5 Tips for Growing Panicle Hydrangeas in the South

today i want to share with you my five tips for growing hydrangeas in the south if you can't tell i've got a little bit of twang in my accent and a lot of experience in growing plants in the deep south the first tip i'm going to give you is to make sure you have the right hydrangea there's tons and tons of hydrangeas on the market three main classes hydrangea macrophylla or the big leaf hydrangea they're going to have those big pom-pom florist cuts that you're used to seeing in the grocery store then we've got hydrangea arborescens which are going to be a native hydrangea to the u.s and then lastly we've got hydrangea paniculata or the panicled hydrangea this is the hydrangea that you want to grow in the south it is going to give you the best success some of the plants i want you to look out for this one right here limelight hydrangea it's going to get big for you and have these huge panicles little lime hydrangea next our newest one little lime punch it's going to give you this awesome green flower that is going to age into various different colors of pink is stunning in the landscape unfortunately in the south we're not going to get that huge punch of pink flowers but you are going to get some pink coloration better than most on the market one of the biggest complaints i get from growers in the south is that their panicle hydrangea died well we can do a few extra things to make sure that it survives so my next tip is to plant it in the right place so we started with the right plant now we're at the right place in the south we want to plant our hydrangeas in the shade as much shade as you can give them they're still going to flower beautifully for you but they're going to not fry like they do in the full sun so where i want you to look look for places on the east side of your house or on the north side those these locations are going to be protected from our afternoon sun these hydrangeas look gorgeous but we're here in michigan it's august i'm not even sweating so they're perfectly adapted here but if you just change it a little bit and give them a little cooler temperatures they'll be good in the south one of the things i always hear is people want to amend their potting hole where they're digging their plant this can be good and bad for a lot of different reasons the main reason that it's bad is that people are doing this in clay soils so for my next tip i don't want you to amend that soil we're going to mulch heavily and if you've got a heavy clay soil if you'll just plant a couple of inches high so right where that soil level is in the pot plant it a couple of inches higher in your hole you can mound the soil up around the edges and then give it a nice layer of two to three inches of either shredded pine bark or pine straw this is going to keep those roots nice and cool another problem southern growers have they over water okay so everybody's been out to the grandmother's house this nice row of hydrangeas they look beautiful in the morning but you go out at five o'clock and they are wilting they're just shriveling up don't freak out god gave us a really good moisture meter so stick your finger just a couple of inches into the soil if you feel that it's moist they don't need any irrigation if you go out there with your water hose and spray down the plant it's not going to draw up water as quickly from the soil and so then it's actually going to take it longer to rehydrate give it a night come back in the morning it'll be nice and fluffed back out ready to go so again don't over water use your finger it's super easy we don't have to buy any fancy instruments just get down there and see if your soil is wet my last tip hydrangea paniculata can actually be pruned pretty hard just do it when they're dormant in the winter wait till all the leaves fall off say january or february come out you can remove anywhere from a half to a third of the plant just to keep it in check because as we can see limelight's pretty big so if you want to keep it in the four foot range it is very possible you just have to get out with some hedge trimmers and knock them down thank you so much for joining me today i hope you've learned some good tips to make sure make you successful at growing hydrangea paniculata in the south make sure you look for our proven winners product in that white and black pot we really want you to go try little lime punch i know you're going to be excited if you have any questions make sure you go to provenwinners.com feedback

Channel: Proven Winners ColorChoice Flowering Shrubs

Views: 15,634

Rating: 4.9605522 out of 5

Keywords: Proven Winners, Proven Winners ColorChoice Flowering Shrubs, how to grow panicle hydrangeas in the south, tips for growing hydrangeas in the south, hydrangeas for the south

Id: Pt8fW1amzuE

Length: 4min 40sec (280 seconds)

Published: Wed Sep 09 2020