Learning how to care for Endless Summer hydrangeas is as easy as remembering the plants’ ideal conditions and maintenance. Endless Summer is a cultivar of Bigleaf hydrangea gaining popularity because it can bloom on old and new growth. This extended blooming season makes it a worthy plant for anyone’s garden.
This reblooming hydrangea is developed by Bailey Nurseries to create hydrangeas that will have a large number of big blooms from spring to fall. Cutting Endless Summer hydrangeas back should rejuvenate them for this characteristic, but this is only one practice to learn. To take advantage of the cultivar’s capacity to bloom on mature and new wood, they should be healthy and well cared for.
How To Care For Endless Summer Hydrangeas For Success
Ideal conditions
Soil
You have to remember the ideal conditions for these plants. For example, the soil for them should be fertile and well-draining, but always moist. Therefore, it’s essential to check the soil on your hydrangeas regularly.
Did you know that you can also manipulate the color of the blooms by adjusting the soil pH? For example, acidic soils yield blue flowers, while alkaline soils lead to pink flowers. You can add aluminum sulfate to the medium to make blue flowers and lime for pink flowers in late autumn or early spring.
Weather and location
As for the weather, avoid extreme heat and cold. Keep the soil moist if you live in a cold region, and hydrangeas are in full sun, but place them in the shade if you live in a hotter location. You can even use your hardiness zone as a guide for knowing how much sun will be tolerable for your plants.
For example, those in zones 4 to 5b can have 6 hours of sun in the morning, but those in the south or zones 8 to 9 should only have a maximum of 2 hours. You can always use a greenhouse for your Endless Summer hydrangeas to ensure that they are protected from harsh sun until the weather outdoors gets better. Remember that too much exposure to the sun is one of the culprits of bloom problems in Endless Summer.
Generally, mulching with 3 inches of peat or bark should protect your Endless Summer hydrangeas from extreme weather and climate.
Maintenance
Pruning
Endless Summer hydrangeas benefit well from pruning. After all, its trademark characteristic is blooming from old and new growth, and pruning will help them stay vigorous. You want to remove dead stems from your plants and leave the green buds since cutting them off will also mean you’re removing what will bloom.
The best time to cut back is immediately after your hydrangeas flower, and late winter or early spring is ideal for the removal of damaged stems. It would also help remember to skip pruning in fall so that the buds that survived in winter have appeared. Overall, it’s comforting to know that Endless Summer hydrangeas are forgiving if you made mistakes in pruning.
Watering
Besides overexposure to the sun, the maintenance tasks that can also affect your blooms are watering and fertilizing. These practices seem easy enough, but they are crucial for caring for Endless Summer properly. For watering, the greenhouse makes it possible to use an irrigation system that wouldn’t overwater the plants.
If you have container hydrangeas, remember that they dry out quicker, so always check on them. Experienced gardeners would always say that the best way to know the plants need water is by sticking your fingers in the soil. If you take your finger out dry, your plants need soak watering.
Fertilizing
Generally speaking, you want to apply fertilizer in spring or early summer once on your Endless Summer hydrangeas. Overfertilizing the plants will eventually burn their root system and prevent bloom production. Don’t forget to check the package for additional instructions on the fertilizer.
Pests and problems
As a gardener, you have probably encountered the pests and problems that hydrangeas can also experience. These include aphids, mildew, root rot, bacterial wilt, and spots on leaves. These potential pests and diseases are preventable and manageable as long as you maintain proper hygiene and cleanliness in the growing area.
Winter care
Severe winters can be problematic for Endless Summer Hydrangeas. However, you can wrap your plants with chicken wire and then fill it with leaves to serve as winter protection. If you have a greenhouse, frost’s danger is less stressful because you can control the conditions indoors and ensure that the temperatures are ideal.
Conclusion
Endless Summer hydrangeas allow gardeners to keep them blooming from old and new growth. But to ensure that your plants can handle this expectation, you need to learn how to care for Endless Summer hydrangeas. You can simplify the tasks into remembering the ideal conditions and the practices for maintenance of the plants.
Generally, Endless Summer hydrangeas are easy to take care of. As long as you don’t subject them from extreme conditions such as harsh sun and winter or errors in maintenance like overfeeding and watering, you shouldn’t face any drawbacks. It would also be best to prune your hydrangeas to support healthy growth and bloom.