Oak Leaf Hydrangeas, Lace Cap and Mop Head Hydrangeas

Oak Leaf Hydrangeas Shrub of Choice in Dallas!

Suddenly, in the last three years the Oak Leaf Hydrangea has become the star of the Texas home landscape.

Just as the Oak Leaf Hydrangea fades Mop Head Hydrangeas take their place!

Limelight Hydrangeas have always been a favorite.  The delicate green color highlights the lovely white flower.  Now they come in dwarf ‘pee-gee’ hydrangeas sizes as well.  See more of this perfect shade perennial garden here.

Adding coffee grounds or other organic matter to you hydrangeas other organic material to your hydrangea’s soil will reduce the pH level and make aluminum more available to the plant. The result will be hydrangeas that are blue in color.Read more : http://www.ehow.com/facts_5905166_hydrangeas-coffee-grounds.html?fb_ref=like&fb_source=home_multiline can change the pH balance in your soil and turn the hydrangeas more blue.

I always think of Jackie Kennedy when I see Lime Light Hydrangeas.  A conversation with her designer turned silly when she asked him to create her room the color of new spring cabbages and her responded to ‘get real.’  Though that must have truly been one of her favorite colors.  You see her wearing pale green in many images.

Cultivars with extensive flowering are: Snow Queen, Snow Flake, Harmony, and Alice.

The Oak Leaf Hydrangea grows six to eight feet tall and is a native plant that has bold white flowers. This hydrangea is beautiful in a wooded setting as an understory shrub. At 6-8 feet tall and wide it blooms profusely on bracts.  Its huge oak-shaped leaves turn deep red in fall and drop to reveal a beautiful exfoliating bark. Moist soil is necessary for two year establishment period.  Do not rely on your sprinkler system the first two years this shrub is becoming established, particularly if it is planted on mostly sun.  I use a soaker hose and a timer.  I use a lightweight soft fabric type hose.  The Gilmour Weeper/Soaker is the lightest and best I have found. I am no longer willing to drag around heavy hoses. My timer is starting its fourth year, an Orbit Timer.

You can see the new hydrangeas coming up on the right in the image below.  River Ferns and Oak Leaf Hydrangea prefer the same environment and are a good combination.  Many ferns are native to Texas and do exceedingly well.

Read more on ferns in Texas landscaping here ….

Oakleaf Hydrangea come in multiple sizes.

Oak Leaf Hydrangea – Alice

Oak Leaf Hydrangea – Snow Queen

I know, the house is so impressive the Oak Leaf Hydrangea gets lost but it’s there!

Fall coloring of the bract of the Oak Leaf Hydrangea.

Pruning:Hydrangeas produce their main flower clusters from the tips of shoots formed the previous season. If anything destroys the terminal buds of these shoots, the plant usually fails to bloom. The chief causes of destruction of the terminal buds are excessive winter cold and uninformed pruning. In severe cold winter weather they should be covered. Pruning should be done in summer as soon as the flowering season is over. When pruning, all the old flowering shoots should be removed down to the point on the stem where strong new growth is developing. If you want flowers, DO NOT prune in late fall, winter or spring.

As flowers fade, pruning back to the strongest pair of buds will produce new growth stems. As the plant matures, you should prune out woody older stems, dead branches, and any stems that cross or are broken.Oakleaf hydrangea also produces blooms on previous year’s growth. As flowers fade, prune back halfway. Prune any crossing, broken, or dead branches. To grow for foliage only, prune back to the ground each year in early spring.Smooth hydrangea blooms on new spring growth. Prune back by half in early spring. Pruning back to the ground produces the largest flower clusters but the stems cannot always hold them up. When heading back, cut out dead, crowded, or weak stems.Climbing hydrangea require little pruning until well established and climbing. At that time, cut back any unwanted stems.

Blooming Times of French and Oak Leaf

While there may be a bit of overlap in the blooming times of the French Hydrangea and the Oak Leaf Hydrangea, generally the Oak Leaf is just ending it’s blooming period as the French Hydrangea enters its.

Photos on the same day: French Hydrangea blooms on old wood. Early April photo which demonstrates this plant has significant growth ahead before blooming begins.. Oak Leaf Hydrangea will bloom in late April  This plant is ready to bloom.

Rooting the Mop Head Hydrangea

Rooting:  Hydrangeas are so simple to root. Every summer, after the blooms are gone, I take a long stem, dig a small trench, generally, nine inches long and three inches deep under the stem with about four inches of the stem extending from the trench. I cover over the rest of the stem in the trench, and place a brick over it, and I remember Nell, the lady that taught this to me. Next spring I have a lovely new hydrangea that has rooted from the stem. For me, each plant generally produces four new plants by doing this. In no time, you will have a yard full of hydrangeas and be sharing them with your friends. Changing the Color:  You can change the color of the hydrangea by changing the PH of the soil. In my grandmothers time, they did not purchase chemicals to do this. They would bury rusty nails and pieces of iron, to turn the hydrangeas pink. Today most people purchase aluminum for blue or lime for pink. Texas Acid Soil Favors Blue: Going from pink to blue is easier than blue to pink. Pink to blue requires the extensive addition of aluminum to the soil. Dig little trenches and place it in there at least once a week. The intensity of the color, however, is a genetic feature. The hydrangeas below are first season, from pots. Read more about hydrangeas at this excellent website: http://www.hydrangeashydrangeas.com/index.html The classic combination, wood fern and mop head hydrangea.  Prune your hydrangea when the flowers have faded and strong shoots are forming from the lower parts of the stems and crown. Remove some of the old and new weaker shoots from the base of the plant, but be sure not to cut the plant all the way back to the ground. Always try to keep several stems of old productive wood, with a sufficient number of stout new stems that will flower the following season. The French Hydrangea can achieve heights of four feet in a year. The large foliage is dark green, but being deciduous, is gone in the winter. Blooms appear on previous year’s growth, so prune only the stems that produced this year’s flowers; otherwise you will not have blooms next year.

Variegated Hydrangea

Tree Form Hydrangea:  “Peegee”, grows up to 15 feet and blooms later.