In my garden, I grew many different ornamental shrubs. Some were frozen, others were uprooted by itself. And it turned out that the most hardy and grateful shrub was panicle hydrangea. Its flowering begins in mid-July and continues until the very frost.
40 years without whims
The first hydrangea in my garden appeared many years ago. It was an ordinary tree hydrangea, which did not cause much delight, but I did not part with it either. In 2012, while “walking through the gardens” of my virtual friends on the Odnoklassniki social network, I saw a panicle hydrangea. From such a beauty, like a fox from Krylov's fable, "I breathed into a goiter."
I started looking for information on how to grow it, where to buy or prescribe it. Most of all from what I read, I liked that the bush lives for about 40 years, does not give growth and does not require shelter for the winter.
Your seedlings are easy
Paniculata hydrangea tolerates transplanting well, even if large bushes are transplanted, due to its superficial root system. It propagates by cuttings and dropping shoots from the bush (method of horizontal layering, like in black currant). Hydrangea cuttings are beautiful.
From small to large
Each variety of hydrangea paniculata is good in its own way. I have 16 varieties of plants in my garden, among them there are favorites.
- There are tall varieties, they grow up to 3 m in height. There are medium varieties - up to 1.5 m high, and there are dwarf ones - up to 80 cm.
- Hydrangeas also differ in the shape of the bush - erect, spreading.
- These indicators must be taken into account when landing. I made my first mistake when I planted 6 different varieties in one row. The result was a mess: some - higher, some - lower, spreading, erect ... And in another row I planted 13 bushes of the same variety. Then, during flowering, it was a completely different sight.
Printed and lace
The varieties differ not only in the shape of the bush, but also in the shape of the inflorescences. There are hydrangeas with full inflorescences, which consist of sterile flowers, fully open. Varieties with this type of inflorescence need a mandatory garter (Lime Light, Polbig, Phantom, Vanilla Fraz, etc.)
There are varieties that have airy inflorescences and consist of sterile (open) flowers and fertile (unopened) ones that look like balls. Varieties with such inflorescences are resistant to rain and do not require a garter: Pinky Winky, Mega Mindy, Levana, Kyushu and others.
How to plant correctly
- Choose the right landing site. It should be sunny enough. When buying hydrangeas, I read the information on the label of the planter. Usually it says “landing place shade, partial shade”. However, one bush grows in my shade, and it is half the size of those planted with it at the same time, but in an open place. In addition, hydrangea changes the color of inflorescences more intensely in the sun than in the shade.
- It is necessary to plant hydrangeas so that they do not fall under the snow from the roof, otherwise a break in the bush is inevitable.
- The name "hydrangea" translates as "a vessel of water". And from my own experience I want to note that she really needs a lot of water. But she does not tolerate drought well.
- It is not necessary to make a deep landing hole; it is enough to dig a shovel onto the bayonet. But in diameter, I make it about 80 cm. The fact is that the root system of hydrangeas is superficial.
- I add a mixture of humus + high-moor peat to the planting pit; instead of peat, you can take coniferous litter.
- After planting, be sure to mulch the hydrangea trunk circle. I use mowed lawn grass as mulch. And since this grass quickly decays when watering, I mulch the trunk circle throughout the season.
I currently have 50 hydrangea bushes in my garden. Of these, 40 are paniculate. There are a lot of varieties of this wonderful ornamental shrub, I personally have 16.
The outfits change on their own
The peculiarities of all panicle hydrangeas are that they change the color of the inflorescences during the season without human intervention. For example, in the first photo you see a wonderful variety Mega Mindi (almost 2 m in diameter), captured in early August, and in the second - it is the same, only in autumn.
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The secret of flowering
The main secret of hydrangea flowering is proper pruning. In winter (autumn) I do sanitary pruning, that is, I only prune the inflorescences. This will prevent the snow from breaking the bushes.
I do the main pruning in the spring, when there is still snow. I conducted experiments for myself. Here are their results.
- When did strong pruning, left 1 pair of buds on the main slingshots, while removing all the thin branches from the stem. In this case, there are fewer inflorescences on the bush, but they grow simply huge. This is a big minus - in the rain they lean to the ground, you need to shake off the water from them and make a bush garter.
- At weak pruning, leaving 3 or more pairs of buds on the slingshots, a lot of inflorescences appear, and they are very small.
- Now I got used to doing medium cut - I leave 2 pairs of buds on the slingshots and remove all the thin branches from the stem. The inflorescences are quite large, some bushes require a garter. By the way, it is better to do the garter before flowering, so as not to injure the inflorescences later.
Panicle hydrangeas hibernate without shelter, and even young seedlings.
Spring activities
In the spring, after pruning, I introduce the following composition into the trunks of paniculate hydrangeas: humus + high peat + long-acting fertilizer for ornamental-leaved shrubs and mulch. That's all the care! Then there is only watering during the growing season, and watering is constant. The plant does not tolerate drought.
So as not to bother with watering
For those who do not have the opportunity to often water their hydrangeas, I suggest the following option for retaining moisture. In my garden, 6 bushes are planted in this way - the trunk circle is closed with black agrospan and pine bark is poured on top. It is very convenient - weeds do not grow, watering is rare.
In the spring I remove the bark, raise the agrospan, put in fertilizer, peat, humus. Again, I close everything, I put it in bark.
The photo shows one of the flower beds where hydrangeas are planted under an agrospan. It looks very nice. Only the fact that I propagate hydrangea by dropping twigs does not give me the opportunity to arrange all its plantings in this way.
P.S. You can still talk for a very long time about each variety, its characteristics. Every morning I start by going around my favorites, I can’t walk by, so as not to pick up an inflorescence, not to talk to them. I advise everyone who does not yet have a panicle hydrangea - try planting one bush and in the second year you will understand that you should have a company for this bush, but of a different variety.
Photo by the author
Special issue of the newspaper "My favorite flowers", No. 1, 2020 "Ornamental shrubs: hydrangea, rhododendron, lilac and others"
