Hydrangea pot or border?

An even cheaper way is to taste it (apparently). At one time, soil that was excessively acidic was referred to as 'sour', and good soil was 'sweet'.

Personally I'd just use a meter.

 

You can grow anything in a container, Hydrangeas included, you just have to remember to water and feed it regularly. Also remember, that, by growing plants in containers you are automatically bonsaiing them. Hydrangeas, like Azaleas, Camellias and Rhododendrons, are woodland plants, so prefer a situation which has partial shade. They also need an acid soil. Pink and red varieties are bred to produce those flowers IN acid soil. Blue flowered varieties will produce pink flowers in alkaline soil.

 

Good decision, good attitude.lol

 

I doubt it is neutral, I think for Rhodies to thrive it is more likely to be acid. Having said that there are some Rhodies that will tolerate alkaline.

If you were going to put it in a container, and its a Pink/Blue type variety, then you'd need to use Ericaceous compost if you wanted it to be Blue (and you might have to give it some Aluminium sulphate to make sure of the colour )

Hydrangeas don't need acid soil in my experience. RHS lists Hydrangeas as requiring Acid or Neutral, but they grow well all around me and its definitely alkaline around here (although probably not extremely so). Specialist hydrangea sites list Hydrangea macrophylla (the Hortensis varieties) as turning Blue on Acid and Pink on Alkaline - which kinda suggests that they will grow OK on Alkaline soil to me!