Hydrangea pot or border?

I am growing a hydrangea in a pot it seems happy enough!!

Val

 

I had one in a large pot. It died in no time. To be fair though, I'm not a fan of hydrangeas. Wife likes them so when we were given one, I had to at least pretend to look after it, but unfortunately I kept forgetting to water it, until it was so dry it was quite clearly dead. Then I was allowed to chuck it.

 

I've heard (not experienced) hydrangeas are not pot lovers. I only recall this because I was reading a "solution" to that ... plant it in a pot with the bottom cut out of it, this way the main root can go as deep as it likes underground but the plant doesn't get out of control.

I was given one this year and that has gone in the copse because I think it might be a biggy but I have a smaller one I bought in the past year (reduced) and that has been put in a new bed, facing East, so it gets fresh morning light but late afternoon shade. That's the extent of my experience

 

I'm told that hydrangeas are quite thirsty, and are fine in containers as long as you remember to water them regularly.

I'm not sure if they are related to rhododendrons but my mam lost a rhododendron quite suddenly after about 3 years in the same pot. It was healthy the whole time then just dropped dead. I was still at the beginning of the learning curve then so didn't know what I was looking for, but that's when I learned about Vine Weevils. An amateur post mortem of the deceased plant showed it actually had no roots. I guess that's more of a problem with potted plants, but I could be wrong.

 

It would prefer part-shade.

 

It can get quite wide of girth FC and I wonder, longer term, whether if would be a match for a buddleia on a mission at the same time....

 

Is there not a slight soil incompatibility between hydrangea and buddleja? The former prefers acid, and the latter seems to me to do better in alkaline.

 

Isn't it acid soil for blue ones?

Val

 

Hydrangea will be happy in Alkaline, but if it is a Blue/Pink variety it will flower Pink (Blue on Acid soil). I think its H. hortensis that does this.

 

My neighbour has a hydrangea which I gave him in a planter. It's doing well but they do need plenty of water (hence the name).

 

Try this site, FC (homemade version rather than buying a soil PH kit) http://frugalliving.about.com/od/gardening/ht/Soil_Test.htm