil to get them a little bluer (I just find blue flowers to be prettier). To do this, I add special fertilizer designed for blueberries. I could also use coffee grounds to make the soil more acidic. Last year, the color results were better for the Brestenburg since it's in a pot and therefore easier to manipulate the soil. I got some beautiful colors last year. The Endless Summer in the ground got a little purple last year but in the end stayed pink, despite my soil manipulation efforts. So far I've got a nice blend of pink, purple, and pale blue. If the Endless Summer stays pink again this year I think I'll just accept that it wants to be that way and leave it alone.

David Ramsey hydrangea plant

The newest plant is a David Ramsey. This replaces the Endless Summer plant that didn't make it through the winter. I have David Ramsey in a container. I'd never heard of this variety, and it was the only one in the nursery among a bunch of Penny Macs. This plant looked better than the rest, so I chose it. Apparently, the David Ramsey variety is good for cold weather climates, according to this nursery site.  I also bookmarked this site for hydrangea care.

The blooms are looking really good right now, as long as I keep the plants well watered because temps have been close to 100 on the east coast, and everythying is droopy. Happy Weekend!

Sunflower Setback

Chianti hybrid sunflowers in 2010 garden

We grow sunflowers every year. Last year we grew giant mammoth and Chianti hybrid varieties. The Chianti hybrids were so pretty with their deep red blooms that I absolutely wanted to grow them again this year. The giant mammoth and Chianti seedlings started to sprout a couple of weeks ago.  When I went to check on their progress a couple of days ago, I saw that they had all been cut at the base and were lying there in the soil, dead. Squirrels had dug holes in the soil and just clipped the seedlings out.

When I was younger I thought squirrels were so cute. I couldn't understand why my friends' parents and grandparents hated them and set traps for them so they could drive the squirrels miles away and release them somewhere else. Well, now I understand the anti-squirrel feelings. Squirrels have eaten my strawberries, thrown mulch and dirt all over my deck, and dug up tulip bulbs in the past. And now they've attacked my precious sunflower seedlings!

Chianti hybrid seedlings before

Mammoth seedlings and the two flowers that we started early and took off. The bigger ones weren't disturbed, but the small seedlings were all yanked out.

I replanted both the Mammoth and Chianti varieties, and we're going to cover the containers with mesh, similar to what we're using to protect the strawberry patch, until they're big and sturdy enough that the squirrels won't bother them.

squirrel attack--all seedlings removed. you can sort of see them laying in the dirt

Interestingly, the two giant mammoth sunflower plants that have already grown up are fine (see picture above). This year we're also growing teddy bear sunflowers, and the squirrels left those alone.

teddy bear 

I'm linking to Cottage Flora Thursday today.

Wordless Wednesday: Early June Garden

blueberry bush

black krim