white hydrangea...

..I didn't even knew it exhisted, until I saw the pictures of the footballer Wayne Rooney nuptial table, which was covered in bouquets of white hydrangea, peonies and roses, not to mention the lovely pergola in the same style...
I wonder what kind of soil the white hydrangea wants...(since I know at least that the colour depends from the type of soil).

 

White hydrangeas (there are plenty of kinds) stay white no matter what the soil. SOme may take faint shades of blue or pink, but generally speaking white stays white.

 

Red Hydrangea, acid soil...Blue Hydrangea alkaline soil....if you plan it right you can get two colours on the same plant...White Hydrangea...white regardless of soil. We have one.:thumb:

 

Contrary Tweaky, acid for blue and alkaline for pink

 

Well one out of two ain't bad.:D:thumb:

Must go and have a word with myself.

 

I have a climbing hydrangea which is white and my soil is alkaline. hope this maybe some help.

 

The climbing hydrangea is Hydrangea anomala petiolaris and she is always white and tolerant of any at least half decent soil. She is a darling.

To be exact all Hydrangea macrophylla should better be grown is a slightly acidic soil. They are tolerant, but like the acidic better.
It is not the ph AS SUCH that makes a difference in colour, but the availability of aluminium in the soil. ALkaline soils tend to block this element in molecules that the plants cannot use, while in acidic soil the element is free and available. Hydrangeas planted in acidic peaty compost will often stay pink because peat is poor in aluminium anyway. The pigment that is pink cannot turn blue. White hydrangeas have no such pigment and they stay white whichever soil. If you are not interested in dry flowers arrangements blue flower heads can be put under the plants as mulch, returning the aluminium to the ground, for future blues .

Tweaky, one always gets mixed up with these plants. I grow some thirty different varieties, and now we have moved half of them are changing colour or habit or both, enough to confuse anyone

 

I live in a state of total confusion...our bungalow is called "The Home of the Permanently Bewildered".

Honest.:D

 

Ivory, did you know there are TWO climbing Hydrangeas? The other being an evergreen variety, H. Seemanii.

 

:D:D:D

 

Yep, I have a little seemannii, which has not flowered yet. There also others even rarer, but tender. Very tender. I saw a complete darling called Hydrangea lobbii last year, more scandent than climbing actually. I wanted one, but it was not for sale, I was tempted to steal my way in the greenhouse by night and steal a cutting but heroically resisted... I am too honest for this world, sniff.