potted hydrangea

10 years ago

I bought a potted hydrangea from the store and am wondering what would be better for it, keeping it in a medium pot on the porch (morning/afternoon sun, evening shade) or planting it in the ground. Im just nervous to plant it in the ground! Ive had it for about a month now and its still doing good. There were two white buds & theyve turned blue now. Will they live awhile if they stay in a pot? If i put them in a larger pot, will they grow larger? If i put them in the ground, will they grow even larger? Im new to gardening and i want to make sure they live for a long time! Hydrangeas are my favorite=] thanks!!

This post was edited by xoxerika on Sun, May 5, 13 at 21:44

Comments (3)

luis_pr
10 years ago
Oh yes. If you plant them in the ground or in containers, they will get much larger. Problem is Zone 5 is usually off limits for most mopheads. They need to be grown in containers, especially if the plant label does not say it is good in your zone. Many varieties sold at florists and growcery stores just say "Hydrangea" or "Blue Hydrangea". Assume in those cases that they are good only thru Zone 7. If grown in containers, move them to a pot that is one or two inches larger than the current one. And upgrade a pot every 2-3 years. Prune the roots vertically every 2" if you see them growing in a circle around the pot. If you want, you can also dig a hole in the ground and plant the whole container/plant into the ground during the growing season but, bring it inside (a garage or shed for example) as soon as the plant starts to go dormant or temps get very cold; then water them once a week or once every two weeks so they do not dry out.

This post was edited by luis_pr on Mon, May 6, 13 at 6:42
October_Gardens
10 years ago
Also remember, lots of "florist" hydrangeas bloom on "old wood" only, so if current year's growth is zapped by cold or wind in Winter, it may not bloom the following season.

In the meantime, there are two things you can do:

Check to see if there are any blooms or florets about-to-be blooms coming from stems that are new (green down to the soil itself). If so, It won't matter so much if the plant dies to the ground in the winter, as it should produce new stems with flowers each year. That said, if they do die to the ground, they may only reach 2-3' each season. So if you want a 6' shrub, it might not happen.

And, later in the season... After cutting faded/spent blooms, the plant may produce new stems with flowers on a "Y" branching from the main stem where the old flower was. If so, you've got a rebloomer!

These are both good signs!
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gardengal48 (PNW Z8/9)
10 years ago
Mophead hydrangeas can definitely be grown in zone 5 -- you just need to provide winter protection. I'm not sure where all the longtime participants of this forum who live in colder zones are these days but if you check through the forum archives (do a forum search on "overwintering" or "winter protection"), you should turn up numerous discussions on this subject.

There are also many previous discussions about acclimating or transitioning florist's or greenhouse hydrangeas to the outdoors.